perhaps be disappointed at the woful lack of
nautical vernacular prevalent with Jack. He
is not continually shivering his timbers;
neither is he always requesting you to stand
by and belay; to dowse the lee-scuppers, or to
splice the main-brace.

The doors of the public-houses disgorge
great crowds of mariners; nor are there
wanting taverns and eating-houses, where the
sailors of different nations may be accommodated.
Here is a " Deutsches Gasthaus" a Prusssian
"Bierhalle," a real " Norwegian House."
Stay! Here we are at the Central Dock gates,
and, among a crowd of sailors, hurrying in and
out, swarm forth hordes of Dock labourers to
their dinner.

A very queer company, indeed;—" navvies,"
seafaring men, and individuals of equivocal
dress and looks, who have probably taken to the
"two shillings " or half-crown a-day awarded
for Dock toil, as a last refuge from inevitable
starvation. Discharged policemen, ruined
medical students, clerks who have lost their
characters, Polish and German Refugees, might
be found, I opine, in those squalid ranks. It
is all equality now, however. The college-
bred youth, the educated man, must toil in
common with the navvy and the tramp. They
seem contented enough, eating their poor
meals, and puffing at the never-failing pipe
with great gusto. Poor and almost destitute
as these men are, they can yet obtain a species
of 'delusive credit—a credit by which they are
ultimately defrauded. Crafty victuallers will
advance them beer and food on the security of
their daily wage, which they themselves
secure from the foremen. They exact, of course,
an enormous interest. It is, after all, the old
abuse, the old Tommy-shop nuisance—the
"infamous truck system "—the iniquitous custom
of paying the labourer at the public-house,
and the mechanic late on the Saturday night.

I have not time to enter the Docks just
now; and plunge further into the Babel of
Ratcliffe Highway. Jack is alive everywhere by
this time. A class of persons remarkably
lively in connection with him, are the Jews.
For Jack, are these grand Jewish outfitting
warehouses alone intended. For his sole use
and benefit are the swinging lamps, the
hammocks and bedding, the code of signal pocket-
handkerchiefs, the dreadnought coats,
sou'wester hats, telescopes, checked shirts, pilot
jackets, case bottles, and multifarious odds
and ends required by the mariner. For Jack,
does Meshech manufacture the delusive
jewellery; while Shadrach vaunts the watch that
has no works; and Abednego confidentially
proposes advances of cash on wages-notes.
Jewry is alive, as well as Jack, in Ratcliffe
Highway. You may call that dingy little
cabin of a shop, small; but, bless you! they
would fit out a seventy-four in ten minutes,
with everything wanted, from a spanker boom
to a bottle of Harvey's Sauce. For purposes
marine, they sell everything; biscuits by
sacks-full, bales of dreadnoughts, miles of
rope, infinities of fishing-tackle, shaving-
tackle, running-tackle, spars, sextants, sea-
chests, and hundreds of other articles. Jewry
will even supply you with sailors ; will man
vessels for you, from a cock-boat to an Indiaman.
Jewry has a capital black cook inside.
A third mate at two minutes' notice. A
steward in the twinkling of a handspike.
Topmast men in any quantity, and at immediate
call.

A strange sound—half human, half
ornithological—breaks on the ear above the turmoil
of the crowded street. I follow a swarthy
mariner, who holds a cage, muffled in a
handkerchief in his hand, a few yards, until he enters
a large and handsome shop, kept also by a
child of Israel, and which literally swarms
with parrots, cockatoos, and macaws. Here
they are, in every variety of gorgeous plumage
and curvature of beak: with their wicked-
looking, bead-like eyes and crested heads;
screaming, croaking, yelling, swearing, laughing,
singing, drawing corks, and winding-up
clocks, with frantic energy! Most of these
birds come from South America and the coast
of Africa. Jack generally brings home one or
two as his own private venture, selling it in
London for a sum varying from thirty to forty
shillings. I am sorry to have to record that
a parrot which can swear well, is more
remunerative to Jack than a non-juring bird. A
parrot which is accomplished enough to rap out
half-a-dozen round oaths in a breath, will fetch
you fifty shillings, perhaps. In this shop, also,
are stuffed humming-birds, ivory chessmen,
strange shells, and a miscellaneous collection
of those foreign odds and ends, called
"curiosities." Jack is very lively here with the
rabbinical ornithologist. He has just come
from the Gold Coast in a man-of-war, the
captain of which, in consideration of the good
conduct of the crew while on the station, had
permitted each man before the mast to bring
as many parrots home with him as he liked.
And they did bring a great many, Jack says—
so many, that the vessel became at last like a
ship full of women; the birds creating such
an astonishing variety of discordant noises,
that the men were, in self-defence, obliged to
let some two or three hundred of them (they
didn't keep count of fifty or so) loose.
Hundreds, however, came safe home; and Jack
has two or three to dispose of. They whistle
hornpipes beautifully. I leave him still
haggling with the ornithologist, and triumphantly
eliciting a miniature " Jon Bee's Vocabulary
of Slang " from the largest of his birds.

You are not to suppose, gentle reader, that
the population of Ratcliffe is destitute of an
admixture of the fairer portion of the creation.
Jack has his Jill in St. George's Street, Cable
Street, Back Lane, and the Commercial Road.
Jill is inclined to corpulence; if it were not
libellous, I could hint a suspicion that Jill is
not unaddicted to the use of spirituous liquors.
Jill wears a silk handkerchief round her neck,
as Jack does; like him, too. she rolls, occa-