190 " SILKY " 



which I always call to mind when I reflect on a maxim I 

 afterwards found in my journey through life to be cor- 

 rect : " The man who always laughs or smiles is a fool ; 

 — the man who never laughs nor smiles is a misanthrope : 

 but he who always smiles and never laughs is a deep, 

 crafty, designing person." 



With this gentleman was I induced to join in a contract 

 to do the horsework in the dockyard at Portsmouth. At 

 the time he was clerk, at a small salary, to the then 

 contractors, who, with the hopes of getting more money, 

 had given notice to the Government of their intention to 

 better their position, little supposing their own servant 

 was going to supplant them. Of this I knew nothing, 

 and perhaps considered as little, as I was too glad to 

 entertain a project that, if well carried out, Avould make 

 up for that deficiency in my revenue likely to accrue 

 from a too speedy falling off in my own legitimate busi- 

 ness, which the j^eace and the competition for public 

 favour, in establishing faster and more expensive con- 

 veyances, Avas likely to bring about. 



The escape of the ex-Emperor from Elba had renewed 

 the war, and raised the hopes of those who, like myself, 

 anticipated a further benefit from it, but these the 

 decisive battle of Waterloo now rendered illusory ; and 

 I thought I was taking a step in the right direction when 

 I acceded to the proposal made me, which was to put in 

 a tender at the Navv Office, Somerset House, for the 

 supply of 140 horses, to do the work in the dockyard, at 

 a certain sum per team of four horses and a man per 

 diem. 



Now, my intended partner did no discredit to his birth- 



