now? What about that foggy mornin' in the Baltic Sea when
the fog cleared away and we were right in the centre of the Danish
line-of-battleships, and the whole crew wanted to join the Danish navy,
and the skipper said: 'No, men, you must stick to your own ship.' But
we saluted them with the old flag, and gave them three good English
cheers, and they cheered us, and the skipper said: 'Ah, they're fine
fellows. What is England doin' of not to help them? There's no
ill-feelin' left about Nelson puttin' the spy-glass to his blind eye
and blowing Copenhagen down about their ears.'"

"Talk about makin' the Queen Empress of India? By George! Gladstone did
walk into Disraeli about that, and it was said the Queen got her hump
up about it."

"Well she might," said Cowan; "what business had Gladstone to
interfere? He's always interfering."

"Yes," said Harvey; "and a good job for England he is."

"What d'ye say? Good job for England? What about the Fenians? What
about Parnell and them Irishmen? What about the rascals who were nabbed
settin' fire to infernal machinery for blowing up the House of
Parliament? And then he talks of givin' them Home Rule! What about
Piggott, Parnell and company?"

"Yes, and what about the forgeries, Mr Sniggins," said Harvey.

"Don't call me Sniggins!" said Captain Cowan, "I'm a respectable man."

"Don't you say this and that about Gladstone, then," said Harvey.

"We will if we like," said the bulbous friend, who showed in his
phlegmatic way signs of taking sides against the great Liberal leader.

"What do you know about it?" contemptuously interposed Harvey. "My
advice is to you, 'keep yourself sober and your mouth shut, and don't
show your empty-headedness to people who have forgotten more than ever
you knew!' _You_ talk about Gladstone! Why, you would never have known
there was such a man if I hadn't told you. Of all the brazen cheek,
well! You take the cake to talk to me about a man that made England and
stopped the gentry from pilfering the whole thing."

"Get away, man!" replied our portly friend; "you would swear you were
the Duke of Argyle. I tell you he would have given the country away to
the foreigners if we hadn't stepped in."

"Do _you_ call yourself '_we_'!" interjected Harvey, his utterance
almost incoherent with anger; "you want to go to school again and get
some learnin'."

"Get some learnin', d'ye say, Mr Know-all? What has Gladstone done for
the sailors, you an' me? That