you are well able to fight your own battles, and your friend's too. Are you willing to give me satisfaction now at once for the insult conveyed in your speech ?"

I replied, "I certainly was quite ready at all times to draw my sword in so good a cause as defending helplessness against violence and wrong!"

So we all proceeded to adjourn to a meadow which lay behind a little Inn on the opposite bank of the Neckar. I forget the name of the Hof, but it was a famous spot for the decision of these matters.

As we were going out we met Ellersly, who reported that his young friend had suffered considerable hurt from lighting, in his fall, on his hip, which was the poor boy's peccant part. Ellersly wanted to withdraw me and take up the quarrel himself,-I never saw his gentle temper flame so high; but I would only permit him to accompany me as a second.

We fougl.. for nearly ten minutes. My adversary had more strength and weight, but I felt I was his superior in activity and in temper, and certainly his equal in skill; he was, nevertheless, very cool, and fenced warily, and more on the defensive, as if biding his time; till I chanced with my sword to inflict a small wound just above his left eye, which appeared to distress him from the blood flowing down and obstructing his sight; his temper, too, was fast failing, while I was becoming cooler every moment. He now lunged at me furiously; when-making use of a trick of fence, taught to me by the old corporal years ago-I struck his sword downwards, traversing my blade with his towards the hilt, and then with a strong and sudden jerk, I made his weapon to fly from his hand several yards to one side. He stood before me looking pale and troubled, with his head down, and his arms crossed on his breast. I immediately sheathed my own sword, and walking over to where his lay on the ground, I picked it up, and presented

it to him, saying, with a bow, that "I hoped our quarrel had fairly been settled, and that we should now be friends." The young men around us cheered this act of mine, clapping their hands; he seemed greatly pleased, and we shook hands and parted. I went over, at Ellersly's desire, to see Von Klein, whose pale face lightened up at seeing me, and who repeatedly kissed my hand in a transport of boyish gratitude. I have reason to believe that he never afterwards met with any annoyance during his sojourn at the University. All this happened, I recollect, on a Monday. I was greatly depressed all the week. I was thoroughly angry with Miss Cardonald. Her silence was hard to be borne; and when she did write, the few and frigid lines too plainly betrayed the indifference of the writer to her correspondent; and I felt that any regard she might have had for me was becoming gradually extinguished; while in my own breast pride and resentment were assuming the place where love had been. I spent all this week taking long walks through the neighbourhood, "chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancies;" but the gall prevailed. Yet amidst the fermentations of my mind, reason was working itself into clearness, and resuming its throne. But on Thursday came a few lines from M'Clintock, bearing an old date, and saying that my uncle had been ill now for a fortnight, and advising my immediate return (I had received no Darragh letters for three weeks). Dreadfully shocked, grieved, and alarmed, I prepared every thing to start for home next day. But on my going to the Post-office the following morning, I saw my cousin Gilbert's handwriting on a letter to me, sealed with black wax. I broke it open— a mist rose, as if from its pages, before my swimming eyes. I gave a cry; and staggering against a shop door, I fell on the street for I had seen in the letter that my uncle was dead!

Or the half million of spectators of the recent magnificent and unparalleled Naval Review, not one, probably, beheld the close of the pageant with any feeling of doubt as to whether Britannia yet rules the

waves, nor whether the old lady has any, the remotest, intention of relinquishing her trident for a distaff. The spectator's pride in the wooden walls of Britannia, and his confidence that she requires no other bulwark, inasmuch as "her march is o'er the mountain wave, her home is on the deep," must have been a thousand-fold confirmed, and he might apostrophise his country in the words of Cowper :—

-

Mistress, at least while Providence shall please,

And trident-bearing Queen of the wide seas!

Or he might exclaim, with Shakspeare

Let us be back'd with God, and with the

seas,

Which He hath given for fence impregnable, And with their helps alone defend ourselves;

In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies.

Grand and truthful lines are these! Ay, and whoever has a spark of true British patriotism in his bosom must proudly endorse the old remark, that the Sovereign of these favoured Isles should receive the ambassadors of foreign powers-on the quarter-deck of a first-rater ! Yes, Britain's strength and defence in the past was, in the present is, and in the future must and will be, her oak leviathans. They are her shield and her impregnable bulwark ; they are her pride and her glory; they are her ministers of vengeance wherever oceans and seas upheave their waters; they are

The armaments which thunder-strike the walls

Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quake, And monarchs tremble in their capitals

as our late colossal enemy is bitterly cognizant !

And now we propose to have a little Naval Review of our own, by the aid of sundry old books, and divers private manuscript notes and memoranda. We shall not seize you by the button, and, like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, compel you to unwillingly listen to our narrativeyou are free to go or stay, to hearken in a genial mood, or to imitate the deaf adder, as you list. But we really think that the subject of our gossip is such that, albeit you may already be partially familiar with the details, you can hardly fail to be interested if you are a true-born Briton; for it is of the rise and progress of our glorious navy that we shall succinctly discourse.

The limit of a single article will oblige us to greatly condense our stores of information, and to be brief even when we would willingly linger and amplify. We, therefore, shall only lightly glance at the rise of our down to the time of Henry navy, VII., in whose reign it first became an established royal institution and service. We may very fittingly preface our discourse, by referring to instructive the entertaining and pages of quaint old Purchas, from whose "commendations of navigation, as an art worthy the care of the most worthy; the Necessitie, Commoditie, Dignitie thereof," we extract the following sagacious and pertinent sayings "The sea covereth one halfe of this patrimony of manthus should man at once loose halfe his inheritance, if the art of navigation did not enable him to manage this untamed beast, and with the bridle of the winds, and saddle of his shipping, to make him serviceable. Now for the services of the sea, they are innumerable: it hath on it tempests and calmes, to affect and stupefie the subtilest philosopher; sustaineth moveable fortresses for the souldier, mayntayneth, as in our

Island, a wall of defence, and a waterie garrison to guard the State; entertaines the sunne with vapours, the moone with obsequiousnesse, the starres also with a natural looking glasse." Elsewhere, he remarks"How little had we knowne of the world, and the wonders of God in the world, had not the sea opened us a passage into all lands. Pegasus, the winged horse, which (the poets fained) with the stroke of his foot first made Helicon, the muses' well, to spring, was the issue of Neptune, and that snaky-headed monster, Medusa. The mariner seems roughhewen and rude, according to the ocean that breeds him; but he that can play with those dangers which would transforme others into stones, and dares dwell within so few inches of death; that calls the most tempestuous elements his parents; hè, I say, is the true Pegasus, that with his wing-like sailes flies over the world; which hath helped to deliver Andromeda (geography) before chained to the rocks, and ready to be devoured of that monster, Ignorance."

Old chronicles tell us that Alfred the Great had a number of unusually large and powerful galleys constructed expressly to resist the Danes, and to serve only as vessels of war, and thus he certainly formed the nucleus of a navy; but his successors were not so far-sighted, for all our early monarchs, from before the era of the Norman conquest until the time of Henry VII., were accustomed to purchase, hire, or impress merchant vessels whenever they wished to gather together a fleet for warlike purposes. The mariners engaged attended almost solely to the management of the ships, the soldiers on board doing the fighting. Various ports were, indeed, compelled by their charters to keep or provide a certain number of suitable vessels for the national use, whenever required. Thus, the Cinque Ports had to supply fifty-seven ships, each with a crew of twentytwo seamen-from which we may form some idea of their size. When Richard Coeur de Lion went forth as a crusader, he was accompanied by the largest and best appointed fleet ever seen up to that period-numbering in all some three hundred vessels, including about a dozen emphatically called "tall shippes." The size and

66

rig of the vessels at this period were very various, and their names are singular enough, as "dromonds," busses," galliones," vissiers," "schuyts," &c. We happen to have in our note-book a copy of the "Laws and Ordinances" appointed by this king for his navy, which is not only intrinsically curious, but also valuable as being, we believe, the earliest "articles of war," relative to the naval service, extant. We therefore here insert it verbatim :

1. That whoso killed any person on shipboard should be tied with him that was slain, and throwen into the sea.

2. And if he killed him on the land, he should, in like manner, be tied with the partie slaine, and be buried with him in the earth.

3. He that shall be convicted by lawfull witnes to draw out his knife or weapon, to the intent to strike any man, or that hath striken any to the drawing of blood, shall loose his hand.

4. Also he that striketh any person with his hand without effusion of blood, shall be plunged three times in the sea.

5. Item, whoso speaketh any oppro brious or contumelious wordes in reviling or cursing one another, for so oftentimes as he hath reviled shall pay so many ounces of silver.

If he was unable, what would be the alternative punishment?

6. Item, a thiefe or felon that hath stollen, being lawfully convicted, shall have his head shorne, and boyling () pitch powred upon his head, and feathers or down strawed upon the same, whereby he may be knownen, and so at the first landing place they shall come to, there to be cast up.

The above laws are tolerably stringent, and some of them are pleasantly suggestive of the humanity of the good old times. It will be seen by the last ordinance that "tarring and feathering" is by no means a modern punishment, but our Lynch-law friends don't boil their tar before applying it to the victim, nor do they shave his poll to increase the torture.

Even before this early period, England stubbornly claimed what was vaguely called the "sovereignty of the seas," and enforced it by compelling friendly foreign ships to lower their flags or topsails as a token of homage and acknowledgment of navalsupremacy. Two centuries ago the

learned Selden, in his "Mare Clausum," declared that "the English have a hereditary, uninterrupted right to the sovereignty of these seas, conveyed to them from their earliest ancestors, in trust for their latest posterity."

In 1347, Edward III. blockaded Calais with a fleet of seven hundred and thirty-eight vessels, manned by about thirteen thousand seamenlittle more than a score to each sail on an average; and although there is reason to suppose that a few of these vessels were of a very respectable size, yet the majority were not more than thirty to fifty tons burthen each. We may here add that it has not been ascertained precisely when cannon were first used on board English ships, but probably about the latter end of the fifteenth, or early part of the sixteenth century. At any rate, it is certain that for a considerable period after their introduction they were mounted only en barbette, i.e., to fire over the bulwarks. Port-holes in the sides of ships were of later invention. At this period the largest ships had two masts, each with a round top, resembling a huge basket, to sustain cross-bowmen and javelin-men. Cumbrous erections

on the deck forward and aft were called fore-castle and stern-castles— the former name yet being somewhat absurdly retained, although the last vestige of its origin no longer exists on shipboard.*

Henry VII., at the beginning of

his reign, built what was the very first ship of the royal navy, the "Great Harry." She is said to have cost no less than £14,000; equivalent, we presume, to ten times that sum at the present day. She had a very long, if not very glorious existence, and was finally burnt by accident in 1553. Henry VIII. emulated and surpassed his predecessor by building, in 1513, the celebrated "Henri Grace a Dieu," of 1000 tons burthen. This was in all respects a remarkable ship, being not only the largest ever built in England up to that period, but also marking a decided era of progress in the architecture and equipment of men-of-war. She was the first ship fitted with four masts, and also the first three-decker, and the first known to have her cannon mounted at port-holes. Judging by an engraving of this ship before us, she must have been a most picturesque object. Of her eighty guns, which were of all sizes, fifty-four were mounted in two batteries on her broadsides, and the residue on the forecastle, bows, and stern. The lower battery was much too near the water to be of any service except in a calm sea-a fault of construction prevalent to a comparatively recent date. Her stern rose to a very great elevation, and it, and the immense stern-castle, or poop, were profusely carved and decorated. At each corner of the poop, gangways, and forecastle, were round towers, surmounted with a species of cupola. From

enormous

her bows projected an beak or prow, above which rose a bowsprit of a single spar. Each of three of her lower masts supported topmasts and topgallants, but the fourth, or mizzen, had only a light topmast. At the head of each mast were deep round tops. Her mast heads, and the yard arms, are all represented as being adorned with emblazoned flags or ensigns, and streamers.

Bluff King Hal appears to have done much towards the formation of England's royal navy, and he aided maritime enterprise generally, and also greatly encouraged merchants and mariners in various ways. Above all, he was the founder of Woolwich, Deptford, and Portsmouth dockyards, the Trinity House, &c., and he placed the navy on a permanent footing, by establishing an Admiralty and Navy Office, and assigning fixed rates of pay to officers and men. Seamen received five shillings per month. In the last year of his reign the navy numbered more than a hundred ships, their aggregate tonnage being 12,455.

We need not linger over the two succeeding reigns. It is, however, worthy of remark, that in the reign of Edward VI. the three ships sent forth to find a north-east passage to Cathay or China (in other words, our first Arctic expedition) under command of the unfortunate Sir Hugh Willoughby, were built expressly for that adventurous service in an unprecedentedly strong manner, and their keels and bottoms were sheathed with lead. This was at least a step in the right direction, yet it was not improved upon for centuries! It was not until 1761 that a man-of-war (the "Alarm," a 32-gun frigate) was first coppered, and more than twenty years then elapsed ere this highly beneficial innovation became general. How slow were our grandfathers (to go no further back) to adopt even the most obvious improvements! Even

so late as 1833, the often tried but never successful plan of lead sheathing was once more and for the last time used on a man-of-war; but this resuscitation shared the fate of all preceding ones. What is especially worthy of observation, is the fact that the ancient Romans are positively known to have sheathed their

galleys with lead, fastened with copper nails. Solomon was right— nothing new under the sun!

We now come to the reign of King Hal's illustrious daughter, Queen Elizabeth, who, with all her faults and weaknesses, was every inch a truly great sovereign, and therefore we do not marvel at the fact that, in the words of Camden, "she justly acquired the glorious title of the Restorer of Naval Power, and Sovereign of the Northern Seas, insomuch that foreign nations were struck with awe at her proceedings, and were now willing respectfully to court a power which had so lately been the object of their contempt." From the beginning to the end of her long and glorious career, Elizabeth never ceased to do her utmost to strengthen and improve her navy, and with what immense success, the annals of her reign eloquently testify. She made great and beneficial changes in the royal dockyards, and the administration of naval affairs generally; improved the chief ports; caused gunpowder and brass cannon to be of home manufacture; invited able foreign sea captains to enter her service; encouraged maritime enterprise and discovery; and remodelled the Admiralty, raising the salaries of the officers, liberally rewarding merit, and doubling the pay of the seamen, giving them ten shillings per month, and abundant food. The great event of her reign was the defeat of the Spanish Armada, at which momentous crisis this lion-hearted queen exclaimed--"I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and I think foul scorn that Parma, or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the border of my realms; to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I, myself, will take up arms." Heroic and immortal words, these! and spoken not in a spirit of vain boasting, but from the inmost soul. The destinies of the greatest nation on earth were safe in the keeping of such a woman.

About half a century ago, when Napoleon the Great threatened to invade England, a work was officially drawn up from the records in the Tower of London, and printed by command of George III., under title