its own energy an extended sphere of action. Even now, when agriculture
has become an eminently scientific profession, it requires to make it
interesting that it shall be thoroughly understood, and conducted upon a
proper scale; but at that time it was commonly a mere routine of dull
drudgery, and nowhere more so than in the west of Cornwall. To have an
object in view, yet be unable to advance it by any exertions of his own,
was to him a source of constant irritation. He was wearied with the
imperceptible growth of his crops, and complained that he made his eyes
ache by watching their daily progress. He was not likely to excel in
occupations so entirely uncongenial. The old people in the neighbourhood
of Treverry speak with wonder of the fearlessness he displayed on
different occasions, but shake their heads at his management as a
farmer. They have no difficulty in accounting for his fortune. While he
lived at Treverry, a swarm of bees found an entrance over the porch, of
the house, and made a comb there for many successive years; and to this
happy omen they attribute all his after success. The apartment is still
called the "bee-room."

The offer of a command in the Russian navy gave him an opportunity to
escape from his difficulties. It was recommended to him by an officer of
high character, with whom he had served, and who possessed so many
claims upon his confidence that he thought it right to strengthen his
own decision by the opinion of his elder brother, before he finally
refused it. His brother, who had always encouraged his every ambitious,
and every honourable feeling, and who, even at this time, confidently
anticipated for him a career of high distinction, of which, indeed, his
past life afforded ample promise, would not for a moment listen to his
entering a foreign service. He said, that every man owes his services,
blood, and life, so exclusively to his own country that he has no right
to give them to another; and he desired Captain Pellew to reflect how he