A CRUISE UP THE TANGSTZE IN 1858-59. 185 



did we care for foreign policy, British commerce, 

 Admiral Hamelin, or Commodore Sloat, provided our 

 Chilian or Peruvian lady-loves were kind, horses 

 cheap, and the fuchsia-trees in blossom ? There was 

 our heaven upon earth, and the man a wretch who 

 dragged us hence. Let us be patient, then, when it 

 is our duty to do the hard-hearted, and let us smile to 

 see how much as we were then these are now, for even 

 the very youngsters are at present Japan crazy. 



"The chaplain wishes to speak to you, sir," an- 

 nounces the sentry, with becoming solemnity. We 

 know what is coming, and, clutching the Printed In- 

 struction, put on an official face ; and as the gentle- 

 man who rejoices in the double office of pastor and 

 schoolmaster enters, we are ready for anything sad. 

 He tells us, with sorrow and indignation, that the 

 cruise to Japan, followed by the pheasant-shooting of 

 Shanghai, has so unsettled his pupils that the young 

 gentlemen scorn the exact sciences, and will not listen 

 to him, their pastor and master. We look very 

 serious, and proceed to the aid of this gentleman, who 

 has been facetiously termed, by the wit of the mid- 

 shipmen's mess, " a double-barrelled parson," in virtue 

 of his double office. There was a squeal and the ring 

 of a dozen voices as the cabin-door opened, but on 

 reaching the school-tables swinging between the main- 

 deck guns, perfect order and the most exemplary in- 

 dustry animated the senior midshipman as well as the 

 junior cadet lads striving for university honours 



