demands were too ridiculous to be considered; whereupon he hung Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas in effigy at the yard-arm of the _Sandwich_. It is a curious fact, showing that the crews were simply egged on by the ringleaders, and that there was plenty of loyalty at bottom, that on June 4th, the king’s birthday, the whole fleet insisted on firing a royal salute, displaying the colours as usual, and hauling down the red flag during the ceremony. Mr. Parker, however, insisted that it should fly on the flag-ship. On June 10th two of the ships, the _Leopard_ and _Repulse_, hauled down the flag of mutiny, and sailed into the Thames; their example was soon followed by others. Parker and his cause were lost. On the evening of June 14th this miserable affair was at an end. The crew of the _Sandwich_, Parker’s own ship, brought that vessel under the guns of the fort at Sheerness, and handed him as a prisoner to the authorities. Sixteen days afterwards he was hanged. His wife presented a petition to the queen in favour of her wretched husband, and is stated to have offered a thousand guineas if his life could be spared. But he, of all men who were ever hanged, deserved his fate, for he had placed the very kingdom itself in peril. Other executions took place, but very few, considering the heinousness of the crime committed. Still, the Government knew that the men had been in the larger proportion of cases more sinned against than sinning; and when later, Duncan’s victory over the Dutch fleet provided an occasion, an amnesty was published, and many who had been confined in prison, some of them under sentence of death, were released. _En passant_, it may be remarked that three marines were shot at Plymouth on July 6th of the same year, for endeavouring to excite a mutiny in the corps, while another was sentenced to receive a _thousand_ lashes. The mutinous spirit evinced at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and the Nore spread, even to foreign stations. Had it not been for Duncan’s manly and sensible appeal to his crew, where there were some disaffected spirits, our naval supremacy might have been seriously compromised as regards the Dutch. On board the Mediterranean Fleet, then lying off the coast of Portugal, the mutineers had for a time their own way. The admiral commanding, Lord St. Vincent, was, however, hardly the man to be daunted by any number of evil-disposed fellows. He had only just before added to his laurels by another victory over the enemies of his country. The ringleaders on board the flagship _St. George_ were immediately seized, brought to trial, and hanged the next day, although it was Sunday, a most unusual time for an execution. Still further to increase the force of the example, he departed from the usual custom of drawing men from different ships to assist at the execution, and ordered that none but the crew of the _St. George_ itself should touch a rope. The brave old admiral, by his energy and promptitude, soon quieted every symptom of disaffection.