old hulks still lying about the yard, which
had been commenced, when the Whigs had
been in office before; but somehow a Whig
ship found no favour in Tory eyes, and
the late Tory surveyor had spent a few years,
and some hundreds of thousands of pounds,
in endeavouring to remove the taint of their
original political sin. Some had been built
up or pulled down; some had been lengthened
or shortened; some had been lightened,
weighted, or spliced; but all, after being
played with for a time, were deserted as
hopeless Whig failures; and the whole
energies of the Tory government, what little
they had, were devoted to those wooden
walls of old England that were of pure,
unsullied, high-Tory birth.

These eye-sores stood full before the Whig
surveyor as he inspected the Tory vessels on
the stocks.

"Good Gwacious, gentlemen!" he said,
looking at the unfortunate Horseleech through
an eye-glass, "what have we here?"

It seemed to be the rule that no one
permanently connected with the dockyard was
to answer; but that they were to leave it to
the gentlemen who followed in the surveyor's
train.

"Well, Sir William," said a bland gentleman,
shrugging his shoulders, "it's the old
story—one of his construction. I don't think
I need say any more."

"It's a most wonderful thing," continued
the surveyor, whom they called Sir William,
"but that party could never build a vessel.
Never!"

"Very true," remarked several of the
gentlemen in chorus, "very true."

"I said it twenty years ago," resumed Sir
William,"and I say it again. They can't do
it. It's beyond them."

"Very true, Sir William," again responded
the chorus, "very true."

"Commodore," said Sir William, turning
to the superintendent, "we'll have this
vessel seen to, the very first thing. You
shall have your instructions in the course of
the month."

The inspection terminated soon afterwards,
and this remark was considered to
foreshadow the death-warrant of the
Horseleech. The instructions, when they came,
were quite as we expected. She was to be
cut down from a three-decker to a two-decker,
and the middle was to be taken clean away,
in order that she might be converted into a
steamer. She had already cost the country a
quarter of a million of money under the late
Tory First Lord of the Admiralty, the
eminent agriculturist; and she was now
made to consume an additional one hundred
thousand pounds under the orders of a Whig
First Lord.

During the eighteen months that she was
undergoing the transformation decreed by
her new political masters, my attentions to
the Commodore-Superintendent's daughters
became, every day, more assiduous, and, at
last, I was induced to make a passionate
declaration to the youngest, which left no
doubt whatever in the young lady's mind
about my sentiments.

"If," I said, "you can consent to become
united to a man whose ship is nearly ready
for sea, and who may be ordered at a minute's
notice to any part of the globe, that man now
stands before you."

"O," she said, with charming frankness,
"if you allude to the Horseleech, you may
rest quite content; for, during the last twelve
years—that is, since I've had the power of
looking about me—I never yet knew any ship
successfully launched out of papa's yard."

"Then you consent?" I asked.

"Ye—s," she answered—" that is, you may
ask papa."

I mentioned the interesting business to
the Commodore-Superintendent, but he was
too much occupied to give me an answer
until after the launch of the Horseleech,
which was fixed for the next day. At the
appointed hour the usual crowd assembled
to witness the spectacle; the usual flags were
flying, and the usual Marsh-Mallows Amateur
Dockyard Brass Band were lustily bleating
forth their small répertoire of some national
patriotic airs.

The transformed vessel, ready for launching
at last, looked tolerably trim to my not very
experienced eye; though some of the old
workmen, when they spoke of her, shook
their heads. I stood upon the deck by the
side of the Commodore; the bottle of wine
was thrown by her whom I adored, the vessel
was named, the blocks were struck away,
and she glided quickly down her ways. She
reached the water, but she obstinately
refused to stand upright; and, after a little
hesitation, she fell over, and settled low in.
the mud of the creek.

All on board were immersed, but
fortunately no one was lost. What I did I scarcely
know, except that I swam vigorously to land
under a heavy weight, and they told me I
had saved one whom I was soon to call a
father—the Commodore.

His wife wanted him to retire upon half-
pay after this exciting event, but he could
not be persuaded to desert his post. He gave
me his daughter out of gratitude for his
preservation, and we were married in the
dockyard chapel. A parliamentary investigation
followed this accident, and a few vulgar
financial reformers in the House spoke
very strongly against the errors of a system
that buried half a million of the country's
money in the slimy rnud of a channel
creek. The country's representatives,
however, did not heed them much; the
system was declared to be perfect—
absolutely perfect.

I have never been to sea; I am still second-
lieutenant upon full-pay of H.M.S. Horseleech
(we will say nothing about the guns);