AN illustrious American authorJames Fenimore Cooper-was, once upon a time, tempted to lay aside his well-worn novelist's pen, and grasp that of a historian, the result being the production of a certain book which is said-for we have only read extracts -to smack racily enough of the more familiar and congenial occupation of its great author. In this book, Mr. Cooper (who was a warm patriot, although his own countrymen ungratefully ignored the fact, and repeatedly subjected him to shameful persecution for merely hinting at their faults, if we are rightly informed) promulgates the very startling opinion, "that it is not improbable the battle for the mastery of the seas will have to be fought over again!!!" Such a sentence as this, written by so eminent a man as Cooper, is enough to make any intelligent subject of Queen Victoria thoughtful and enquiring. The plain meaning of the words lies in a nutshell. Whenever the United States again tackle the Old Country, her navy will grapple with ours, to settle the problematical question whether the Star and Stripes are to flutter o'er the Union Jack; the American eagle to flap its wings and scream with triumph over the prostrate British lion; the nervous arm of young Jonathan to snatch the trident from the feeble grasp of the superannuated old lady who figures on the

reverse of the copper coins of this realm; and Yankee Doodle (or Hail Columbia) to supersede Britannia Rules the Waves! Food for thought, my merry masters! Reflect, perpend, an' ye will or can, what the worldwide result would be were we compelled to put forth all our colossal naval strength to contend for our very birthright-our hitherto undisputed naval supremacy-with our own vigorous offspring on t'other side the Great Herring Pond! By'r lady! the very idea of such a contest makes our beard bristle and our nostrils expand, and we involuntarily ejaculate, Ha! Ha!

No one can appreciate the first-rate merit of Fenimore Cooper as a naval writer better than ourselves; no one has more cordially recognized his stupendous powers; no one has (we are bold to say) done more ample justice to him as being not merely a great author, but incomparably the ablest naval novelist any country has yet produced; and therefore we trust we shall be acquitted of all prejudice when we deliberately express our opinion that his patriotism as American, and his habits as a writer of fiction, combined to dazzle and mislead his judgment when he penned the extraordinary and portentous sentence we have above quoted.* We shall weigh it in the balance!

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In the course of this article we

VOL. XLVIII. -NO. CCLXXXV.

shall endeavour to show solid reasons why there is no likelihood whatever to anticipate a deadly struggle for the mastery of the seas between Great Britain and her transatlantic offspring. We write this at a time when there is a chip out" between the two countries. We learn, however, that matters are in course of rational adjustment without any worse result than some temporary irritation and vapouring.

We hope this is so. Heaven forbid that a fratricidal war should ever again ensue between Great Britain and the Great Republic-nations of the same lineage and language, foremost champions of liberty and civilization, and closely united by a thousand bands of the strongest mutual interest and sympathy. A war between them would be nearly as criminal and insane as a duel between a father and son, or brothers, and could only result in the most awful mutual injuries; the cause of civilization and progress would receive a deadly blow, and all the despotisms of the world would exult at the spectacle of the two great divisions of the Anglo-Saxon race fighting each other like tigers instead of being linked in amity. Hand in hand, the United States and Great Britain may defy all the despotic powers to assail them, or to impede their glorious career. As nations they are the salt of the earth, the pioneers of progress, and the bulwarks of liberty. Were it possible for them to lose their present prestige, what a deluge of tyranny and unutterable misery would flood the earth! 'Tis true that Providence for inscrutable reasons occasionally permits nations, as well as individuals, to be blinded with passion and moral madness, and therefore it is certainly possible that a conflict may eventually ensue between the two countries; and however distressing it is to contemplate even the possibility of such an event, yet it would be both weak and reprehensible to shirk the matter, for danger can neither be postponed nor evaded merely by shutting our eyes and affecting to ignore its existence.

It is, we believe, an unquestionable fact that the American flag was hoisted for the first time on board ship, by a Briton born. In 1775, the celebrated Paul Jones with his own hands hoisted the flag of the United States on board the Alfred-that vessel being one of the small squadron raised by order of Congress, and fitted out under the direction of Jones, who was appointed commander of one of the vessels, a Captain Hopkins becoming commodore of the squadron. The fact that a home-born British subject --for such Paul Jones was, in spite of having bitterly forsworn allegiance to his native land-first hoisted the American flag on shipboard is remarkable enough in itself; but, taken in connexion with the history of the United States navy down even to the present day, it is exceedingly significant-not to say ominous. We shall speak more explicitly on this point, bye-and-bye.

The memory of Paul Jones is warmly cherished by the Americans, and held by them in the highest honor. Not many years ago, as we are informed by a nautical friend, they dispatched a frigate to France to receive his remains, which were conveyed to America for re-interment - a somewhat ostentatious and unnecessary act, to our thinking; for we are not aware that Jones himself, when dying at Paris, expressed the slightest desire to be buried in the soil of that country he had served so well. But we entirely agree with the Americans in their opinion that Paul was one of the ablest naval commanders who have borne their flag. He was much more. He was beyond compare the most brilliant seaman who ever served the United States; and all their other naval "heroes"-such as Commodores Decatur, Rodgers, Hull, Bainbridge, and Co.-are unworthy of being placed for a moment on the same pedestal with him. They made prizes of British frigates so interior in force to the vessels they commanded, that the "glory" thereby accruing to the Stars and Stripes was of a very questiona

ble character; but Paul Jones, by his own marvellous skill and indomitable prowess, won victories under the most adverse circumstances-victories which would have reflected the highest honor on any navy in the world. Thus it is that he deservedly fills the foremost place in the annals of the American navy; and as, even to this day, the character of this wonderful man is imperfectly appreciated by many, and probably misunderstood by the majority of the British public, it will not be out of place if we digress a little to briefly record our own impressions of him, derived from a study of all the facts of his career which we have gathered from various sources.

One of the choice literary treasures we possessed in our boyhood was a sixpenny pamphlet or chronicle of the life and blood-thirsty exploits of "Paul Jones, the Scotch Pirate," (for so he was designated on the title page, with a noble disregard of any possible extenuating circumstances), embellished with a large and brilliantlycolored frontispiece, representing the aforesaid "Paul Jones shooting his first lieutenant in the act of striking his [P. J.'s] colors." How we used to gloat over that magnificent and soulstirring work of art! How we read and re-read, with profound, child-like, unquestioning faith, the veracious biography itself, which depictured Paul Jones as a most atrocious traitor, miscreant, murderer, and monster incarnate! To the very best of our recollection there was hardly a possible (or impossible) crime of which this villainous Scotch pirate, demon, &c., had not been repeatedly guilty!

What especially confirmed our belief in this absurd farrago, was the circumstance that on a visit to the museum at Hull we there beheld with dilated eyes an oblong iron shot,* bearing an inscription testifying that it was fired by Paul Jones at Scarborough Castle, in the year 1779. Yes, and did not our own truthful little book minutely relate how Paul Jones captured the " Serapis," and the "Countess of Scarborough" somewhere off Flamborough Head, and also wickedly amused himself by trying the range of his murderous guns off Scarborough? Here, then, was a material guarantee of the unimpeachable accuracy of the biography, in the shape of an oblong iron shot that had perhaps been rammed in the gun by the blood-reeking hands of the mis creant Scotch pirate himself! thousand per cent. did the chronicle rise in our estimation! Money would not have purchased it--nothing would have shaken our faith in it. Alas! for the bright innocent days of our youth, when we believed in all we read! In sober seriousness let us add that a generation or two ago the British public really regarded Paul Jones as the monster of iniquity he was circumstantially described to be in the above and kindred "biographies," and probably many people even yet entertain a somewhat similar opinion.

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A few years subsequently (by which time a good many of the ideals of our boyhood had been annihilated) we read Cooper's grand fiction, the "Pilot," and in the hero, Paul Jones, we could not recognize a single familiar feature of our own Scotch pirate!+

About sixteen years

Another fiction, by Allan Cunningham, also has Paul Jones for its hero, and canny Allan is said to have taken wild license with historical facts. Cooper has moreover written a history of the life of Paul Jones; a second biography was produced by Mr. Sherburne, Register of the United States navy; and a third (probably the best of all) was anonymously published at Edinburgh, aud is founded on Paul Jones's own private letters, journals, documents, &c., in the possession of his surviving relatives in Scotland. Thus there is in the aggregate sufficient evidence to enable an impartial and unprejudiced writer to arrive at a fair estimate of the character of the man who, for more than half a century, was generally stigmatized as an "atrocious traitor," and "a blood-thirsty pirate" in Great Britain, and eulogized as a "distinguished hero" in America, the country of his adoption, who commenced life as a cabin-boy, and died an American Commodore, and a Russian Rear-Admiral!

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What then is our own mature deliberate opinion of Paul Jones? We will give it in a few sentences. He had many admirable qualities, and many grave faults. He gifted with transcendant abilities as a naval commander (though he perhaps would not have been a first-rate admiral), his brilliant courage verged on desperation; his skill as a seaman was admirable; his energy was sleepless; his judgment in all things connected with his profession was of the highest order; and, to crown all, he was a self-taught, self-made man. He was keen in prosecuting his rights in money matters, although by no means avaricious, but to the reverse generous and liberal to a notable degree. In some respects he was a worldly prosaic man, but in others he was romantic, sentimental and chivalrous. He always was prone to excessive personal vanity, and during the latter years of his chequered life he rendered himself pitiably ridiculous by setting up for a fine gentleman and courtier.

It is painful and humiliating to read how insipidly foppish he became at Paris-he, the formidable sea-king, whose name had struck terror along the coasts of the greatest maritime nation in the world; he who in many an awful sea-fight had shown himself the very beau ideal of nautical skill, prowess, and indomitable valour Of his conduct in devoting his sword to the United States there will be opposite opinions on either side the Atlantic; but the malignant, renegado-like, relentless hatred he continually expressed against his native land, and his partially successful attempts to ravage English ports and burn their shipping admit of no palliation. All the waters of the Mississippi cannot wash out this damuing stain from his memory. No words are too strong to express our abhorrence of such facts. A malison from the heart of all true patriots will ever uprise at the idea that Paul Jones deliberately planned, and partially executed, a scheme to destroy the English port (Whitehaven) whence he had sailed as a sea-apprentice in his youth! To us there is something inexpressibly diabolical and revolting in the thought that this man, albeit in many respects noble, heroic, and worthy of admiration, yet was 80 fiendish in his hatred to his native land, that he actually availed himself of the local knowledge he had acquired in his youth (when honestly and honorably learning his profession of a seaman in the merchant service) to attack the port and fire the shipping at Whitehaven! Again we say, a malison on such devilish acts! We yield to none-not even to his warmest American admirer-in keen appreciation of his stupendous abilities as a seaman, and his unsurpassed daring and valour as a warrior; but all our admiration, and all our sympathy, cannot blind us to the damning fact that Paul Jones was a villain of the worst stamp as regards his inalienable allegiance to his native land. Let that great American author-let Fenimore Cooper gloss over Paul

Jones's atrocious treason to Great Britain, but we will ever testify that it was black guilt! Our malison upon it!

Such, then, is our estimate of the man who may be regarded as the virtual founder of the United States navy (for from the outset he was indefatigable in equipping its war ships, and suggesting means to render this infant navy efficient and formidable for defence and offence); who was the first sea captain who compelled the British flag to strike to that of the Stars and Stripes; and who indubitably was the only commander in the American navy during the war of Independence, who caused that navy to be respected and feared, and who made its flag honored, and a glory to the States of which it was the symbol.

It is not our intention to sketch the origin and history of the United States navy, for however interesting it may be to our American cousins, it would possess comparatively little attraction to the majority of our readers.

We must, however, briefly refer to some events of general interest, in reference to the naval part of the war of Independence. The first British man-of-war engaged with the vessels of Hopkins and Jones, was the “Glasgow" frigate, which fought them bravely, and finally got away, owing to the incompetency of the American commodore. Subsequently to this, Paul Jones himself had repeated engagements with British men-of-war, and acquitted himself as a brave and skilful commander. He also captured several English privateers and armed vessels. On February 13th, 1778, he induced the admiral of a French fleet at Quiberon bay to return his salute, the first salute paid to the American flag by any power; and although a treaty had been concluded about a week previously between the United States and France, this fact was unknown at the time by both the admiral and Paul Jones. In that year the latter made his attack on Whitehaven, &c., and shortly afterwards, in his ship, the "Ranger," he engaged the "Drake," a British sloop-of-war of twenty guns, and in little more than an hour the latter ship was compelled to strike, after sustaining a heavy loss But by far the most notable

battle fought by Jones, and the one which reflected the highest lustre ou the flag of the United States during the war of Independence, was the terrible encounter between Jones's ship "Le Bon Homme Richard," and the British ship "Serapis" of fortyfour guns, resulting in the capture of the latter. We must admit that Paul Jones's ship was an old worn-out hulk (she sank a few hours after the conflict) and that she was very much inferior in weight of metal and in number of men to her antagonist. Moreover, at least three-fourths of her crew were killed or wounded, and the survivors wished to surrender, but their indomitable captain would not hear of such a thing. The glory of this most bloody and desperate sea fight is entirely due to the marvellous resolution and skill of Paul Jones, and it is impossible to withhold our admiration from his behaviour from first to last. The British captain (Pearson) although vanquished, was rewarded with knighthood, and the lieutenant-governorship of Greenwich hospital, for his gallant defence of the Serapis but what reward would not Paul Jones have deserved had he won his murderous victory, fighting against a foreign enemy, instead of his own countrymen! Well, be it as it may, the British flag was struck on this occasion to that of the United States, but let it be borne in mind that not only was Paul Jones a Briton born, but his crew were also generally aliens (to the United States) consisting of French, Maltese, Portuguese, &c., and comparatively only a small number were native Americans. A significant fact!

During the war with the United States in 1812, three successive single ship actions were fought between British and American frigates, and in each case the latter proved victorious. The immediate result was that the Americans indulged in unbounded jubilation, and the British were humiliated, astounded, ay, and almost incredulous; for of course the statement went forth that three British frigates were in turn beaten by American

frigates," whereas the truth was, the latter were line-of-battle ships in disguise. It will be worth while to give here a brief analysis of the respective sizes and complements of the American and English ships in