a few minutes, with thirteen of her own crew and three of the Hornet's, who were engaged in the noble act of striving to save their enemies.

but just as he was making preparations In this, as in all the previous instances for doing so, the foremast of the Java where the Americans had proved sucfell with a tremendous crash, breaking cessful, the superiority on their side in the forecastle and covering the deck, was very decided; but the action and soon after the main-topmast came which ensued was, nevertheless, of the down also; and, to complete their mis- most bloody and destructive kind. It fortunes, Captain Lambert fell, mor- lasted an hour and a half; at the end tally wounded. The command now of which time, the effect of the Ameridevolved on Lieutenant Chads; but he can's fire was such that the Peacock found the vessel perfectly unmanage- was found to be in a sinking state. A able, and the wreck of the masts falling signal of distress was immediately over on one side, almost every dis- hoisted, which was answered with charge set the vessel on fire. Still the praiseworthy humanity by the brave action continued with the most deter-Americans, and every effort was made mined resolution; but at length, after by the crews of both vessels to save it had lasted three hours and a half, the disabled ship. But, notwithstandthe Java was found to be rapidly sink-ing all their efforts, she went down in ing, while the Constitution had assumed a raking position, where every shot told, and not a gun could be brought to bear on her. In these desperate circumstances Lieutenant Chads at length struck; and the vessel was so disabled that, as soon as the crew were taken out, the American captain blew her up. In this desperate and unequal engagement, the Java had twenty-two killed, and one hundred and two wounded;* the Constitution ten killed, and forty wounded. Captain Bainbridge treated the officers most generously, though his conduct to the crew was unnecessarily severe; a conduct which contrasted with that of Captain Hull, the former captain of the Constitution, and Captain Decatur of the United States, who had treated their prisoners of all ranks with the courtesy which is ever the accompaniment of heroic minds.

31. Another action between smaller vessels, but terminating in the same result, took place on the 14th February 1813, between the British sloop Peacock, and the American brig Hornet. * The heroism displayed on both sides in this action never was surpassed. A midshipman, Mr Keele, a boy thirteen years of age, had his leg shot away, and suffered amputation. He anxiously inquired, after the action was over, whether the vessel had struck; and seeing a ship's colour spread over him, the little hero grew uneasy till he saw it was an English flag. He died next day. The boatswain, Mr Humble, had his hand shot and he was wounded above the elbow; away, but no sooner was the tourniquet put on than he hastened on deck, to cheer his com rades with his pipe in boarding.

32. No words can convey an adequate idea of the impression which the successive capture of these three frigates and two sloops made, not only in Great Britain and America, but over the whole civilised world. The triumphs of the British navy, for above a century, had been so uninterrupted, and the moral influence the nation had in consequence acquired had become so prodigious, that it was generally believed, both at home and abroad, that they were invincible, and that no other nation had any chance of success in combating them on the ocean, except with the most decided superiority of force. When, therefore, it was seen that, in repeated instances of combats of single vessels of the same class against each other, the ships of the United States had proved victorious, the English were stunned as by the shock of an earthquake; the Americans were immeasurably, and with good reason, elated; and the other nations in Europe thought they discerned at last the small black cloud arising over the ocean, which was to involve the British maritime power in destruction. The + Comparative force of the combatants :

34. But, admitting the full weight of these circumstances, it was plain that a new era in naval warfare had arisen, since the English came to contend with their Anglo-Saxon brethren on the other side of the Atlantic. The very fact of the comparison which they so anxiously instituted with their American antagonists, and the superiority on the part of the latter, in weight of metal and strength of crews, in the encounters which had taken place, which they justly pointed out, afforded decisive proof of this. With the French and Spaniards, they had been accustomed to look only to the class of

majority of men in the Continental the Admiralty, who anticipated no states, ever governed by the event, and danger from so diminutive a marine incapable of just discrimination, took as that of the United States, though no trouble to inquire whether or not it was well known, and had been the the vessels opposed to each other had subject of anxious solicitude to betbeen equally matched, but joined in ter-informed individuals in the comone universal chorus of exultation at munity.* the defeat of a nation which had so long been the object of their avowed dread and secret jealousy. And it was generally said, apparently not without reason, that a naval power which, with the command only of four frigates and eight sloops, had in so short a time achieved such successes, might look forward at no distant period, when its navy was enlarged, to wresting from Great Britain the sceptre of the ocean. 33. In truth, the succession of disasters, like all calamities which occur in such numbers together as to be obviously beyond the effect of chance, gave much subject for serious reflection, not merely to the heedless multi-vessels, and never to count guns. In tude, but to reflecting statesmen. It was now painfully evident that the English were not invincible on their favourite element; that foresight in preparation, as well as energy in action, were necessary to sustain their fortunes; and that, if these were neglected, they had no exemption from the common lot of humanity. The few who looked beyond the mere surface of things, saw, indeed, to what cause the disasters had been owing. The British government, maintaining a hundred ships of the line, and five hundred smaller vessels actually in commission, and carrying on war at once in every quarter of the globe, could not by possibility man their vessels with the same picked and skilled crews as the Americans, who had merely a few frigates and sloops to fit out from the resources of a great commercial navy. The frigates and brigs of the United States, built with extraordinary skill and in a peculiar manner, to which there was no parallel in the British navy, were at once too swift sailers to be overtaken by ships of the line, and of too heavy metal to be a fair match for frigates nominally of the same class. This peculiarity in the constitution of their vessels had been wholly overlooked by

seamanship, the British sailors, inured to the storms of every quarter of the globe, might justly claim an equality with the Americans, similarly instructed, and a superiority to the mariners of any other country in the globe. But in the practice of gunnery, especially at a distance, it was very evident that they were, at that moment, their inferiors; experience had now proved, that long-continued and unexampled success had produced its wonted effect in relaxing the bands of British naval preparation; and that they had much need to recollect that, in the language of the ancient conquerors of the world, the word for an army was derived from the verb to exercise.Ť

* In 1808, four years before the American war broke out, the author well recollects hearing his uncle, the late Dr Gregory of Edinburgh, who paid uncommon attention to naval affairs, say, "The Americans are building long forty-six gun frigates, which really carry fifty-six or sixty guns; when our forty-fours come to meet them, you will hear something new some of these days." In England, as in every other constitutional monarchy, the intelligence and inforination those of government or public functionaries. of enlightened individuals generally precede If the direction of affairs could be confined to such men, or those whom they can influence, no wise man would object to the

widest extension of the elective franchise. + Exercitus, from exerceo, "to exercise."

35. In this, as in other cases, how- exceptions, in all the departments in ever, it soon appeared, that as much as the British navy.

unbroken prosperity is pernicious, so 36. The good effects of these imoccasional disaster is beneficial to na-provements speedily appeared in the tions, provided only that the patriotic spirit is not extinct in their members, or the generous feelings buried under the weight of selfish indulgence. The surviving officers who had commanded in the vessels which had been taken were all tried by court-martial, honourably acquitted, and immediately after employed anew. This was going to work in the right spirit; there was no attempt to select a second Byng to be the expiatory victim for popular clamour or ministerial neglect. The most vigorous efforts were made by the Admiralty, at once to strengthen the squadrons on the coast of America, and to fit out single ships, which might, from their size, crews, and weight of metal, really be a match for the gigantic frigates which the United States had sent forth to prowl through the deep. Several vessels were commenced on the model of the American frigates and sloops, which had been found by experience so swift in sailing and formidable in action; and secret instructions were given to the commanders of vessels on the North American station, not to hazard an encounter with an opponent nominally of the same class, unless there was something like a real as well as an apparent equality between them. Greater care was, at the same time, taken in the selection of crews: a larger proportion of men was given to the cannon on board; and orders were issued for the frequent exercise of the men in ball practice, both with small arms and great guns, a point of vital importance in naval warfare, but one which had hitherto been in an unaccountable manner neglected, with a very few

next naval actions which ensued. Sir John Borlase Warren, who commanded on the North American station, established a vigilant blockade of the harbours of the United States; their commerce was soon entirely ruined; the immense carrying trade they had so long conducted slipped from their hands;* and such was the consequence of this upon their national finances, which depended almost entirely on custom-house duties, that the public revenue had sunk, since the contest had commenced, from twenty-four millions of dollars annually to eight millions. Paralysed in this manner, in the sinews of war, by the first results of the struggle, the American government were in no condition to augment their expenditure; and notwithstanding the enthusiasm which their glorious successes had excited in the country, no attempt was made by Congress, during the year 1812, to increase their naval force. In the beginning of the next year, however, they passed two acts, the one authorising the building of four seventy-four gun-ships, and four of forty-four; and in March, six additional sloops were ordered to be built for the ocean; and for the lakes, as many as the public service might require. But a very considerable period might be expected to elapse before these vessels could be ready for sea, and meantime their trade was destroyed and the danger imminent. A close blockade of all their harbours was maintained by the British: the bays of the Chesapeake and the Delaware were scoured by Admiral Cockburn at the head of a light squadron fitted out for that purpose; and

* Home produce, and of foreign countries, exported from America:

various landings, by bodies of marines, | rounded by numerous barges and pleawere effected along their shores; which, sure-boats, which, amidst loud cheers, besides doing considerable damage to accompanied her some way out to what their naval stores and arsenals, kept the they deemed a certain victory. Captowns on the coast in a constant state tain Lawrence of the Chesapeake had of alarm. not received Captain Broke's challenge when he stood out; but he was too brave a man to shun an offered combat on equal terms; and such was the confidence which the inhabitants of Boston entertained of his success, that they had prepared a public supper to greet the victors on their return, with their prisoners, to the harbour.

they were opposed to an equal force. | officers in the Chesapeake were woundLoud cheers followed this gallant ap-ed, and Captain Broke, at the head of peal; and the two ships being now not more than a stone-throw asunder, the order was given to the crew of the Shannon to commence firing.

the boarders, leapt upon the Chesapeake's quarterdeck, on which scarcely an American was to be seen. The men quickly following, the seamen on the 39. Slowly, and with deliberate aim, gangways, twenty-five in number, were, the British guns were pointed and dis- after a desperate struggle, overpowered charged successively at the American or driven below, and the second party frigate as she passed, receiving, at the of boarders having now come forward same time, her broadside, which was amidst loud cheers, the hatchways delivered at once, and with great effect. were closed down, and a sharp fire But the Shannon's guns, admirably opened upon the marines in the tops, directed, soon injured the Chesapeake's who kept up a destructive discharge of rigging, as well as made dreadful havoc musketry. The sailors from the Shanamong her men; and after two or three non's fore-yard, headed by Mr Smith, broadsides had in this manner been ex- at the same time forced their way up changed, the Chesapeake, attempting to the Chesapeake's main-yard, and to haul her foresail up, fell on board thence to her tops, which in a few minthe Shannon, whose starboard bower- utes were cleared. Captain Broke at anchor locked with her mizzen channels. this moment was furiously assailed by In this situation the great guns ceased three American sailors, who had prefiring, except the Shannon's two after-viously submitted; he succeeded in parmost guns, thirty-two pounder carronades, loaded with grape and round-shot, which soon beat in the sternports of the Chesapeake, and, sweeping the deck, drove the men from their quarters. For a few minutes a sharp fire of musketry was kept up by the marines on both sides; but ere long Captain Broke, observing that the Americans were not standing to their guns, ordered the two ships to be lashed together, and the boarders to be called up from below. Mr Stevens, the Shannon's boatswain, a veteran who had fought in Rodney's action, immediately set about making the ships fast, outside the Shannon's bulwark; and while so employed, he had his left arm, which held on to the enemy's rigging, hacked off by repeated sabre-cuts from their marines, and his body mortally wounded with musketry from the tops; but, in spite of all, he had fastened the ships together, with the right arm, ere his hold relaxed in death-a deed of heroism worthy of ancient Rome.*

40. Meanwhile, however, the brave Captain Lawrence and several other * A well-known parallel incident occurred in the history of ancient Greece. "Cynægiri, militis Atheniensis, gloria magnis scriptorum laudibus celebrata est; qui, post prælii Marathonii innumeras credes, quum fugientes hostes ad naves egisset, onustam navem dex

rying a thrust at his breast, but was immediately after knocked down by the but-end of a musket. As he rose, he had the satisfaction of seeing, in his own words, "the American flag hauled down, and the proud old British Union floating triumphantly over it." So rapid was the action, that fifteen minutes only elapsed from the time the first gun was fired, till the Chesapeake was entirely in the hands of the British. Unhappily Lieutenant Watt, who hauled down the enemy's colours, not having immediately succeeded in hoisting the British above it, was killed, with two of his men, by a discharge of musketry from the Shannon's marines, in the belief that the conflict still continued. Yet, in this short period, the Chesapeake had sustained a loss of forty-seven killed and ninety-eight wounded-a dreadful proof of the admirable training in the use of their arms, both small and great, which the Shannon's people had received. The loss of the victor had also been severe : it amounted to twenty-four killed and fifty-nine wounded.

trà manu tenuit, nec priùs dimisit quẩm manum amitteret: tum quoque amputats dextrâ, navem sinistra comprehendit; quam et ipsam quum amisisset, ad postremum morsu navem detinuit."-CORNELIUS NEPOS How identical is the heroic spirit in all ages!