Sir Gervaise Oakes of Bowldero, would make a very suitable Lord Bowldero." "If it were only that, I shouldn't mind it; for nothing is easier than to refuse a peerage.

I've done _that_ twice already, and can do it a third time, at need.

But one can't very well refuse promotion in his regular profession; and, here, just as a true gentleman would depend on the principles of an officer, the hackneyed consciences of your courtiers have suggested the expediency of making Gervaise Oakes an admiral of the blue, by way of sop!--me, who was made vice-admiral of the red, only six months since, and who take an honest pride in boasting that every commission, from the lowest to the highest, has been fairly earned in battle!" "They think it a more delicate service, perhaps, for a gentleman to be true to the reigning house, when so loud an appeal is made to his natural loyalty; and therefore class the self-conquest with a victory at sea!" "They are so many court-lubbers, and I should like to have an opportunity of speaking my mind to them.

I'll not take the new commission; for every one must see, Dick, that it is a sop." "Ay, that's just my notion, too, about the red riband; and I'll not take _that_.

You have had the riband these ten years, have declined the peerage twice, and their only chance is the promotion.