10. Von diesem Hügel können wir nach unserm Vaterlande hinübersehen. | 11. Wie ist der Dieb in Ihr Haus gekommen? 12 Eduard stürzte sich von dem Felsen hinab. 13. Ich werde diesen Morgen an Ihrem Hause vorbeikommen, und werde hineinkommen, ohne daß Sie mich bitten, solches zu chun.

EXERCISE 50 (Vol. I., page 259).

1. Will the aged soldier go to-day in the forest? 2. He will go, but he cannot to-day, because he has much to do. 3. The man-servant is gone into the market to fetch meat. 4. To remain healthy, one must live orderly and temperately. 5. The woodcutter has gone into the forest to cut wood. 6. The butcher goes from one village to the other to buy oxen. 7. He goes from one village to the other, but can find no oxen. 8. What does he want with the oxen ? 9. He means to kill them; we must indeed have meat. 10. The peasant has two horses, which the brewer wishes to buy. 11. I go to the city to buy a hat or a cap. 12. He has books to read, and an exercise to write. 13. Where does your brother's friend wish to go? 14. He wishes to go nowhere, he wishes to remain with his uncle. 15. Will you go upon the high mountain? 16. I shall go there, but not to-day. 17. Can you go tomorrow into the country? 18. I can go there, but I will not. 19. When does your father want his horses back again? 20. He must have them to-morrow morning, because he wishes to drive to-morrow evening to Frankfort. 21. Why will he not ride there? 22. Because he has no good saddle-horse, and the weather is very cold.

EXERCISE 51 (Vol. I., page 259).

1. Es ist heute zu kalt für ihn, um nach Frankfurt hinüberzugehen. 2. Dort läuft der Hase über den Berg. 3. Da fährt Ihr Bruder. 4. Der Zuckerbäcker ist in die Backstube gegangen, um Brod zu backen. 5. Der Mezger geht auf den Markt, um Schafe zu kaufen. 6. Ihr Kutscher hat mich schnell hierher gefahren. 7. Sehen Sie jenen Mann auf dem Pferde, welches wir gestern jahen? 8. Die Soldaten reiten auf schönen Pferten. 9. Man sagt, in diesen Kutschen fährt man bequem. 10. Wir find in Ihrem Wagen gefahren, um unsere Visiten abzustatten. 11. Übertritt nicht das Gesetz. 12. Das neue Dampfboot fährt heute zum ersten Male den Fluß hinunter.

EXERCISE 52 (Vol. I., page 260).

1. This hunter has a fine dog, mine is finer, and yours is the finest of all. 2. The earth is smaller than the sun, and the stars are more distant than the moon. 3. Virgil is a more agreeable writer than Ovid. 4. The city of Canton is larger than Paris. 5. Alexander the Great had less prudence than courage. 6. We find much more copper than silver, and more iron than tin. 7. This girl prattles more than she works. 8. The air in the towns is more impure than the country air. 9. France is not so fertile as Germany. 10. This youth has not as much understanding as his brother, but neither has he as much vanity. 11. The rose is one of the finest flowers in the world. 12. Those are commonly the least proud, whose minds are the most educated. 13. The manners of those with whom we have intercourse are commonly influential upon us. 14. The benefits that we are worthy of are more agreeable to us than those we are unworthy of. 15. He is the richest man whose children are virtuous. 16. The Lord has no pleasure in those people who have no love to their brothers. 17. The apple-tree has a thick trunk, the beech has a thicker trunk, and the oak has the thickest trunk. 18. The more he has, the more he wants. 19. Florence is finer than Parma.

HISTORIC SKETCHES.-XXV. ADMIRAL BYNG ON THE 14TH OF MARCH, 1757. "EVERY person in the fleet who, through cowardice, negligence, or disaffection, shall in time of action withdraw or keep back, or not come into the fight or engagement, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every ship which it shall be his duty to engage every such person so offending, and being convicted thereof by the sentence of a court-martial, shall suffer death." This was the article of war upon which the life and honour of Admiral John Byng were given in charge to a naval court-martial on the 28th of December, 1756. The trial took place on board the St. George, in Portsmouth harbour, under circumstances of unusual excitement. All England was smarting under a sense of the disgrace which the conduct of the prisoner had appeared to bring upon it, and there was a universal cry for investigation. The populace were deeply imbued with the spirit which actuated all ranks, from the king downwards, and as Admiral Byng was brought to Portsmouth from Greenwich, under the escort of a strong guard, he was insulted in every town and village he passed through.

It is, happily, an event of most rare occurrence when a British

officer's courage is called in question; and it is a matter of satisfaction that in this case of Admiral Byng the personal courage of the accused was admitted to be unsullied. But the way in which he had conducted himself in the Mediterranean, when not his own honour only, but that of the kingdom also, was entrusted to his keeping, was said to have been such as greatly to tarnish the national glory. What that conduct was, and the result of it to the man most concerned, will be shown in this sketch.

In 1755 war, which had for a long time threatened, broke out Various indecisive between England and France and Spain. actions had been fought between the ships of the several countries, and a few collisions took place between detached bodies of troops; but there were not any operations on a large scale till in the early part of 1756 the French determined on reducing the island of Minorca, which was held by General Blakeney for the British. All the previous winter they had been secretly preparing for the enterprise, though they had skilfully concealed the aim and objects of it. Indeed, until February, 1756, the British Ministers were not aware that the expedition was meant for any place in the Mediterranean, but fancied that the British possessions in North America were the destination. Convinced, however, at this time, of the actual designs of the French, the Government took steps, albeit tardily, to frustrate them.

A squadron of ten ships of the line was fitted out, and the command was given, on the 1st of April, to Admiral Byng, with instructions to proceed forthwith to Gibraltar, and to inquire there whether the French fleet from Toulon had passed the strait. If they had, he was to detach Admiral West, his second in command, with a portion of the fleet, to North America, where it was still supposed a blow would be struck. If they had not, he was "to go on without a moment's loss of time to Minorca." Failing to meet the enemy's fleet there, he was to go to Toulon, and blockade it in that port. He was also to use his utmost, diligence to protect Minorca and Gibraltar.

As soon as he found what work was marked out for him, Admiral Byng complained to the Admiralty of the inadequacy of the force assigned to him. He had not a single frigate for reconnoitring or signalling purposes; the ships he had were foul, the crews weak both in number and health; and there were not any marines on board of them, that valuable arm of service having been withdrawn in order to make room for a regiment of soldiers he was to take to Minorca, and for another he was to pick up at Gibraltar. The only answer he received from the Admiralty was an order to proceed, and on the 7th of April he put to sea.

Owing to the foulness of his ships, on the sides and bottoms of which weed had so collected as to impair most materially their sailing qualities, the admiral did not reach Gibraltar till the 2nd of May, and there he found there were not enough stores to replenish his squadron, and that the governor would not part with the regiment which Byng had been instructed to take from him to Minorca. While lying in Gibraltar Bay, the news reached him that a fortnight before the French admiral, with a strong fleet, had appeared off Fort Mahon, Minorca, and had landed the Duc de Richelieu, with an army of 16,000 men, to besiege the place. The governor of Minorca was away (General Blakeney, eighty-two years of age, was deputygovernor), and there were many of the officers of the garrison on leave of absence; the fortress of St. Philip, though very strong, was very ill supplied; and there was not any assistance from Nature, in the shape of rugged cliffs or difficult beaches, to defend the place. General Blakeney did his best to prepare for the siege, with his 3,000 men against 16,000 of the enemy. Under these circumstances Admiral Byng's instructions "to go on without a moment's loss of time to Minorca" should unquestionably have been acted on to the very letter, yet the admiral waited in Gibraltar Bay till the 8th of May, and did not sight Minorca till the 19th.

Though the British flag was still flying from the citadel of Port Mahon, the place was closely invested. The Duc de Richelieu was pressing the siege with all his power, and M. de la Galissonière, the French admiral, was cruising off the island with a fleet about equal in strength to the British admiral's. General Blakeney had sunk some vessels at the mouth of the harbour to prevent the French fleet getting in, and so succeeded in relieving himself from the fire of the ship's guns; but by

this act he also closed the harbour against succours, at least until the French fleet should be driven away. To drive it away was the manifest business of the British admiral, and on the morning of the 20th of May, the day after his arrival, Byng gave the signal to bear down and engage the enemy. The number of ships was equal on both sides, though the French had twentyfour guns more than the British; but in point of numbers of men, the French exceeded their opponents by nearly 3,000. Still there was no reason why the battle should not take place, and accordingly, in obedience to orders from the commander-inchief, Admiral West began the action by falling on to the French ships immediately opposed to his division. Soon after two o'clock in the afternoon, by which time West had driven one of the French ships out of line, Byng's division was about to come into action, when a series of accidents conspired to embarrass the commander, who did not prove himself superior to them. The Intrepid, of West's division, had so much of her rigging shot away, that she became unmanageable, and drifted foul of some of the other ships. Byng's line was thrown into confusion, and his own ship, the Ramillies, was obliged, in consequence, to bring up.

M. de la Galissonière took advantage of the circumstances to discontinue the fight, and Byng believing, as he asserted afterwards, that the French fleet would renew the fight next morning, ordered his ships to lie to, in order to repair the Intrepid, Captain, and Defiance, which had been so mauled as to incapacitate them for further service until they had been repaired. Next morning at daybreak, the French fleet not appearing, he called a council of war, and took their opinion as to whether he should follow the French fleet and bring it again to action, or whether he should leave Minorca to its fate, and go to the protection of Gibraltar, which might be, though it was not, threatened. For reasons which it is difficult to trace even now, the council was unanimous in recommending that Minorca, which the admiral had been sent out specially to protect, should be abandoned, and that Gibraltar should be the admiral's care. There seems to have been an idea that, do what they could, the citadel of St. Philip could not be delivered from the numerous enemy which was besieging it; and it does not seem to have been considered that if the French fleet could have been defeated, succours might have been thrown into the place, and that the French, blockaded on the sea-side, would have been placed between two fires, and the besiegers turned into the besieged, In an evil hour Admiral Byng acted on the advice of his council of war, and gave orders for the fleet to proceed to Gibraltar. On his arrival there, on the 19th of June, he found five ships of the line awaiting his orders, having been sent out by the Admiralty to counterbalance a reinforcement which it was understood was about to join M. de la Galissonière from Toulon. With this unexpected addition to his strength, he resolved to go back to Minorca, find out the French fleet, and try to execute his original instructions. But he delayed his departure, possibly unavoidably, but the delay was fatal to Port Mahon. Notwithstanding the odds against him, which included not only the army of the Duc de Richelieu but the returned French fleet with reinforcements under M. de la Galissonière, General Blakeney refused to take the same desperate view of his position as had been taken by Admiral Byng; and he held out for more than five weeks after the departure of the fleet. Even his enemies, though annoyed by his resistance, admired it; and when, towards the end of June, he found no succour coming, and that the garrison were much straitened for stores and weakened through sickness, he proposed to capitulate, the French granted him terms that were honourable to both sides alike. On the 29th of June Minorca was surrendered to the Duc de Richelieu, and on the 3rd of July, when Admiral Byng was thinking of starting from Gibraltar to relieve it, he was surprised by the arrival of Admirals Hawke and Saunders to supersede him and Admiral West in the command of the Mediterranean fleet.

A distinction was made between the cases of the two admirals even before they reached England, and when they did arrive, Admiral West was looked upon as the man who, by his conduct on the 20th of May, had saved the national honour from irredeemable disgrace. He was graciously received, and at the request of the king another command was given to him. Admiral Byng, however, was at once arrested, and the Ministers, against whose incapacity and sheer mismanagement the

popular voice had long exclaimed, determined to let him be the scapegoat for the popular fury. There was a cry for blood, the king, whose one virtue was courage, and who cordially hated the bare appearance of cowardice, being among the most violent in urging the demand. It was resolved to bring the admiral to trial before a court-martial; and there was, it is to be feared, a strong predetermination to show no mercy in the event of the prisoner being found guilty. The trial began on the 28th of December, 1756, and lasted many days, and then the members of the court came to a resolution that Admiral Byng had not done his utmost to relieve the citadel of St. Philip, and that he fell under part of the twelfth article of the existing articles of war.* As that article prescribed death as the only punishment for breach of any of the rules laid down therein, and left not any discretionary power to the court to moderate the punishment according to the circumstances of the case, the court had no choice but to pass sentence of death. That sentence was accordingly given, and the prisoner was condemned to be shot to death at such time, and on board of such ship as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty should please to direct. It appeared, however, upon the evidence of those who had the fullest opportunity of judging-the evidence of officers and men, who had stood close to the admiral during the action on the 20th of May-that there was no imputation whatever upon his personal courage or coolness, that he gave his orders easily, and that he made no effort to screen himself from the enemy's fire. From other circumstances it also appeared that what had happened could not be attributed to personal cowardice or disaffection; and it was only on condition of a unanimous recommendation to mercy, that the minority in the court agreed to find a verdict of guilty on the charges. The court found specially that the admiral was not guilty of cowardice or disaffection, and as to the negligence charged, they wrote to the Admiralty as follows:-"We cannot help laying the distresses of our minds before your lordships on this occasion, in finding ourselves under necessity of condemning a man to death, from the great severity of the twelfth article of war, part of which he falls under, which admits of no mitigation if the crime should be committed by an error in judgment; and therefore, for our own consciences' sake, as well as in justice to the prisoner, we pray your lordships in the most earnest manner to recommend him to His Majesty's clemency."

Nothing could have been stronger than this. The papers were forwarded to the king, but without any recommendation from the Admiralty. Viscount Torrington, the prisoner's kinsman, petitioned the king for mercy, and several of the Cabinet Ministers advised to the same end. The people had grown calmer, and on further reflection deemed that the Govern ment which had sent the admiral away with an insufficient force was more to blame than the admiral, and the cry for Byng's blood was considerably lessened--indeed, it began to be thought by many that the admiral was an ill-used man The king, however, was inexorable; he would not be moved by petitions, recommendations, or anything else; he consented to refer to the twelve judges the question, whether on technical grounds the sentence was legal; and having obtained an answer in the affirmative, nothing would induce him to spare Byng's life.

It seems that Byng had, until a day or so before the close of his trial, entertained the conviction that he would be acquitted. Conscious of his own innocence, he felt persuaded his judges would end by also thinking him innocent, and he expresse-I considerable surprise when a friend informed him of the sentence he might expect. Even after his condemnation he seems to have believed his life would be spared, and this belief was shared by almost every one else except the king and those wis were bent on screening the Government at the expense of the individual. But a warrant was sent down to Portsmout from the Admiralty (Admiral Forbes, one of the commissioners, refused to sign it), ordering Byng's execution for the 28th of February, and then the terrible earnestness of the prosecnation was made manifest. Even then, however, efforts were

This article was modified in the time of George III., so as to admit of a less punishment for negligence, or error in judgment; and Es the present articles of war, an officer, convieted as Admiral Byng would be dismissed the service with disgrace.

inverted, dicotyledonous; embryo straight, corresponding with the axis of fleshy albumen; radicle superior.

The Selaginaceae, so named after the genus Selago, are low shrubs, rarely herbs, having alternate or fasciculated leaves, simple and without stipules; their flowers are complete and generally irregular, either disposed in a corymb or a spike; calyx persistent, tubular, or spathose; corolla with four or five divisions, imbricated in æstivation; the anthers are unilocular; the ovary is composed of two uniovulate cells; ovules pendent, reflexed. Most of the Selaginaceae inhabit the Cape of Good Hope. This family does not possess marked properties, nevertheless many species are odorous. The Hebenstreitia dentata, cultivated in our gardens, is a shrub about two feet high, with pinnatifid leaves in the lower, dentated leaves in the upper part of the plant. The flowers have a tubular corolla, one single lip, marked with a roseate purple spot; the flowers are inodorous in the morning, but strong and disagreeable at mid-day, whilst in the evening they exhale a delicious perfume. The Selago spuria has small oblong leaves and light-blue flowers. The stem of the Selago Gillii is flower-bearing and branched, having its flowers, which are of a pale rose-colour, disposed in the form of a loose spikelet. A repre

this plant is appended in

Fig. 197.

The Globu

laria form ก genus of the

natural order Selaginaceœ. They are shrubs, or under shrubs, or perennial herbs; their flowers are alternate, simple, entire, devoid of stipules; flowers complete, irregular, united into a capitulum upon a convex receptacle, covered with hair, and surrounded with an involucrum ; anthers are first bilocular, and in the young flower become unilo

the

cular by the

confluence of

their cells;

SECTION LIII.-UTRICULARLE. Characteristics: Calyx free; corolla hypogynous, monopetalous, irregular; stamens two, inserted upon the tube of the corolla; fruit capsular; placenta parietal, free; seeds numerous, exalbuminous; radicle straight; all aquatic herbs. The Utricularia derive their name from their principal genus

Utricularia, which is so called from the presence of abundant aërial vesicles distributed over the surface of their subaqueous leaves. These utriculi are rounded in shape and furnished with a kind of movable aperture. Whilst the plant is young these little bladders are filled with mucus a little heavier than water, which, acting as a weight, canse the plant to descend to the bottom of the water. As the period of flowering arrives, the utriculi secrete a gas which fills them, makes them specifically lighter, and thus, by lessening the spe cific gravity of the leaves, causes them to rise to the water's surface. No sooner has the period of flowering terminated, than the vesicles begin once more to secrete the heavy mucous fluid, and the leaves again sinking, the plant arrives at its original situation, and deposits its seeds in the subaqueous mud, there to remain until they germinate and produce young plants. (Fig. 199, 200, 201.)

This family is distributed over the entire world, although chiefly found in tropical regions of the old continents.

SECT. LIV.PLANTAGINACEE, OR RIBWORTS. Characteris tics: Calyx free; corolla

hypogynous, monopetalous; stamens inserted проп the corolla or upon the re ceptacle alternate with the petals; ovary

one or two celled, uni- or multi-ovulate; fruit one or many seeded; Beed dicotyle donous; bryo straight or but alightly curved in the axis of a fleshy albumen; ra dicle inferior. The plantainsare perennials, generally herbaceous;

The Globularia are inhabitants of Southern Europe. The bitter leaves of certain species are employed in medicine. The Globularia Alypum (Fig. 198) was formerly denominated Frutex terribilis, in consequence of the belief that it was violently drastic. Its leaves are the "wild senna" of Germany, and are frequently used to adulterate the genuine senna.

stipules; flowers complete, sometimes monoecious, arranged sometimes in the form of a spike, sometimes solitary, or almost solitary; calyx monosepalous, persistent, with four divisions, the divisions almost equal with each other; corolla tubular or urceolate, its limb four partite, regular or almost regular, persistent; imbricated in æstivation; stamens four in number. The ovary is composed of a single carpel, but apparently two or four-celled; ovule simple, erect, reflexed.