practice, which yet not so many years back afforded the only enlightened mode of over-coming space between shore and shore. We can just remember a very small craft termed the "packet" or "packet boat" which then plied across the Bristol Channel and whose popular commander, with one arm lost in the King's service, had borne the rank of Lieutenant R.N., and many were the hair-breadth escapes from destruction that occurred to this cockle shell-days and nights oft times we believe passing ere, in the offing with her few jaded passengers, she made her appearance to the anxious watchers on the shore. True it is that before the great and general application of steam to shipping purposes, splendid advances were made in the improved construction of sailing craft which under the denomination of clippers" were looked upon as wonderful examples of human skill. 66 Even to the ordinary observer what an indescribably ridiculous appearance must the junk-like ships of the Spanish Armada, pourtrayed as they are in the old pictures, present, when compared with the line of battle ships of the British Navy during the great French war! And in their time how old fashioned they again with their galleries and poops appear when placed beside the sharp bowed fast going frigates of a more recent age. Here however all comparison of either beauty or ugliness ceases, for the elegance of the build of those fine ships is lost entirely when we see afloat before us those unwieldy, lumbering iron castles, Minotaurs and Thunderers, reminding us at the first glance of enlarged steam dredgers, the heaviness of whose gun machinery requires even steam power on board to move it into gear. But such is the alteration in modern warfare, not only as regards this country but throughout the civilized world, that this great change from wooden hulls to floating fortresses of iron, plated with steel armour, has become a necessity to us in the maintenance of the safety and supremacy of "our tight little Island"! CHAPTER XII. "O for a horse with wings! Hearest thou Pisanio? To this same blessed Milford: and, by the way, SHAKSPEARE. Having referred to the Spanish Armada on the one hand and the English Navy on the other we are induced to think it may not be uninteresting, as no doubt it is in entire consonance with the aims of this book, were we to give some brief account of the relative strength and proportions of the British fleet in Sir Francis Drake' time, and those of the present. Perhaps the sudden leap from that period to this without any reference either to intermediate improvements and cost, or to the alterations which took place from time to time according to the exigences, is scarcely fair-yet in a publication of this sort in face of the vast subject we are necessarily so superficially dealing with, we trust our readers will go with us when we say we feel bound in a great measure to confine ourselves to generalities. The records of the Tower of London formerly, we might say anciently, contained a series of papers which on examination turned out to be of the greatest consequence to this realm. The subject matter they contained had at the time of the Armada or more accurately we should say in anticipation of the projected grand attack of that magnificent flotilla, been collated and classed in a series of important divisions-such as external alliance, internal defence, military arrangements and naval equipments. These papers formed in fact when put together, a document of much value, and as even then they afforded reliable data on which to found an estimate of the relative power of England in population and means, their perusal in the present day, however quaint they may be, would be interesting. According to this record the force of the Spanish Armada consisted of 166 vessels including 40 of what were in that day called 'hulks,' the whole being manned by 27,128 men with 1493 pieces of artillery. Our armament on the contrary so far as concerned the Royal Navy was said by this document totidem verbis to consist only of 34 shippes containing 6,264 men added to which were 34 Merchant shippes with Sir Francis Drake westward containing 2,394 men, 29 shippes and bargues paid by the Citie of London containing 2140 men-31 shippes and bargues, victuallers under the Lord High Admiral containing 1561 men-- -19 coasters greate and small under the Lord High Admiral paid by. the Queene containing 943 men-23 coasters under the Lord Henry Seymour paid by the Queene containing 1093 men and 23 voluntarye shippes great and small containing 939 men, the total force comprising 193 ships of questionable efficiency and only 15,334 men. If this was the naval power of England in the days of good Queen Bess with its 34 fighting ships aided by and including the merchant service of the period, what shall we say of it now with its 200 large fighting ships,-to compare one of which with one of those of the year 1588 would be in the last degree ridiculously absurd, and of which 54 alone are armour clads with 24 more now in course of construction in the royal dockyards the whole being supplemented by the grand steam Mercantile Marine for transit purposes. Whilst in Queen Elizabeth's reign the wages of seamen were raised from 5/- per month to 10/and the whole cost of the service was about £30,000 a year, it is somewhat astonishing to find that the last year's (1880) estimate for the support of the Royal Navy was no less than £10,586,894! But here let us observe that awakening to the consciousness of having again placed our foot on the brink of that great abyss out of which we had but just now scrambled, we are determined not again to drift into war if it be possible to remain in peace. Let us then at once turn away from those stern engines of destruction, those ugly iron clad monsters we were considering and let us extend our hand for a short time to one of those fine screw steamers we once before glanced at, that we see in the Mersey, those commodious |