Hereupon Charley began his task in a large, ugly, round hand, neither that of a man nor of a boy, and set himself to copy the contents of the paper. 'The name of Pacifico stinks in the nostril of the British public. It is well known to all the world how sincerely we admire the vers_i_tility of Lord Palmerston's genius; how cordially we s_i_mpathize with his patriotic energies. But the admiration which even a Palmerston inspires must have a bound, and our s_i_mpathy may be called on too far. When we find ourselves asked to pay--'. By this time Charley had half covered the half-sheet of foolscap which had been put before him, and here at the word 'pay' he unfortunately suffered a large blot of ink to fall on the paper. 'That won't do, Mr. Tudor, that won't do--come, let us look,' and stretching over again, the Secretary took up the copy. 'Oh dear! oh dear! this is very bad; versatility with an 'i!'--sympathy with an 'i!' sympathize with an 'i!' Why, Mr. Tudor, you must be very fond of 'i's' down in Shropshire.' Charley looked sheepish, but of course said nothing. 'And I never saw a viler hand in my life. Oh dear, oh dear, I must send you back to Sir Gilbert. Look here, Snape, this will never do--never do for the Internal Navigation, will it?' Snape, the attendant senior clerk, said, as indeed he could not help saying, that the writing was very bad. 'I never saw worse in my life,' said the Secretary. 'And now, Mr. Tudor, what do you know of arithmetic?' Charley said that he thought he knew arithmetic pretty well;--'at least some of it,' he modestly added. 'Some of it!' said the Secretary, slightly laughing. 'Well, I'll tell you what--this won't do at all;' and he took the unfortunate manuscript between his thumb and forefinger. 'You had better go home and endeavour to write something a little better than this. Mind, if it is not very much better it won't do. And look here; take care that you do it yourself. If you bring me the writing of any one else, I shall be sure to detect you. I have not any more time now; as to arithmetic, we'll examine you in 'some of it' to-morrow.' So Charley, with a faint heart, went back to his cousin's lodgings and waited till the two friends had arrived from the Weights and Measures. The men there made a point of staying up to five o'clock, as is the case with all model officials, and it was therefore late before he could get himself properly set to work. But when they did arrive, preparations for calligraphy were made on a great scale; a volume of Gibbon was taken down, new quill pens, large and small, and steel pens by various makers were procured; cream-laid paper was provided, and ruled lines were put beneath it. And when this was done, Charley was especially cautioned to copy the spelling as well as the wording. He worked thus for an hour before dinner, and then for three hours in the evening, and produced a very legible copy of half a chapter of the 'Decline and Fall.'