king of the Parthians, who, having fallen into a dropsical complaint, had poison (aconite) administered to him by his second son, Phraates, but which, instead of destroying the king, as intended, cured his disease. The son, however, having thus failed in his attempt, shortly afterwards smothered his father with his pillow. ART. XXII.—A Notice of some Parts of the Work of M. Charles Dupin, on the Navy and Commerce of Great Britain. [T.] THE third part of the series of works, projected by M. Charles Dupin, on the Power of Great Britain, has lately been published in Paris, and the high reputation which the author has gained by the two former parts, is not likely to be diminished by his last publication. M. Dupin is an elève of the polytechnical school. He has attained a place in the institute, and holds a high office as naval engineer. The work of which we propose to give a short account, is the result of several travels in England since 1816. Not able to bear the idleness which fell upon all classes connected with the army and navy, after the disbanding of the forces in 1815, his ar dent mind sought relief in visiting the great public works of England, and after six months' solicitation he obtained leave of absence, from his government, to travel over England. The facts he thus collected he was, on his return, encouraged to publish by the French ministers; which gives his work a semi-official character. The object of the publication seems to have been, to give the enlightened classes in France a better view than they have heretofore possessed of the military and naval resources of England; of the public and private works which the skill and industry of the people have erected for facilitating trade, manufactures, and foreign commerce. A great deal is written on the laws, on the customs, and the details of the administration, as connected with the several arts under consideration, which gives to the work a statistical character, and likewise furnishes the author with an opportunity of displaying an eloquence, which will give his work more general popularity than he could expect for it if it were confined to a simple description of public works and of the practice of the arts. The great schools, in England, for studying the arts connected with maritime affairs, are at the naval arsenals. These the government have opened with great liberality since the peace of 1815, compared with its former cautious admission of strangers. They do not, however, by any means, open their gates to an indiscriminate admission of all foreigners. It is necessary, according to M. Dupin, that the ambassador of the nation to which the stranger belongs, should obtain an order from the admiralty, granting permission to visit a particular arsenal. This order the stranger carries with him to the arsenal, the commissioner of which, having already been apprised from the admiralty of the intended visit, gives the stranger a more or less respectful reception, according to his private instructions. The liberality of the government and the higher officers, however, has not yet made its way to the subordinates, who appear still to wonder at the audacity of 'the Frenchman, who asks for admittance at the gates of an arsenal. Dupin, on his visit to Portsmouth, says,-"On entering the arsenal, I was stopped by an under officer of the guard, who asked me what I wanted: I replied, that I wished to speak with the commissioner. I was dressed in the French fashion, and I express myself in English but very imperfectly. After this, the guard, continuing his interrogation, asked me sharply Of what nation are you? France.' 'Of course you cannot enter.' 'But I only wish to be conducted to the office of the commissioner.' 'You cannot even speak to the commissioner-if you have any business with him,-write."" Dupin, however, was determined to see the great works of England, and to this end to submit, with resignation, to any vexation which could be heaped upon him, in silence. If the object of the British government, in opening their arsenals to the inspection of foreigners, is to impress them with high ideas of their perfection in maritime affairs, as is hinted in the Quarterly Review, they have succeeded with M. Dupin to a degree which must be very satisfactory. They have obtained the admiration of a highly enlightened man; which, in this instance, is the more valuable, as the expression of it, although full and decided, if indeed it is not sometimes to excess, often costs him a struggle with his national feelings. : 6 The work of Dupin, as we have before indicated, is a history of the present state of the arts of Great Britain, connected with war and commerce. It cannot be said to contain many facts which were not already known to some, amongst the enlightened people of England, nor a great number of original and profound speculations or researches, on the theory or practice of the arts. But it does contain much judicious observation, and fair summary of experiments, and as the work is not likely to find its way into many hands in this country, we shall make free to extract a few passages from such parts of it as we think likely to be most interesting to our readers. This will at the same time make them somewhat acquainted with a writer who bids fair, for many years, to occupy a large place amongst the engineers of France. The following is taken from his observations on the general tendency of improvements in the art of war to render battles less sanguinary. "When gunpowder was first applied to combats, the friends of humanity were alarmed with the idea that we had acquired a means of destruction so powerful. That invention had immensely increased the distance from whence man could send destruction to his fellow creatures : all seemed to presage, that, by a force so fatal, wars must, in future, become an indiscriminate butchery, which, leaving nothing to genius or valour, would lead mankind to an age of barbarism. "But effects altogether opposite have dissipated forever these chimerical fears. For since our means of destruction have enabled us to combat at greater distances, the result has been, in both sea and land fights, that the fields of battle have been enlarged. The lines of combatants, instead of charging hand to hand, attack each other from a distance. Combinations, founded on the nature of localities and on the diversity of arms, have acquired the greatest importance. The entire surface of the greatest countries has become as it were a single field of simultaneous operations: generals have taken advantage of all their essential characters in distributing their new means of attack and defence. The combinations, and enlargement of the theatre of action, have been extended to fleets as well as armies; and we now but rarely witness those close charges, by which, formerly, innumerable barbarians rushed upon the lines of regular armies which could not repulse them from a distance, thus rendering useless the superiority of art, and deciding by the quantity of blood the fate of the battle. "Following this humane but erroneous opinion, that those arms which are most efficient for destruction are most fatal to mankind, we have seen sovereigns refusing to employ certain inventions which appeared to them too murderous. were in the wrong. They "When governments have recourse to the terrible means of war, that is, when they prefer the destruction of men to the continuance of an order of things which appears to them insupportable, whatever mode of warfare they may adopt, they will employ it until one party is wholly overthrown, or until both parties have received a chastisement proportional to the strength of their passions. But when destruction comes upon them slowly and gradually, and mingled with some successes, the disasters of yesterday are forgotten in the present triumph, and as there is no great catastrophy, neither of the parties is struck with the necessity of demanding peace. Time habituates people to a state of war, and the quarrels of nations thus become interminable. This state of things, therefore, costs more sacrifices from humanity than a small number of general and vigorous actions which, in a few months, decide the fate of the two nations. "Let us not, therefore, lay aside as too destructive any improvements in the means of making war, since their employment will, on the whole, diminish the quantity of blood" spilt in the quarrels of nations." Of the particular improvements in naval architecture Dupin speaks very favourably of the circular sterns,* and the improvements of Sir R. Seppings generally, by which ships are made lighter and at the same time stronger. He admires the severe architecture, which, wasting nothing in mere ornament, looks only to the force and durability of the vessel and the health and convenience of the crew. The encouragement given by the British government to improvement, is brought into strong contrast with the niggardliness of the French, in the cases of Sir R. Seppings and the engineer Hubert, who constructed some important works at the naval post of Rochefort. The former, for his improvements in the construction of vessels, was recompensed with 100,000 francs and a considerable life pension; while the latter received from the French ministry no more than 600 francs, and this, according to Dupin, is the only instance of a reward being given to an engineer during the Imperial government. The introduction of machinery for facilitating labour of every kind, at the arsenals, has been very general. Dupin notices particularly, the application of the steam engine to the fabrication of cordage, anchors, blocks, and the sawing of stuff. The advantages of machinery are always in some degree proportional to the extent to which it is established. Yet Dupin says, "The English officers at the arsenals are not in favour of very extensive establishments. They say the superintendance of them is too difficult. When they are obliged * See this Journal, vol. 1. pp. 18 and 554, to go several times a day from one extremity to the other of these vast establishments, they lose a great deal of time, and exhaust themselves by merely passing from place to place. I replied to this objection, that the principal officers might have horses and boats, and I still believe that a small number of extensive arsenals, completely furnished, and directed by men of superior talents and great experience, having at command all the means of facilitating labour, are worth infinitely more than numerous second rate establishments, the perplexed concerns of which have no relation to the general direction of the service. "In each of these disseminated establishments, there is but little knowledge and little emulation, and to conclude, we can never introduce an extensive division of labour, nor take the benefit of those powerful but costly machines, which can be employed with great advantage only in places where, whether public or private, industry is developed on the great scale." The English have long been celebrated for their fine dry docks for building and repairing vessels; Dupin furnishes a description of these at several naval depots. The expediency of building dry docks, in this country, has always been questioned, and as the necessity of having some mode of taking vessels out of water for repairs has increased with the enlargement of the navy, rail ways, on an inclined plane, have been proposed and partially adopted as superior to docks. The principal objections to dry docks are, their cost, and the necessity, from the small rise of our tides, for pumping. These objections have been greatly overrated. The expense of docks is not so great as is generally imagined; we strongly doubt whether, at the outset, they would be found much more costly than inclined planes: as to the objection, that they require pumping, it is exceedingly trifling, the quantity of labour to pump them, even by hand, would hardly exceed the labour of hauling a vessel out of water, with the best machinery that could be contrived. But have we not horses? Have we not wind? Will not the steam engine be used before long at every considerable navy yard, for sawing and other purposes, by which the docks may be freed from water with the greatest facility? But the strong ground in favour of docks is their comparative durability. In this they equal any other permanent architectural work. The gates and pumps constitute their only moveable parts; while the inclined plane is a machine throughout; requiring great accuracy, which must be preserved although the plane is loaded with enormous |