are without interest or rank, even as on a frosty night we should proceed to a rout in a hackney coach, rather than have out our thoroughbreds." And with twaddle Schneider would have run on till Doomsday, but he perceived that Harold was wet and cold; his teeth chattered; the kind offer of rum was declined, and our friend proceeded to change, while the first lieutenant dived down below for a moment, then came on deck with a deeper tinge of colour on his nose, and forthwith commenced bullying the men.

CHAPTER VIII.

Now, kind reader, we purpose dedicating this chapter to a subject which lays very close up to our heart. You may not appreciate it, and therefore have full permission to skip if it pleases you so to do; at all events it will not affect the narrative. Having so for explained, we will immediately proceed to discuss this little matter in this particular place, because the reader must fall upon it. An introduction or preface is often skipped, but in the middle of a yarn it appears to us that there is a better chance of a certain amount of attention being given to it.

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We would commence with an assertion, such an one as few will be inclined to cavil at: England can only exist as a power of the first class." Her insular position renders an enormous naval force positively necessary, and yet we find that her rulers are disposed to trust entirely to what has passed and gone. The Nile and Trafalgar most assuredly added immensely to her reputation, yet must we not permit ourselves to be blinded by the smoke of

those battles. She must not be suffered to exist in her rank on sufferance-her existence must be in her unmistakable superiority upon the seas.

At present England's naval power (in spite of what may be said from time to time in afterdinner or parliamentary speeches), taken at the outside possible extent, pushed to the utmost, is just sufficient to serve as a protection to herself and hers. That little fact is enough to account for the quiet manner in which she suffers weighty European questions to be settled often against her better judgment, with but a very very feeble remonstrance. That is not the way in which she gained for herself such a great and terrible name; it is not the way to preserve intact her spotless reputation. Has not the Italian business opened the eyes of the people of this country? Let them turn their eyes thitherward and what will they see? Something that they would not have seen in the days of "Boodle" and "Woodburn "-look at Gaeta!

In the case of Italy, England, through her Ministers, proclaimed non-intervention. Very good; yet that might not have been a century since. France, through her Emperor, also shouted non-intervention, but the Frenchman does not stick to his text; a French fleet

appears off Gaeta, where Bomba lays like a rat in his hole. What, then, is the object of their presence, since non-intervention is the order of the day? And why does not England step forward, send her fleet also to the same point, and keep the arena clear for those who have quarrelled to fight it out? France, through her Emperor, wishes to give a moral influence to the King of Naples, and hopes to discomfort his enemies. The Emperor of France knows perfectly well that England dare not interfere with him; that what a century since we could have done as easily as we brush a speck of dirt off our clothes we cannot do to-day; and so what his uncle dare not have done he can do with impunity, and does do, to our utter consternation. That man has power that his uncle never possessed, and yet he carefully follows in the footsteps of his uncle. Surely then it is time for us to wake out of our sleep. We are no alarmist. No. We inveigh bitterly against the disgraceful cowardice and debasing influence of "Panic." We glory in the spirit which has raised a body of brave men available for the protection of our country; but we wish their numbers trebled, ay, quadrupled, as easily might be managed.

Our navy is the sticking point, and there we

are most disgracefully behindhand; and this is a question on which the voice of the nation must be heard. Our army, to the best of our knowledge and belief, is as it should be (the Commander-in-Chief has worked many salutary reforms which bear good fruit); our volunteers are making rapid strides in excellence, astonishing those well calculated to form impartial judgment of them, by their precision and aptitude for military manoeuvres. Our arms and weapons of war are universally acknowledged to be superior to all others; and yet, with all this the First Service in the nation, its mainstay, is disgracefully behindhand. There is an immense falling off, even within the memory of men not yet to be considered old, in its strength; and which renders our supremacy on the seas extremely doubtful. For instance: What was the actual state of our fleet in 1817, and what is it now? Why, in 1857, according to the statement of the then First Lord, it stood as follows: