vocably, through the very want which I would now recommend to supply, what discoveries in science, what combinations of philosophical reasoning, what death-blows to our enemy's resources may not have been missed, solely because naval officers have never hitherto been able to travel out of the usual routine of their professional duties? The opportunities enjoyed by them of original observation and experiment are incomparably superior to those possessed by any other body of men; their leisure is even a burthen to themselves, and their inducements to give their ingenuity a scientific direction are great.-And yet not one of them has ever materially assisted the progress of science by any considerable original discovery *, and not a very great number have even very con *The minute observations and reasoning of the late lamented Captain Flinders, respecting the Marine Barometer and Variation of the Compass, come the nearest to an exception to the above remark, but are not yet of sufficient importance materially to qualify it: while there is another fact to which there is no exception whatever of any moment, still more strikingly in point on the opposite side. The Navy has been actively and assiduously employed against its antagonist for many years since the discovery of most of the modern improvements in chemistry and other sciences, during all which time, too, England has been the first maritime, and among the first scientific nations in the world. Not one combination of mechanical power, for the purposes either of attack or defence, has notwithstanding appeared among us, the invention of one of our own body; we did not even discover ourselves the principles of that memorable improvement introduced 36 years ago into our own line of battle; we plodded on in the old routine, from the first even to the last. On the contrary, no sooner were the energies of the Army, assisted as these are by its several seminaries, called out, than new inventions of shells, rockets, grenades, &c. became immediately common. Now who shall say what might not have been the several results at Toulon, Teneriffe, and Boulogne (I quote, after all, the only instances of failure in our modern annals), or how superior might not have been our successes at Copenhagen, and elsewhere, if we had even only possessed these secrets at an earlier date? And who shall presume still more to determine what hitherto undiscovered weapon may not even yet start forth to existence, when the brains of our young officers shall become pregnant with other matters than the main top-sail-haul routine, which has hitherto occupied their every thought, but which a more general degree VOL. IV. spicuously followed in the beaten path. This can be owing to nothing but the want of original preparation and due encouragement, and it is assuredly not more nor less the duty than the interest of a great maritime state to remedy the defect. The absolute right of the Navy to enjoy at least equal opportunities of improvement with the sister service, the Army, is the last topic to be illustrated under this head, and, in stating it, I am unconscious of being actuated by any mean jealousy of the Army, or of the advantages and honours which it enjoys. In common with a great many more of my class and degree, I may very possibly think, that in public estimation the glories of Waterloo have been allowed somewhat too much to eclipse the once pre-eminent trophies of St. Vincent and Trafalgar, the names of Wellington, Hill, Beresford, and others, somewhat too much to cast into oblivion those of Jarvis, Duncan, Nelson, and the rest.-And, in like and do think, that the Army, with its manner, on the present occasion, I may seminaries at Woolwich, Sandhurst, and High Wycombe, has somewhat too heavy a scale of instruction adapted to its purposes when compared with our humble academy at Portsmouth. But neither in the one case nor in the other are any of us desirous to pull down, and in this, in particular, I would only seek to build up in amicable rivalry and imitation. And surely none would censure such a desire as illiberal under any circumstances, but particularly if it can be proved, as I hope to prove it satisfactorily, that in point of fact, officers of the Navy, of all ranks, stand more in need of a liberal education than officers of the Army of even high relative station, although, as matters now are, they have comparatively no opportunities of improvement afforded them at all. The Army and Navy differ as fields for the exertion of individual talent, in a great many circumstances; but in none more than this, that whereas, on the one hand, ninety-nine out of a hundred officers of the army are never called on to display greater original resource that what consists in a gallant spirit, and due notions of discipline, as evinced in their deportment both to superiors and inferiors: on the other, of information would speedily reduce to its proper level? 2 Y there is not that little midshipman in the whole Navy who is not cast, occa sionally, absolutely on himself, be it but in the conduct of a boat on detached service, and who must not sink or swim, I speak to the letter, as his own judgment shall lead him right or wrong in the supposed case. Every step as he advances in his profession, multiplies and increases the importance of the occasions in which he is thus called on for the exertion of individual talent: and when at length he becomes a lieutenant commanding a small ves sel, or a commander in a sloop of war, he has, for every ordinary purpose of conducting his charge in safety, precisely the same task to perform with the Admiral of the fleet, with these additional disadvantages, that his experience is less, his ship for the most part is employed nearer the shore, and consequently in more critical situations than a fleet would, without an object, choose to go into, and he has, besides, no such advisers to consult with as are usually found in a flag-ship. His charge, it may be said, is less; but to him, and to the ship's company confided to his judgment, the stake is just the same: it is life, and property, and honour, in both cases. Such being the case, then, to whom, I would now ask, should the best professional education be given, to the officer on whom the best is thus far thrown away, that the chances are ninety-nine to one that he is never called on to apply any of it to practice; or to him who, whether he has it or not to an advisable extent, must be all his life, in peace or in war, in scenes where some of its lessons are indispensably necessary for his safety and reputation? The question answers it self; and that answer is an admission of the right which I have thus sought to establish and maintain. This communication, Mr Editor, has already extended to an almost inadmissible length; and I therefore hasten to conclude it with only one more observation. This regards an objection which may possibly be made to the whole of the plan thus detailed and recommended, viz. that it would place theory, before practice, and accordingly injure the service more than it would improve it. I am not, however, of this opinion. It would make us all a little more theoretical, and, in so far, would be an advantage; and some of us would become, through its means, too good for the general routine of service, and in so far it would be an advantage still, for, associating with, and emulating these, would raise the tone of our pursuits in every respect, while their success would reflect credit on us all. But the great mass of us would, relatively to each other, remain much the same as now, too indolent, perhaps too inert in every way, to push to eminence in any speculative pursuit. To them the practical details of our ser vice would still continue a peculiar sphere; and, indeed, be it said without apprehension by one, who has always been rather sedentary than other wise in his own habits, in these there is a pleasure, a delight, a pride even, when they are kept in just their proper place, subordinate to higher objects, which will always redeem them from neglect, did not their indispensable necessity guarantee them from such a fate. But that is a still more effectual security; for who would neglect the practical details of a service, in which the very smallest oversight may, by a fatal concatenation, lead to the most signal calamity? Should these remarks ever have the honour of meeting the eye of our present First Lord (Lord Melville), their scope and tenor will, I am sure, receive his indulgent consideration, however their entire purpose may possibly fail of obtaining his unqualified approbation. His father's name stands preeminent among those of the statesmen of his day; and yet is for nothing so noted, or so gratefully remembered, as for the minute attention and encouragement he always lent to suggestions for naval improvement. Who shall be emulous of his example if not his son? who shall follow up his views, if not the inheritor of his appropriate honours? The first step in this case is, indeed, already taken; for it is to the present Lord Melville that we are indebted for the renewed severity of our examination as lieutenants. If any generous love of fame animate his labours (and who shall presume to doubt it?) let him persevere with his best judgment in the same path, and ample will be his reward. His name will be inscribed with honour in the imperishable annals of his native land, when the distinctions of political party, and the bustlings of ephemeral administration, shall be alike swept away and forgotten amidst the other wrecks of a transitory existence." M. ry, REFLEXIONS OCCASIONED BY SOME LATE SINS OF THE PUBLIC PRINTS. "Licence they mean when they cry Liberty, WERE any proof awanting to shew how utterly unenglish, in all their ideas, a certain class of periodical writers are, who affect a peculiar regard for the maintenance of our national spirit and character that proof might be abundantly gathered from the disquisitions. of these persons on the death of the late Queen. A virtuous matron, who had been, for more than half a centuthe blameless and domestic partner of one of the most virtuous monarchs that ever sat upon any throne, might have expected, one should have supposed (and without any great excess of sanguine expectation), that her dust might be gathered into the receptacle wherein all distinctions are levelled, without being insulted by any voice of irreverence, from among a nation so eminent for their virtue and their loyalty as the English. And yet it has not been so. Throughout the great body of the people, indeed, the spirit that has been manifested, has been worthy of the name which we bear, and the rights which we inherit. There has been none of that foolish adulation which is used to disguise the hatred of tyrants upon the lips of slaves. There has been no fulsome mockery-no frigid affectation-no false-tongued mimicry of passionate admiration or of passionate grief. But there has been a quiet expression of respect for the unspotted worth and purity of the Queen's character and conduct, mixed not unnaturally with the expression of yet deeper reverence for the aged and afflicted sovereign, whom she has preceded to the grave-and mixed, as might become a nation whose house hold virtues are their noblest distinction, with no obscure expression of sympathy for the remaining members of that illustrious house, whose greatness has of late been visited with so many dark tokens of all the weaknesses "that flesh is heir to." Such sentiments as these, and such communion of sentiment, might be looked for from a people that see in their monarchs the emblems and instruments of their freedom; and are ever prepared to reverence in them the representatives and guardians of their character. Nor can we hesitate to believe that MILTON. they who have adventured to speak after a different fashion, whatever may be the loftiness of their pretensions and their professions, are, în truth, strangers to that character, and enemies to that freedom. We acquit the "men of mark” of every party among us, of all participation in such unworthiness; most sincerely do we wish we could extend this acquittal to some of the publications which are commonly supposed to bear with them the authority of one great and important party. In not a few of these publications, we are very sorry to say, there has been displayed upon this occasion, a spirit of envious, uncharitable, splenetic captiousness, the appearance of any symptoms of which, in such quarters, upon such occasions, we always regret the more, on account of the encouragement which they cannot but afford to the mean and skulking malevolence of a very different set of works-works whose principles and practices will long, we hope, continue to be con demned, as they now are, by all that make any pretensions to the character of English statesmen. The men of virtue and of talent (and who will deny that there are many such ?) who oppose themselves in Parliament, and out of Parliament, to the present administration of their country, should beware whom they admit to claim fellowship with them. They should remember that they profess to be the representatives of some of the best, and the wisest men that ever England produced. We believe them indeed to be mistaken, but who shall suspect them to be insincere? Let them think how the old Whigs of England would have scorned the low-minded enemies of all her greatness, whom they are permit ting to fight by their side-nay, from whose impotent hands, they have sometimes permitted themselves to borrow for their warfare, the embaled and empoisoned weapons of a caitiff malice. There exists in this island, above all in its metropolis, a set of men, who, were their power equal to their will, would soon, indeed, take away from us every thing that has served to draw the admiration and respect of the world There is nothing which has more bitterly afflicted the paltry spleen of these patriots than the personal character of the King and Queen of England. The image of their purity has oppressed them like a nightmare. The respectful applauses of the people have been daggers to their ears. They have reviled our Ministers; and as all men are not wise, nor all measures obviously prudent, they have persuaded many that they deserve to be reviled. They have railed against our Parliaments, and deafened the air with their clamours of corruption. The great machine of government and legislation has gone on as befitted a pure and lof-, ty nation; yet here too, exaggeration and invention have been enough to procure for their voice some credence. But the throne was a sanctuary which their malice could not approach without being consumed. The inflexible integrity, the domestic purity, the honesty and the honour of the Kingthese were things which they durst not touch, lest every foot should turn round upon them, and trample them into their mire. Removed by God's Providence from his severe duties and his innocent-enjoyments, these enemies of our peace have fondly persuaded themselves that our King has become half forgotten among us, and they have at last begun to wage an obscene war upon his gray hairs and his affliction. They have insulted him living through the dead partner of his affections and his virtues. The privacy, the blamelessness, of her long life, have not been able to make them ashamed of outraging her memory. Armed with all the confidence which malice can give, and ignorance augment, they have launched forth keen darts, which have served no purpose save that of shewing their fury-which have at once fallen down blunted and bruised, beneath the heavenly armour of which a great old poet speaks. "Sotto l'usbergo del esser puro." When a poet, who is the worst enemy of his own greatness, put forth, some time ago, a set of ribald libels upon the character and person of the present sovereign of these realms, we took occasion to tell him, not, we hope, without the respect to which his genius entitles him, that his publication was a disgrace to him as a gentleman, no less than as a subject,-that it was an unmanly and cowardly production, because it was replete with insults against one who could not chastise them. The conduct of the Jacobinical journalists, who have, upon this later occasion, reviled the Queen's memory, are chargeable with a still meaner, and a still more disgusting piece of cowardice,were it worth while to bring any charge against heads already so covered with contempt. The rank and station of the Queen should have protected her from insolent-her sex alone from coarse abuse; yet insolence and coarseness have been mingled together with no sparing hand in the invectives of those vulgar spirits, who, to the disgrace of our country, possess the chief sway of the only press that acts directly and powerfully upon the lower classes of the community. By every rational and reflective lover of our native land, the wicked and pernicious productions thrown out by this corrupted press to please the rank cravings of a diseased and morbid appetite for excitement among the uneducated or half-educated populace, are contemplated with a seriousness of ap prehension very different from what might, at first sight, be regarded as due to the exertions of a set of writers, without any exception, utterly ignorant, and, with a very few exceptions indeed, utterly dull. It is no difficult thing to hit the taste of the vulgar. The pantomime must be strange indeed that does not relax the muscles of a clown, or a serving man. The malevolence of human nature dispises not a few of them that are low, to rejoice in the humiliation, real or fancied, of their superiors. Alas! it is a still more universal passion which leads the wicked to triumph in the degradation of the good, however transitory, however imaginary, that degradation may be; nor can any engine, which increases the action of these bad passions, and which thrives by increasing it, be utterly despised by us, merely because its machinery is rude, and its superintendent contemptible. However lively may be the indig nation with which we regard the authors and circulators of those ruffianlike calumnies, from which neither the solemnity of the death-bed, nor the sanctity of the grave, have been able to protect the late Queen of Englandof the feeling with which these inhuman outrages have been witnessed by us, the emotions of anger and indignation have been far indeed from being the principal elements. A false calumny can leave no permanent stain upon the purity which it insults; nor is it to be feared that the calm voice of history can be at all affected by the whispers or the babblings of wretches whereof posterity will take no note. Our indignation that such things should be said, is trifling, when compared with our grief that they should be endured. We are none of those prophets of evil who delight in foretelling the degradation of their country-we are none of those who carry personal spleen into public speculation, or colour the wide prospect of national existence with colours dipt in the gloom of a factious disappoint The that which is good should be deserted by the favour of Omnipotence; we have no fear lest the wicked men, who hate the happiness which is connected with virtue, should ultimately prosper in their unworthy aims. But it is not easy, and perhaps it were not wise, to view, without something of sorrow, the least symptom of decay in that general spirit of manliness and uprightness, in those broad and firm habitudes of generous feeling, from which, in the darkest days of our political horizon, we were wont to shape a hope and a confidence, that, by God's grace, have not been disappointed. principles and the feelings of our countrymen must ever strengthen and support each other. Heretofore they have been gloriously blended. Patriotism and loyalty, and moral purity, have been enshrined together in the same hearts; and the undivided. homage of those who loved and hallowed their union, was the main element of that whereon all our trust was built, the first and highest attribute in the national character of our countrymen. The moment, that the chivalry of feeling is discarded, will be viewed by us as the sure harbinger of death and destruction to the energy of principle. We have no faith in the excellence of their citizenship, who are ungenerous men; we have no hope for the nation that allows the feelings of the low, and the passions of the bad, to mingle permanently and deeply in the waters out of which her spirit drinks. The periodical press of England is, for the most part, fed by men vulgar in birth, in habits, and in education-needy adventurers-shallow, superficial, coxcombs-puny creatures that spring up in that broad and sterile track of debateable land, which lies between the simple and the enlightened-the peasant and the gentleman. Alike audacious to precede, and servile to follow-vulgar misconceptions, and ignorant apprehensions, and paltry jealousies, and envious sneers, are the elements and instruments of their atrocious war. Newspapers contain something for every man; therefore they come into the hands of every man. The lie that we read with a shudder to-day, is repeated to-morrow and to-morrow, for weeks, for months, and for years, till the eye and the mind learn to glance over it with unconcern. Newspapers are not studied, they are simply read. Their |