"To say that Anson was a perfect seaman would be no great compliment to an officer who, like him, had spent the first thirty years at least, after leaving home, in the various duties of the profession; and few men had more painful experience of the dangers, the difficulties, and the melancholy disasters to which a seaman's life is exposed, than he had in those which fell to his lot to encounter in his enterprising voyage round the world. In that voyage he gave ample proof that he was a truly brave man-morally and physically brave-a man of firm nerves, and of great resources in time of need-for the exercise of which, occasions were neither slight nor few. To say he was so is no special praise. All the world knows that a naval officer is and must be brave; it is a virtue common to the whole profession; they are instructed from their earliest youth to be so, and it is a plant that grows with their growth: but like other qualities it has its degrees, and requires occasions to bring it forth. It did not happen to fall to the lot of Anson to distinguish himself particularly in action with the enemy. His engagement with the great Acapulco ship, with his reduced and feeble crow, just one-half in number to the enemy, was highly creditable to him, his officers, and ship's company; and perhaps still more so, after all their sufferings, cheerfully to go forth with the true undaunted spirit of British seamen to seek and meet the enemy. Nor was it a less strong feature in the character of Anson, that, soon after taking his seat at the Board of Admiralty, at a time when the public were dissatisfied at nothing having been done for the first two years of the war, he volunteered to hoist his flag, and assume the command of a fleet for the purpose of intercepting two combined squadrons of the enemy, of which he had received certain information; a step that could only have been taken on public grounds, united with a desire to do something that might distinguish him, and render him worthy of the situation he held in the public service. But Anson's character is to be looked at more closely in the civil department of the navy, in which it has been seen he acquitted himself with great ability, diligence, and impartiality. Under his administration, many years before and during the Seven Years' War, the British navy attained a pitch of power and preeminence to which it had never before arrived while the fleets of France and Spain were completely humbled, and almost annihilated; the remaining portion of them being mostly shut up in their ports during the last three years of the war."

:

The part of the volume which will at present be read with the greatest eagerness, though comparatively short, consists of a "Supplementary Chapter," or Appendix, upon the actual existing condition of the British Navy, its strength relatively considered along with the contemporaneous naval powers of France, Russia, and America. Our readers are aware that the alarm has lately been sounded by various writers about the non-efficiency of our wooden walls, not only ascompared with those of the countries named, but as regards our past history. Now this is a subject upon which Britons feel peculiarly sensitive. We are therefore glad that an authority so competent, so zealous in behalf of the "department," and so unimpeachable--that a man who has for thirty years been an active VOL. I. (1839.) No. 11.

X

and deeply responsible servant in the Admirality, performing with straight-forward manliness his official duties under various Administrations, finds himself called upon to answer the grumblers and their misrepresentations in a manner so significant and sweeping as the passages now to be quoted do and illustrate. Take first a succinct account of the past and present state of our Navy :

"In the year 1820, there were in commission 14 sail of the line; and men voted, 23,000 seamen, including marines.

"In the year 1830, 18 sail of the line; men voted, 29,000 seamen, including marines.

"In the year 1838, 21 sail of the line; men voted, 34,000 seamen including marines, and 2,000 boys.

"And if he wishes to go back to the year 1792, antecedent to the Revolutionary War, he will find that twelve sail of the line were in commission, and 16,000 men voted, of whom about 12,000 only were borne for a great part of the year."

We need not quote the tabular view of the navies of England, France, and Russia, their numbers and relative strength, by which it appears we are greatly superior. But as a vast deal has been lately uttered and boldly speculated in and about the designs and might of Russia, we must extract one of the Secretary's statements on the subject:

"When Commander Craufurd talks of the progress made in the Russian Navy, he is ignorant of the fact, that a Russian fleet in the Baltic has been a sort of hobby since the days of Peter the Great, who had not less than twenty to thirty sail of the line-small, it is true, in comparison with the present; and, with regard to the vaunted increase at the present time, what is the fact? The Russians have not a single ship of the line in the Baltic nor in the Black Sea, more than they had fifteen years ago, except those now on the stocks, intended to replace the old ones; so little has Russia increased her fleet. If young officers would take the trouble to read what their seniors and superiors have seen and said,—i Mr. Craufurd had done this, he would have found that, in the year 1823f an intelligent old Captain of the British Navy saw at Cronstadt twenty-, seven sale of the line, and many of them of the largest class of threedeckers; that he was on board one of the latter, the Leipsic, and says, 'she appeared to me, as did most of the ships, to be hogged; for when standing on the afterpart of the lower deck, it was impossible to see more than one third forward.' The ship has long since disappeared from the list. The Russian ships, in fact, last but a few years: they are built either of Casan oak, or larch, both of which species of timber are of short duration. If Mr. Craufurd will look still further back, he will find that, in the year 1801, Russia had sixty-one sail of the line, thirty of which were in commission in the Baltic Sea; the remainder building or in ordinary. Captain Jones also visited Sebastopol, where he found the exact number of ships that are now there, with the exception of those building-fifteen sail-three of them carrying one hundred and twenty

guns, and the rest eighty-four. It is certain, however, that as the old ones break down, new ones of a superior class are built."

The mal-administration of our navy, in so far as the management and application of funds are concerned, does not appear to have been confined to the times preceding the reforms of Lord Anson :—

"While on the subject of building and preserving the fleet, it may be stated, that not many years ago the attention of the Board of Admiralty was drawn to the great numbers of new ships building, and with such rapidity, that they were launched, not from any want of ships, but apparently as if for no other purpose than to rot at their moorings in ordinary. In the year 1832, when matters of this kind were closely looked into, it appeared that the Nelson, of 120 guns, launched in 1814, (eighteen years before), the Vindictive, 74, (nineteen years before), the Pitt,, 74, (sixteen years before), the Bellerophon, 80, (fourteen years), had not one of them ever been at sea; and that other ships of the line, in the several ordinaries, to the number of sixteen, were in the same predica ment."

We have not the means of knowing whether or not this extravagant and foolish system has been entirely put an end to. One benefit, however, which, it is to be hoped, will arise from the recent complaints about the efficiency of our navel force, ought to be strict scrutiny and an early amendment in every branch connected with the establishment. Nothing is more salutary than the vigilance of the public eye, which has been so pointedly directed to that quarter. We must not, however, withhold the following strong testimony:

"In conclusion: I cannot hesitate to affirm, and I do so neither rashly nor vauntingly, nor without due research, that, if any confidence is to be placed on official statements and returns, at no former period of profound peace, in the whole history of Great Britain, was her navy in so efficient a state, as to the number, condition, and equipment of the ships in commission, and the number and superior qualities of the petty officers and effective seamen borne on their books: nor were the number, the dimen sions, and the condition of the ships in ordinary, and the preparations and stores in the dock-yards for increasing the active and efficient force of the fleet, at any time more satisfactory, than at the present moment-the commencement of the year 1839."

To return for a moment to Lord Anson, and that we may introduce an anecdote of England's Sailor King, who was not only deeply versed in naval affairs, but who was fond of making long after-dinner speeches, we copy the following paragraphs :

"His Majesty, on the anniversary of the battle of Camperdown falling on a Sunday, attended by the Board of Admiralty and certain naval officers, heard divine service in the chapel of Greenwich Hospital, and

afterwards dined at St. James's. When the Queen and the ladies were about to retire, the King requested they would stay, as he had a few words to say regarding the British Navy. He began with the landing of Julius Cæsar in Britain; which, he said, must have proved to the natives the necessity of a naval force to prevent and repel foreign invasion; and he went over the main features of all the great battles that had been fought, down to that of Trafalgar.

"Assembled in the drawing-room after dinner, he beckoned me to him, and said, I fear I forgot to mention the name of Anson, and the action he fought off Cape Finisterre: I am not sure I know the details correctly; pray send me an account of it to-morrow.' He added,' Anson was a good man, and knew his business well; though not brilliant, he was an excellent First Lord, improved the build of our ships, made more good officers, and brought others forward in the Seven Years' War, than any of his predecessors had done."

We have said and extracted enough to show that the volume adequately fills up an important chapter in our national and glorious naval history.

NOTICES.

ART. XIII.-The Bubbles of Canada. By the Author of "The Clockmaker." London: Bentley.

MR. Justice Haliburton is said to be the author of this volume, as also of the clever satirical work mentioned in the title-page. The present work, however, is neither so clever nor so lively. It is, in fact, a mere party production, a great portion of it consisting of a reprint of despatches and other state papers, as well as numerous quotations, in an undigested form; and being in point of literature below mediocrity; unless the unscrupulous manner of striking right and left be an index of strong, as it of is a reckless mind and manner. The main purpose seems to have been, by a history of Canada since its conquest by Wolfe, to show how in the treatment of the conquered French, in withholding from them certain things and rights, and permitting them to retain others of a dangerous and disrupting tendency, the natural forerunners were established of the evils that are now experienced and the difficulties imposed upon the British party. The following is the most pithy and entertaining passage in the book:"As the people of this country know but little of the dissensions in Canada, they very wisely confine their observations to the dissensions o those who govern it. This is a more intelligible, as well as a more amusing subject. Every body talks of Lord Brougham and Lord Durham, but nobody speaks of Canada. Instead, therefore, of inquiring what is to become of that valuable colony, what measures are, or ought, to be adopted to ensure its tranquillity, and to protect British subjects and British property there, people very properly limit their attention to the more interesting question-What will the governor-general do when parliament meets? To inquire whether the English or the French population of Canada is in the right, requires some investigation to ascertain facts, and some constitutional knowledge to judge of those facts, when collected. It is, at best, but a dry

subject. But to decide whether Lord Brougham or Lord Durham has had the best of the dispute, is a matter so well suited for easy conversation, and humorous argument, that it is no wonder it has more attractions than the other. Such, however, is the acerbity of politics in this country, that even this affair is made a party question; and the worst motives are imputed for everything that is said or done by either. There are not wanting those who gravely assert, that while Lord Brougham was affecting to brush off the flies from the heels of an old rival, he intentionally switched him so hard as to arouse his temper, and to induce him to kick. They maintain that there are two sorts of tickling, one that is so delicate as to produce laughter and pleasurable sensations; and another that irritates both the skin and the temper by the coarseness of its application. They say that his lordship is much addicted to the latter species, and applies it equally to both friends and foes; in short, that his play is too rough to be agreeable. While, on the other hand, there are some who are so unkind as to insinuate that Lord Durham was very willing to take offence, and to shelter himself under it. That he felt he had voluntarily undertaken a load which he was unable to draw; and that, knowing greater expectations had been formed of him than he could ever realise, had no objection to kick himself out of harness, and extricate himself by overthrowing friend or foe, so long as the public were willing to believe the fault to be that of the teamster, and not of the steed. Be that as it may, the exhibition has been an entertaining one; and they deserve some credit for having afforded amusement and occupation to the public at this dull season of the year. There they are,-the crowd has gathered round them,-the idle and the vulgar stand gaping,—and each one looks anxiously for what is to follow. What can be more agreeable to a British mob-a people essentially fond of the prize-fight-than the contest of these two champions, men who have always courted their applause, and valued their noisy demonstrations of pleasure higher than the quiet respect of those of more taste and more refinement?"

ART. XIV.-The Discovery of the Vital Principle, or Physiology of Man. London: Stirling.

We have nothing to say in behalf of this goodly octavo, but that the author earnestly believes in his wild dreams about the essential element of all matter. There is no deficiency in the external form of reasoning; that is to say, there are abundance of premises and propositions (pure and unsurpassed assumptions), and strong as well as startling deductions, just as gratuitously set down as the forerunning parts; the connection between these formal observances of logical rules being as visionary as anything that was ever written by a crazed enthusiast.

The author labours to show, not only that all matter, comprising this globe and the hosts of other spheres, is diamond, but fancies that he demonstrates that this world in each of its three conditions; viz., inorganic, vegetable, and animal, has gone through or been subjected to three analogous processes-the oval, fœtal, and locomotive states of life. It would be a waste of time, however, were we to endeavour to follow the dreamer in any one of his strange excursions. Two or three sentences and assertions, taken at random, will be sufficient for our readers. "Life is the