534 TRITON OF THE PACIFIC. 



Honourable Captain Craven Berkeley, member for Cheltenham 

 there are three of them!* 



Nor is this all : Captain Maurice Berkeley is not a mere " soldier 

 officer" he has not simply " cut a figure in the local ;" he is in the 

 navy, and has actually seen the sea. His first commission was dated in 

 June, 1814 : on the subject of Captain Maurice Berkeley's naval 

 exploits up to the period of his last employment, the gallant officer's 

 friends are indignantly silent indeed it would be useless to particu- 

 larize them but with becoming pride we are informed that Captain 

 Maurice Berkeley's most recent service afloat " was in 1830, when 

 he acted as flag Captain to Rear Admiral Sir Charles Paget, on board 

 the Semiramis (24) on the Cork station" As Mr. Gully pertinently 

 remarked the other day to Tattersall, " When there's no chance of a 

 fight it's all one whether you're the bruiser or the bottle-holder." 

 This is true : therefore, while on the Cork station, in 1830, there 

 being no chance of a fight the subject of our notice soared up to the 

 level of Sir Charles Paget ; the Honourable Captain, by the benefit 

 of an hypothesis, became equivalent, pro tempore, to a gallant Rear 

 Admiral. 



On the strongest point of Captain Maurice Berkeley's case his 

 friends have not touched they were doubtless fearful of proving too 

 much. Be ours the grateful task of supplying the deficiency. Cap- 

 tain Maurice Berkeley's first commission was dated in June, 1814, 

 about the period when the peace of Europe was settled by the battle 

 of Waterloo : the gallant Captain, therefore, is not one of your burly, 

 broadside, weather-beaten tars, whose chief merit consists in prac- 

 tical experience, acquired during the war ; 011 the contrary, he 

 enjoys the proud distinction of never having been contaminated by 

 any collision with American frigates or French seventy-fours he 

 has practised his belligerent profession during a peaceful period he 

 has never moved *in the society of thirty- two pounders -his last 

 service afloat was on the Cork station, and he is consequently, 

 whatever such " untoward" veterans as Sir Edward Codrington and 

 Lord Dundonald may think qualified beyond all doubt to act as a 

 ruler of the British navy, when there's no prospect of a war to 

 sport as a Triton in the Pacific never,, we beg to add byway of rider, 

 never having been engaged in any action, except, perhaps, AN ACTION 



AT LAW. 



* This was written under an impression that the gallant Captain would have 

 been re-elected for Gloucester, as Sir John Hobhouse was for Westminster 

 " not on account of the public confidence in Ministers but in consequence of 

 the man's individual merits." Such, however, has not been the case. Mr. Hope, 

 the unsuccessful conservative candidate at the last election, was put in nomi- 

 nation against him. At the close of the first day's polling Mr. Hope was about 

 ninety a-head of the gallant Captain : and on Tuesday the gallant Captain re- 

 tired from the contest. " The Gloucester Journal of Saturday said that many of 

 the friends of Captain Berkeley took umbrage at his accepting office and at 

 some of his votes. This appears to have been the case. Many of those who are 

 considered of the Radical party voted against him. The Corporation were in 

 favour of Captain Berkeley, and this alone induced the radicals to vote for his 

 opponent, although an ultra-tory." So that for the present there are but 

 two of them. 



