CONTENTS. PAGE 30, 181 51, 191, 304 STEREOSCOPIC GLIMPSES. BY W. CHARLES Kent. VIII, SHELLEY AT MARLOW IX. YOUNG AT WELWYN X. MILTON AT CRIPPLEGATE MENTELLÉ, THE HUNGARIAN. (A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM MR. CYRUS REDDING) 73 79 .83, 223, 474 THE LUCKIEST DOG ALIVE. BY AN OLD TRAVELLER 203, 351, 467 THE RIFLE MOVEMENT ROUND LAKE SUPERIOR CHADWICK'S LIFE OF DE FOE NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. THE NAVIES OF GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE. THE British navy has hitherto been the pride and glory of the land. History and tradition have combined in prose and song, as well as in the oral legends of remote firesides, to uphold a credit won by hard toil, peril, and suffering, in storm, in ice, in combat, and in all those arduous positions that are inseparable from a seafaring life. It is a disagreeable thing to have to break the complacent illusion that the British navy enjoys an unchallenged superiority over that of all other nations. It is like an outrageous sacrilege upon that one of our household gods which is the most exalted, and which has been so long deemed beyond the reach of the insult of comparison. If, then, we, with others, devote a page or two in dispelling an illusion, let not our object be misunderstood; it is that we should continue to preserve our olden superiority, not by relying on the past, or even upon the existing state of things, solely, but that our means should be adapted to compete with the new circumstances that have arisen, more especially since the introduction of steam. Great Britain still possesses a certain superiority, and she possesses, above all, the elements necessary to ensure pre-eminence. She has the skilled mechanics and trained seamen, she has the rough material, the science to mould, and the means to apply it, all that she wants is the impetus. She cannot be brought to believe in an altered state of things, she lies like a lion in her strength, to be entangled in a mouse's net; she hears over and over again of preparations abroad, she heeds them not; her apathy and indifference are as wondrous as they are unnatural. Who will have to bear the brunt of her anger when she finds how she has allowed herself to be duped and deceived, her island home ravaged, her cubs torn from her, mangled or dead, herself an humbled, spoliated, nameless thing! Let us take one example of the extraordinary and incomprehensible apathy under which the country at present slumbers. The fortifications and dockyard of Cherbourg, although conspicuous among the undertakings prosecuted by the present ruler of France with such unceasing vigour, for the development of the naval power of that country, are not the only works of the kind upon which anxious care and lavish expenditure have been of late bestowed. Cherbourg, Brest, Lorient, Rochefort, Havre, in our vicinity, as well as Toulon, and other minor ports in the Mediterranean, have all lately been much strengthened and enlarged, especially, as it would seem, with regard to the first-mentioned ports, and indeed, to a certain extent, with all, with reference to their serving as starting-points for combined aggressive operations on a gigantic Sept.-VOL. CXVII. NO. CCCCLXV. B scale: 150,000,000 fr. have been allocated for improvements in the port of Havre; 17,000,000 fr. for the port of Dunkirk; 7,000,000 fr. for Dieppe; and 1,800,000 fr. for Fécamp. Similar preparations are being made at St. Malo, Carentan, Isigny, Caen, Calais, and Boulogne. A port of refuge is also being constructed between Brest and Cherbourg, while Brest itself is to be defended by an entirely new system of fortifications. Now, what is this country doing in the face of such manifestly hostile preparations, and that at a time when Sir John Burgoyne, General Shaw Kennedy, and other experienced, far-seeing officers, are calling out for defences for our arsenals, forts, and fortresses, with rifled guns for our ports, and fortifications for the metropolis? Why, voting a ridiculously small and inadequate sum for new fortifications, and enlargement of old fortifications and buildings at Davenport, Alderney, Portsmouth, Portland, and Milford Haven. This is all of the estimates for 1859-60! The press of every country has been teeming lately with detailed accounts of these formidable works, and with speculations as to their meaning, yet has the solution arrived at by all continental observers been least of all attended to by those most concerned. The dawning regeneration of French and Russian naval power, and the relative subsidence of that of England, has been long spoken of as an assumed thing on the Continent as one of the results of the introduction of steam. Steam is said to have rendered superiority in seamanship of comparatively little importance in the execution of naval evolutions. It is supposed that it will enable the indifferent seamen of France and the soldier-sailors of Russia to compete with the hardy tars of Britain, and it is argued that if, under the altered circumstances, we shall be met on more equal terms in any future war, so, if we do not preserve an absolute numerical superiority in ships and men, we must be content to forego our title to supremacy, and even run the risk of being exposed to invasion by a well-concerted surprise. The commercial world and the general public have been much pleased of late by a proposed general disarmament, and, as a first step, it is said that the ships of the division Fourrichon, the armament of which has just been completed at Brest, are to be placed in port commission; the same order extending to four frigates and to the vessels of the squadron commanded by Admiral Bouet-Villaumez. It is to be observed that in France there are three conditions in which the vessels of the navy are maintained they are either commissioned, that is, fully manned and provided, not only with the materials of war, but also with all the necessary provisions for the crews; or they are placed in port commission, that is, supplied with the former but not the latter requisites, while the hands are permitted to go about their business, but may, like soldiers, be recalled at any short notice; or lastly, the vessels are denuded of everything and laid up in ordinary. Now, it is almost unnecessary to say that the expense of stripping a ship-not only of provisions, but also of ammunition-and of supplying her with these when required, is so great, and is an affair requiring so much time, that it may be safely inferred that, if the French government should lay up many ships in ordinary, it will be a clear and undoubted proof that the hope of peace and the wish to maintain it are strong and secure. If, on the contrary, we find that the |