196 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



daughter. Retreating from their twaddle, I called for a pipe 

 and mug of ale, and joined the circle in the tap-room. There 

 was a tall, scarlet-coated fellow who told me he was a ser 

 geant in the Queen s guards recruiting here ; an older man 

 who had been a soldier, and had served in Canada and China ; 

 a half-tipsy miller with a pleasant-speaking, good-natured 

 wife trying to coax him to come home, and half a dozen 

 more countrymen, all muddling themselves with beer and 

 tobacco. 



The conversation was running on politics, and was not at 

 all interrupted by my entrance ; on the contrary, I thought 

 the old soldier was glad of a stranger to show himself off be 

 fore. He was the orator of the night, and the others did lit 

 tle but express assent to his sentiments, except the miller, 

 who every few moments interrupted him with a plain and 

 emphatic contradiction. The sergeant said very little either 

 way except he was appealed to, to substantiate some asser 

 tion, &quot; as a military man&quot; but leaned on the bar, drinking hot 

 gin-and-water, and whispering with the bar-maid. 



There was news that the French minister had taken dip 

 lomatic offence and demanded his passports, and war was 

 threatened. War there certainly would be, according to the 

 ex-soldier, and a terrible time was coming with it. England 

 was going to be whipped-out most certainly it was inevita 

 ble. Every body assented it was &quot; inevitable&quot; except the 

 miller, who said it was fol-de-rol. &quot;Why,&quot; continued the ex- 

 soldier, &quot; isn t every country in Europe against England ? 

 don t they all hate her? and isn t every Frenchman a sol 

 dier 1&quot; Then he described the inefficient state of the national 

 defences, and showed how easy it would be for a fleet of 

 steamers, some dark night the next week, to land an army 

 jomewhere on the coast of Wales, and before they heard of 

 .t, it might be right there amongst them ! He would like to 



