gland,
and speedily was as good a Whig and a better than the member from
Middlesex himself.

The most of our companions were Tories, for, odd as it may appear, they
retained their principles even in Castle Yard. And in those days to be a
Tory was to be the friend of the King, and to be the friend of the King
was to have some hope of advancement and reward at his hand. They had
none. The captain joined forces with the speculator from the Alley, who
had hitherto contended against mighty odds, and together they bore down
upon the enemy--ay, and rooted him, too. For John Paul had an air about
him and a natural gift of oratory to command attention, and shortly the
dining room after dinner became the scene of such contests as to call
up in the minds of the old stagers a field night in the good days of
Mr. Pitt and the second George. The bailiff often sat by the door, an
interested spectator, and the macaroni lodgers condescended to come
downstairs and listen. The captain attained to fame in our little
world from his maiden address, in which he very shrewdly separated
the political character of Mr. Wilkes from his character as a private
gentleman, and so refuted a charge of profligacy against the people's
champion.

Altho' I never had sufficient confidence in my powers to join in these
discussions, I followed them zealously, especially when they touched
American questions, as they frequently did. This subject of the wrongs
of the colonies was the only one I could ever be got to study at King
William's School, and I believe that my intimate knowledge of it gave
the captain a surprise. He fell into the habit of seating himself on
the edge of my bed after we had retired for the night, and would hold
me talking until the small hours upon the injustice of taxing a people
without their consent, and upon the multitude of measures of coercion
which the King had pressed upon us to punish our resistance. He
declaimed so loudly against the tyranny of quartering troops upon a
peaceable state that our exhausted neighbours were driven to pounding
their walls and ceilings for peace. The news of the Boston massacre had
not then reached England.

I was not, therefore, wholly taken by surprise when he said to me one
night:

"I am resolved to try my fortune in America, lad. That is the land for
such as I, where a man may stand upon his own merits."

"Indeed, we shall go together, captain," I answered heartily, "if we are
ever free of this