We should be glad in the main that the young
Princes who have just returned to England after their sail iu the Bacchante' were subjected, in crossing the Equator, to the silly horse-play which so many of our ship companies still regard as a high feat of humour, if we had much hope that they would take their experience on the occasion in the right light, and use their in- fluence to get this vulgar buffoonery done away with. " The Squadron crossed the line," says the Times," on November 28th, "when King Neptune hold his usual revels, the customary duck- ing and shaving lasting on board the flagship from nine o'clock until two, during which 450 officers and men who had not pre- viously been operated upon were passed through the ordeal. On board the Baccha.ute, the young Princes were somewhat roughly treated by the sea-gods, one getting some soap in his eyes, which inconvenienced him for some time." Will the young
i Princes regard their own inconvenience as giving them•a sort of claim to justify the vexations,—not unfrequently stifferings,—of future victims, or rather, in the more honourable way, as calling upon them to abolish all this unmeaning, and often really tormenting barbarity ?
Previous page
