Lieutenant Bellot accompanied this Expedition in the Phonix. The enterprise and intrepidity of this young officer had been exhibited in several explorations, in the course of which he had made an important geographical discovery to which his name had been given-that of Bellot's Strait. In this expedition of the Phonix he prematurely finished his career; for he was blown by a violent gust of wind into a crack in the ice while carrying despatches from Beechy Island to Sir James Belcher (for which service he had bravely volunteered), and so was lost, on the 31st March, 1853.

On the 6th April, 1853, Captain McClure and Lieutenant Pim of the Resolute met on the ice, the former coming from the Pacific, the latter from the Atlantic. By a most remarkable coincidence, Lieutenant Pim (whom it was our happiness many years after, as the reader will find, to meet in America) had been the last person to shake hands with McClure at Behring's Straits three years preceding. Since then Pim had been almost round the world, while McClure had been ice-bound. Lieutenant Pim was the first man who made his way from a ship on the eastern side to a ship on the western side of the North-West Passage. He thus years in adventurous explorations, first in the Philippine Islands, afterwards in India, then in Africa; he next took a bold and prominent part in the war which his countrymen waged against Mexico; finally he accompanied the expedition which American generosity (chiefly represented by Mr. Grinnel) sent in search of Sir John Franklin. All this was over, and Kane had become the historian of the expedition, before he had passed thirty. Another Arctic exploration being determined on, Kane was appointed as its commander, and started on his voyage in May, 1853. With indefatigable perseverance he carried his vessel, the Advance, into Smith's Sound, to a point of latitude 78° 43′ N., where the thermometer in February was so low as 70° minus Fahrenheit. Further progress in the vessel being impossible, Kane took to a boat, and made further explorations of a most remarkable kind, finally discovering an iceless sea north of 80° N. The sufferings of the whole party in these movements were extreme, but they became insignificant in comparison with those of a return which was necessitated in open boats to the most northerly Danish Greenland settlement, and which occupied eighty-four days. Immense credit was due to Kane for the skill and energy which enabled him to bring back his people with scarcely diminished numbers through such unheard-of difficulties and perils. The able and highly illustrated book in which he subsequently detailed this heroic enterprise, and described the new regions he had explored, must remain an enduring monument to his memory. It is alleged that after all he had suffered, his constitution was not seriously injured. Yet the melancholy fact is, that this extraordinary man sank into the grave the year after his book was published.-Book of Days.

rescued the crew of the Investigator, which ship being afterwards abandoned, Captain McClure and his people were conducted by Lieutenant Pim to, and received on board, the Resolute.*

The Cressy and Majestic, battleships, and the Euryalus, 50-gun frigate, were launched in 1853 at Chatham; a triple testimony to the skill and industry of the workmen of this Yard, whose labours, guided by the trained intelligence and ceaseless activity of their officers, produced such fine examples of the growth of the art of Naval Architecture.

* It may be mentioned that Pim was born at Bideford, Devon, on the 12th June, 1826, and educated at the Royal Naval School. He went to India in the merchant service, and on his return was appointed a firstclass volunteer in the Royal Navy (1843). Having been employed for some years in the Surveying Service, he made a voyage round the world in 1845-51, and was engaged from first to last in the search for Sir John Franklin, both through Behring's Strait and in Baffin's Bay.

The Cressy was designed as a sailing vessel by a Chatham Committee of Naval Architecture. In 1852 it was decided to convert her into a screw steamship; and her form of body-which is fine abaft-rendered it easy to adapt her for a screw propeller without increasing her length, as it has been necessary to do in most similar cases.

H

CHAPTER XII.

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.

THE NAVY AND THE WAR WITH RUSSIA.

ER MAJESTY'S speech at the opening of Parliament on the 31st January, 1854, gave great encouragement to those who were looking for the reform of the Civil Service. The Queen said: "The establishments requisite for the conduct of the Civil Service, and the arrangements bearing upon its condition, have recently been under review; and I shall direct a plan to be laid before you which will have for its object to improve the system of admission, and thereby to increase the efficiency of the service."

But a year and a half had passed since the death of the great Duke of Wellington, whose victory at Waterloo had given nearly forty years' peace to Europe, and but three years since the Great Exhibition appeared to promise that that peace should be permanent and universal, when, on the 28th March, 1854,* we were plunged, with our allies, the French, into war with Russia + for the defence of Turkey. We do not propose to enter into the history of the war in these pages; but some reference to it is necessary in connection with the work in our Dockyards. It was known that Russia had been making great naval prepara

* It is remarkable that only just before (viz., in the month of January) arrangements had been made for the purchase of land at Aldershot for a permanent military camp as a centre of our training operations£100,000 was voted in the Estimates for 1854 for the purchase.

It may be remembered (and would in olden time have excited much attention) that a great sword-like comet about this time appeared in our heavens. It was at its least distance from the sun on the 24th March. The nucleus on Sunday morning, the 2nd April, was rather more than 5,000 miles in diameter, and the tail 6,000,000 miles in length.

tions for the conflict, and might be supposed to be ready at once to enter upon it, while we-though we had by this time numerous "screws" (either built or converted),* which could, with other vessels, be more or less speedily got ready and commissioned, had few ships, and no gunboats (so necessary for active operations in the shallow waters of the Russian coast) immediately available, and were but poorly provided with seamen. The Dockyards, however, were called upon to make great exertions, and were at once placed on "task and job" from day pay. (I should remark that there was one other system of pay besides “day pay” and "task and job," viz., "day pay on check measurement," by which men were employed at a fixed rate of day pay, and their work measured and valued weekly by the scheme of prices, and, if their earnings fell short, were checked the deficiency, but not paid any excess.)† By the "task and job" system more work was done,‡ so that ships could be more rapidly got out of hand, while the men

*Three line of battle ships-the Agamemnon (91), James Watt (91), and St. Jean d'Acre (101)—had been built. We have remarked (p. 156, note) that in 1850 Great Britain possessed 86 sailing line of battle ships, many of them old, and 101 frigates, also in many cases antiquated. Five ships -the Duke of Wellington, Royal Albert, Princess Royal, Hannibal, and Algiers had been altered in the slips by adding to their length; and seven-the Royal George, Nile, Majestic, Cressy, Cæsar, Colossus, and Sans Pareil-had been simply prepared for the screw, without any other alteration than that involved by making the screw aperture. The Admiralty were thus able to place the ships designed for the screw and those adapted to it from the sailing navy side by side on actual service, and to test their respective and comparative merits; and it was found that, though the former possessed an unquestionable superiority, the latter were equal to the work expected of them; that converted ships, even in their simplest form of adaptation to the screw, might render important services; and that the saving of time, money, and materials by converting old, instead of building new, ships was immense.

"Her Majesty's ships would cost less if they were built by piecework; but insuperable difficulties exist in the introduction of piece-work in the great establishments of Devonport, Portsmouth, and Sheerness, and to a certain extent at Chatham. The three Yards just named are called upon to undertake all the repairs of the Navy; the demands are of necessity fitful and uncertain, depending upon political exigencies, which it is impossible to foresee. In these Yards, if contracts were let to large gangs of men for any of the important operations which are carried on in private yards by sub-contract, the men so employed could not be taken from their work at a moment's notice to fit up a transport or repair an ironclad. Thus the main purpose for which these Yards are maintained would be frustrated."-Brassey.

The system, however, was not applicable to all trades.

were stimulated to extra effort, the work of each gang (and in some cases of the individual men) being measured,* and payment made of the exact amount earned, which in most. cases considerably exceeded day pay. The rates were regulated by fixed tables, termed Schemes of Prices, founded on experience, and generally just and equitable; although there were cases in which they appeared to be either too high or too low, and which were subject to more exact adjustment. At the same time, the temptation to slight work was unquestionable, and perhaps also to waste material; but on the whole the system appeared to answer well for emergencies, and to be satisfactory to all parties except the Officers and clerks, the former of whom-with diminished salaries‡-had the increased responsibility of looking more closely than usual after the men and the work; while the latter-with salaries also diminished-had the multiplied calculation and distribution of the often complicated earnings,§ instead of the easily adjusted day pay. My own labours as Auditor of Yard Wages were severe and

* The office of Measurer is one of great responsibility. It is impossible for the Master Shipwright, under whom the Measurers are employed, to check in any great degree either the measurements or the items in the schemes of prices to which the work is charged; neither is there any check whatever in the power of any other officer over the description or quantity of the work charged by the Measurers for payment, so that these officers have entirely in their own hands the correctness of such charges. In addition, therefore, to the honesty and probity of character required to fill such offices, it is necessary that the Measurers should be shrewd, active, practical men, of great experience, thoroughly acquainted with the work in all its details, and not likely to fall into error or be misled. The cost of the staff of Measurers, where the bulk of the men are employed on task and job, is, however, somewhat considerable. In 1864 Mr. Childers recommended the abolition of the Measurer's office as "not only under the system of day pay" (then resumed) “useless as a practical check, but mischievous, as impairing the sense of responsibility on the part of the professional officers."

The Schemes of Prices (it was understood) were so framed that the men might earn about one-third more than their ordinary day pay. It may be remarked that task and job was not considered so applicable to repairs as to building.

One result of the war was the increase of the income tax from 5d. and 7d. to 10d. and Is. 2d., which, in a word, doubled it—a serious thing for officers and clerks on small salaries, as well as for the outside public. § It was said that the Accountant-General and all the Dockyard Accountants were opposed to the system of task and job, on account of the immense number of items in the schemes of prices, amounting to 94,700 ; and because they had no check on the returns rendered by the Measurers.