an all-round fire." She is described in the Navy List as of 2,640 tons, and 5,500 horse-power.*

Ten ships were repaired and fitted out at Chatham in the financial year, and four ships-the Argus, Asp, Barracouta, and Basilisk-broken up.

An American Expedition of Discovery was this year despatched to Lady Franklin Bay, under the command of Lieutenant A. W. Greely, of the United States Service, † whom we met on his return to America in 1884, after he had suffered extreme and terrible hardships, which excited deep interest and sympathy.

* "A crash on the thick plates of the strongest ironclad from a ram of 2,000 tons, at the speed of four miles an hour, would drive them inwards with the most fatal results."-Nasmyth.

† Vide "Three Years of Arctic Service," by Greely (London: Sampson Low and Co.), which has been translated into French and German.

T

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

HERE AND THERE.

'HE Naval Estimates for 1882-83 referring to Chatham Yard provided £109,469 for 1,439 Established, and £14,570 for 2,441 Hired, Men; £2,511 for Teams; £1,662 for Yard-craft, with £703 for Victualling the same; and £8,659 for 97 Police. Similar provision being made at each Dockyard, there stands before the country an illustra tion of what may be done by employers and the employed in keeping together many thousands of skilful workmen from boyhood to old age, by due consideration of, and provision for, the claims of the people on the one hand, and by submission to all legitimate requirements, with liberty of appeal in case of supposed grievance, on the other. The number of men borne on the Yard books about the 1st April was 4,306.* In this year was opened a large new Muster Station at the bottom of the Yard, which the great increase in the number of men employed rendered necessary.

A new Classification of our Navy has now been made, it being divided into Armoured and Unarmoured vessels. The armoured are:

1. Battle-ships, or heavy sea-going Ironclads.

2. Cruisers, or belted ships, and some of the early broadside ironclads.

3. Special ships, such as Rams and Torpedo-Vessels, and coast service ships.

The Unarmoured classes comprise :

1. Cruisers of the First, Second and Third classes. 2. Sloops.

* See p. 442, note.

3. Gun-Vessels.

4. Gunboats for general and special service. 5. Despatch Vessels.

6. Unarmoured Torpedo-Vessels and boats.

"On a general and dispassionate review of our position," said Lord Brassey in 1882, "we are led to the conclusion. that the naval power of England, in all the vital elements of strength, is greater now than in any former age. Our maritime influence is commanding and unrivalled; and it is gladly and generously acknowledged, because it has been used with magnanimity, and in the cause of freedom.'

Time passed on. Our holiday was this year spent in North Wales. At Conway, amid torrents of rain, we heard Alaw Elwy, the Welsh harpist, and his seven sons, in a vocal and instrumental concert. We afterwards proceeded to Denbigh to attend the national Eisteddfod, the congress of Welsh bards and musicians. Everywhere the rain attended us. We were again bent on visiting Snowdon, and hoped for a change of weather. Going on to Llanberis, we awaited that change; but day after day rain fell. One afternoon, however, the sky seemed to clear, and we wandered out towards the mountain. At last we were induced to attempt the ascent. Two young artists accompanied us. The road soon became steep and rough, and taxing for the ladies of our party. The mists, too, began to gather around us, and slight showers of rain to fall. We pressed forward; the path became steeper and steeper, the mists grew more and more dense, the wind rose, the rain got more frequent. We went on. The mists still thickened; fog and rain united to stop us. The way appeared endless, and we seemed to have lost our road. Fearful precipices, too, bordered our path, and made every step dangerous. At last, four hours after leaving Llanberis, in almost total dark ness and in a raging storm, drenched, breathless, and nearly spent, we reached the summit. We found shelter and refreshment in the mountain hotel, and hasted to bed; but all night the wind raged and howled around us, a sea of mist environed us, and in the morning, after waiting for hours and obtaining only one momentary glimpse of sunshine, we "The British Navy."

were obliged to descend. As we did so, and again approached Llanberis, the weather began to clear, and all was soon brilliance and beauty.

I was engaged to attend the Meeting of the Library Association at Cambridge, and hastened on to Chester, We whence I proceeded to the University on the Cam. met in the Hall of King's College, which had been appropriated to the use of the meeting, for we were guests of the University, which was for the time thrown open to us. Here the representatives of the great National Library of the British Museum, the Bodleian, the London Corporation (or "Guildhall"), the Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Plymouth, Glasgow, Dublin, and many other Libraries, besides deputations from America, Germany, etc., were assembled. After spending three days in conference in Cambridge, during which we were conducted in the intervals between the meetings through the various colleges, and introduced to the principal institutions and objects of interest, and also entertained, the meeting dispersed. I myself proceeded to Ely to see that magnificent Cathedral, and soon after returned to Chatham.

We were unable this year to attend the annual meeting of the British Association, which was held for the second time. at Southamption. We learned, however, that the Council had received an invitation to hold the next meeting of the Association in Canada. That invitation, which was warmly supported by the Governor-General (the Marquis of Lorne), had been received in 1861, but the Council were obliged to reply that the vote of the General Committee at York accepting an invitation to Oxford precluded them from entertaining the question for that year. Unforeseen difficulties had, however, obliged their would-be hosts at Oxford to express a desire that that visit should be for a time postponed; and, under the circumstances, Southport and Birmingham had renewed solicitations previously made for 1883, Southport had been decided on, and the invitation to Canada came under discussion for 1884. The Bishop of Ontario, who had taken the warmest interest in the project; the Premier of Canada (Sir John Macdonald), who assured the Council that the Association would be received with all

:

honour by the Government and people of the Dominion, and that the Canadian Parliament would be asked to make a grant for the entertainment of the visitors; the Minister of Railways (Sir Charles Tupper); and the Minister of Justice (Sir A. Campbell), were all its advocates; and the President of the Canadian Pacific Railway (Mr. Stephen), who expected that the line would be finished to the foot of the Rocky Mountains before 1883, stated that the company would gladly receive the Association as their guests, and put the railway at the disposal of the members for a journey across the Continent. It was said, moreover, that steps would be taken to provide first-class return tickets across the Atlantic at little or no cost to the members; and that American hospitality, including free journeys by railway, would be unbounded. As the proposition was a new departure, not all were in favour of it; but the majority, under the main advocacy of Captain Bedford Pim, R.N., who felt assured that the Association would thus be the means of uniting the Mother Country and the Colonies more closely together, supported it, and it was at length decided to accept it.

A Royal Commission on the important subject of our Coaling Stations made its Report this year. Its inquiries had extended all over the world, and had shown the enormous value of British commerce, and the imperative necessity of adequate provision for the maintenance of a continuous chain of Coaling Stations on the Cape route to India, Ceylon, Mauritius, Singapore, China and Australia, as well as on the great trade route by the Suez Canal to India and Australia.

The Railway which we mentioned in 1874 as projected by the South-Eastern Company between Gravesend and the Isle of Grain was this year opened to Port Victoria, which had a depth of 25 feet of water at low tides, and would admit vessels of the largest type to be loaded and unloaded if the necessary works were provided.

A most interesting and romantic marriage took place this year, on the 7th September, in the family of Major White, Quartermaster of the Marine Barracks. A gentleman in one of the local Banks had paid his addresses to a daughter of the Major, and had been accepted by that lady. He had