which the new steward was put into office, he started with a declaration that he should be always ready to concur in a peace on terms which should be honourable to both parties, and that the basis of his stewardship should be moderation and good faith. What a political white crow! We always understood, with Butler, that politics were a game at which fair play could never thrive :

"For as two cheats, that play one game,

Are both defeated of their aim;

So those, who play a game of state
And only cavil in debate,

Although there's nothing lost or won,
The public business is undone :

Which still the longer 'tis in doing,
Becomes the surer way to ruin."

HUDIB.

Be that as it may, Vortex intended that Addleton should show his moderation by making peace with the enemy on reasonable terms; but the good faith in keeping it was to be left wholly to himself.

CHAPTER VI.

MISFORTUNES TREAD UPON THE HEELS OF MISFORTUNES. THE DEATH OF A VERY GREAT MAN, AND A SPECIMEN OF THE AUTHOR'S TALENTS OF WRITING EPITAPHS FOR GREAT MEN, FROM WHICH HE PROPOSES TO HIMSELF MUCH EMPLOYMENT AND LARGE EMOLUMENT IN FUTURE.

THE commencement of the new stewardship was auspicious, inasmuch as the gallant Keelson, with a part of the Freeland Flotilla, soon reduced the two powers, who had confederated with Mad Paul, to their proper senses, and he himself, about the same time, went into the grave-the only place where he could have been kept quiet. Vortex, however, claimed all the merit of this success, and it was no more than his due, as the scheme had been planned and all the preparations had been made for its execution during his stewardship.

Keelson and death having thus dissolved this alarming confederacy, the Freelanders turned their attention towards Gypseyland, where the warriors, left by the Bantam, had resolved to make a lodgement. The Freelanders were equally determined on dislodging them, and had embarked on board part of their flotilla, a number of warriors for that purpose. Both the Freelanders and the Gulls now appeared to lay upon their arms at home, and to await the issue of this distant contest, which was, in a great measure, to decide the terms of peace. Freelanders were successful, as they killed or obliged the whole force of the Gulls to surrender. Vortex also claimed the merit of this success on the same score, and it would have been unjust not to have allowed it to him.

The

The Gulls were now as solicitous for peace as the Freelanders, and, after the necessary discussion of the terms had been gone through, the temple of Janus was shut.

Vortex now thought that Addleton, having performed the end for which his greatness had been thrust upon him, would have restored them on demand, but to his mortification he found

that his puppet was made of a very cross-grained stuff. Addleton had drunk largely of the luscious sweets of office; and feeling himself buoyed up by the popularity which his having put an end to a war unparalleled for its rancour had given to his stewardship, he was resolved not to quit his saddle till he should be able to keep it no longer. Although Vortex and his party fell away from him, yet his resolution was unshaken, as, in proportion to their retreat, Brush and his party made advances to him.

Addleton was overreached, at his very first outset, in a money bargain, which gave the friends of Vortex a handle to allege that he was no financier; but he soon disproved the allegation by his own finances; for he shewed such unexampled dexterity at picking up the crumbs and windfalls of office for his own family and connections, that no steward, within the short space of time he was in office, had made a better use of his time. He was soon in a condition to have exclaimed with his brother Lenitive, in the Prize:

Shop! D---n the shop!"

1

When Addleton was deserted by Vortex and

his friends, Brush and his party imagined that Addleton would stand in absolute need of their support, and that they should be admitted to approach the Money Bench. They hovered over it like flies over a honey-pot; but it was supposed that the Lord had predetermined against their taking a sip. They were never to stick their refractory rumps there again.

The gates of Janus's temple were soon opened; a quarrel broke out about a Malthouse, which the Gulls had just seized, and of which the Freelanders had dispossessed them. It remained in their hands at the end of the war; but it was agreed that it should be occupied by neither of them. The Freelanders would have given it up according to the terms of the peace; but the Bantam had played so many underhand tricks, and made so many encroachments on his neighbours, before the time stipulated for their leaving it, that they thought themselves justified in having some previous explanations. As it turned out evident enough that the Bantam only wanted to get all he could by fair means before he resorted to foul ones, the Freelanders prepared for hostilities, and the Gulls had never been unprepared for