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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

T

CHAP.

III.

ordered to chase a Sallee rover, or ran with dollars to Leghorn■ when his instructions directed him to repair to Lisbon. Andall this he did with impunity. The same interest which hadplaced him in a post for which he was unfit maintained himthere. No Admiral, bearded by these corrupt and dissoluteminions of the palace, dared to do more than mutter some-thing about a court martial. If any officer showed a highersense of duty than his fellows, he soon found that he lostmoney without acquiring honour. One Captain, who, bystrictly obeying the orders of the Admiralty, missed a cargowhich would have been worth four thousand pounds to him,was told by Charles, with ignoble levity, that he was a greatfool for his pains.

The discipline of the navy was of a piece throughout. Asthe courtly Captain despised the Admiralty, he was in turndespised by his crew. It could not be concealed that he wasinferior in seamanship to every foremast man on board. Itwas idle to expect that old sailors, familiar with the hurricanesof the tropics and with the icebergs of the Arctic Circle,would pay prompt and respectful obedience to a chief whoknew no more of winds and waves than could be learned in agilded barge between Whitehall Stairs and Hampton Court.To trust such a novice with the working of a ship was evi-dently impossible. The direction of the navigation was there-fore taken from the Captain and given to the Master: butthis partition of authority produced innumerable incon-veniences. The line of demarcation was not, and perhapscould not be, drawn with precision. There was thereforeconstant wrangling. The Captain, confident in proportionto his ignorance, treated the Master with lordly contempt.The Master, well aware of the danger of disobliging thepowerful, too often, after a struggle, yielded against hisbetter judgment; and it was well if the loss of ship and crewwas not the consequence. In general the least mischievous