unknown, seafaring men incurred more risk than they do at present, and the wrecks which strewed the coast were of very great value.  I had a proof the other day that this right is still exacted; that is, as far as regards property unclaimed.  I had arrived at Plymouth from the Western Islands.  When we hove up our anchor at St Michael’s, we found another anchor and cable hooked most lovingly to our own, to the great joy of the first lieutenant, who proposed buying silk handkerchiefs for every man in the ship, and expending the residue in paint.  But we had not been at anchor in Plymouth Sound more than twenty-four hours, and he hardly had time to communicate with the gentlemen-dealers in marine stores, when I received a notification from some lynx-eyed agent of the present admiral of the coast (who is a lawyer, I believe), requesting the immediate delivery of the anchor and cable, upon the plea of his seignoral rights of flotsam and jetsam. Now, the idea was as preposterous as the demand was impudent.  We had picked up the anchor in the roadside of a foreign power, about fifteen hundred miles distant from the English coast.

We are all lawyers, now, on board ship; so I gave him one of my legal answers, “that, in the first place, flotsam meant floating, and anchors did not float; in the second place, that jetsam meant thrown up, and anchors never were thrown up; in the third and last place, I’d see him d—­d first!"

My arguments were unanswerable.  Counsel for the plaintiff (I presume) threw up his brief, for we heard no more of "Mr Flotsam and Jetsam."

But to proceed:—­The man and boy, who, with Newton, composed the whole crew, seemed perfectly to acquiesce in the distribution made by the master of the sloop; taking it for granted that their silence, as to the liquor being on board, would be purchased by a share of it, as long as it lasted.

They repaired forward with a pannikin from the cask, with which they regaled themselves, while Newton stood at the helm.  In half an hour Newton called the boy aft to steer the vessel, and lifted the trunk into the cabin below, where he found that Thompson had finished the major part of the contents of the mug, and was lying in a state of drunken stupefaction.

The hasp of the lock was soon removed by a clawhammer, and the contents of the trunk exposed to Newton’s view.  They consisted chiefly of female wearing apparel and child’s linen; but, with these articles, there was a large packet of letters addressed to Madame Louise de Montmorenci, the contents of which were a mystery to Newton, who did not understand French.  There were also a red morocco case, containing a few diamond ornaments, and three or four crosses of different orders of knighthood.  All the wearing-apparel of the lady was marked with the initials L.M., while those appertaining to the infant were marked with the letters J.F.