英语听书《白鲸记》第781期

A pision which, in the whale, is much like halving an apple; there is no intermediate remainder. Now as this law, under a modified form, is to this day in force in England; and as it offers in various respects a strange anomaly touching the general law of Fast—and Loose-Fish, it is here treated of in a separate chapter, on the same courteous principle that prompts the English railways to be at the expense of a separate car, specially reserved for the accommodation of royalty. In the first place, in curious proof of the fact that the above-mentioned law is still in force, I proceed to lay before you a circumstance-that happened within the last two years.

鲸的这种分法，倒很象是把一只苹果对半剖开来，中间一点也没有剩留。因为这个法律，形式虽有所修改，却直到今天还施行于英国；又因为这个法律，就各方面说来，都跟有主鲸和无主鲸这个总的法律精神有着奇特的矛盾，所以，在这里，根据英国铁路当局，特为准备供皇族使用，而拨专款建造单独车厢的这个谦恭原则，将其单独列为一章。首先，为了好奇地证实上述法律迄今仍在施行，我想先把两年前所发生的情况说给你听。

It seems that some honest mariners of Dover, or Sandwich, or some one of the Cinque Ports, had after a hard chase succeeded in killing and beaching a fine whale which they had originally descried afar off from the shore. Now the Cinque Ports are partially or somehow under the jurisdiction of a sort of policeman or beadle, called a Lord Warden. Holding the office directly from the crown, I believe, all the royal emoluments incident to the Cinque Port territories become by assignment his. By some writers this office is called a sinecure. But not so. Because the Lord Warden is busily employed at times in fobbing his perquisites; which are his chiefly by virtue of that same fobbing of them.

好象是多佛海峡（多佛海峡——法英之间的海峡。），或者散德维奇，还是辛格港（辛格港——包括英国东南部的五个大港，威廉一世时将这一带划成一个独立的地区，成为一个"港口监督"的管辖区。"港口监督"必须贡献船只给威廉一世，"港口监督"则有许多特权如免税。制定自己的地方法等。情形一直维持至十九世纪上期。），有几个老实水手，在千辛万苦的追击后，终于把他们本来在距岸很远的地方所发现的一条上等的大鲸打死了，正想把它拖上海滩来。当时，辛格港大概有一部分是属于一种警察或者教区小吏性质的，称为"港口监督"的辖区的。我相信他是直接秉承国王的命令行事的，凡属有关辛格港地区的皇家收益都归他管。有些作家们管这个职司叫闲差。可是，事实却不然。因为这个"港口监督"一天到晚都在忙着塞满他自己的腰包；他的腰包主要就是这样塞满的。

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