ON THE MODE OF ARMING AND FIGHTING

STEAM SHIPS OF WAR.

MR. BURKE says, that before a great change takes place, men's minds must be prepared for it; and the maxim holds good in war, as well as in politics. Since the peace of 1815, the opinion seems to have been gradually gaining ground, that a considerable change must take place in naval warfare by the application of steam power. The French and Americans have accordingly been preparing for that event; and the latter, it appears from the President's speech, have suspended the building of line-of-battle ships for the present; Great Britain alone has been resting upon her arms; it having been a maxim of a late Board of Admiralty, that she owes her naval superiority to the yard-arm-and-yard-arm system, and that she ought not to be the first to introduce any change.

Now this policy, I am inclined to think, will appear somewhat problematical to most people, who naturally imagine that statesmen, as well as soldiers, ought never to be taken by surprise, but to see their way clear before them. If a change is to take place when war arises, it naturally follows that large sums of the public money have been expended since the peace in objects worse than useless. Far be it from me to wish to detract from British courage in any way; but at the same time I think it may be considered as a fundamental principle never to be lost sight of, that the nation which excels in fire will be ultimately victorious in war. And I am very much mistaken if war will not become a much more mechanical operation than it has hitherto been, in which although personal courage may still be very influential, yet, at the same time, its relative importance will be greatly diminished. In other words, it will be expedient to trust more to science, and less to physical force.

But to come to the matter more immediately at issue: How are steamers to be equipped and fought? This becomes a question of some importance; and under the existing circumstances, the Government can hardly be expected to be able to give an answer to it. Velocity and efficiency will evidently be the principal things to attend to; and it is in the just combination of these two qualities that their advantages will probably be found to consist. If two steamers came to close action, broadside to broadside, there can be little doubt that they would immediately disable the paddles of each other, and that they would then become the most helpless of all vessels. If this reasoning be correct, it follows that close action must be evaded, and accuracy of fire will then become an object of paramount importance. By a parity of reasoning, I think it will follow, that large steamers, independent of their enormous expense, will be a positive incumbrance; as at a long range, the advantage of fire is on the side of the smaller vessel, from having a much larger object to fire at.

Under these circumstances, the plan I beg leave to submit for the arming of steamers, will be with two short 24-pounders, working in grooves on either side of the foremast, parallel to the keel of the vessel, so as to throw either shot or shells. Similar grooves to be placed in the

stern of the ship, for the guns to be run aft if necessary. The vessel would thus be fought by the head and stern only. The laying of her guns would become a very simple operation, and might easily be done by a bombardier, from the opposite end to where they happened to be placed; while the gunners could give the elevation by quoins fitted for the different ranges. The bearing of the guns would, of course, be regulated by the helm, and the vessel would thus present the smallest possible front for an enemy to fire at. In addition to this, I would recommend that a gun-barrel be attached to the boiler, for the purpose of throwing musket-balls on Mr. Perkins's principle; for most of those who have witnessed that gentleman's experiments, will probably be satisfied that that invention will yet come into operation, whatever official reports may have stated to the contrary. It will at once be perceived, that the efficiency of the proposed plan depends more upon an accurate than a heavy fire; and although I am aware how difficult it is to procure that at sea, from the roll of the vessel, yet I am by no means disposed to reckon it impracticable.

The Woolwich Committee has at last discovered that artillery may be fired by percussion, without which, I conceive, the object in view to be utterly hopeless. Perhaps that body may also in time find out that the best powder may be used at a cheaper rate, than what is now issued both to the army and navy, as half the quantity answers the purpose. Its other advantages are so apparent that it may be unnecessary here to enumerate them. It does not foul the gun half so much; it does not produce half the smoke in action, and it diminishes the recoil more than a half. Coarse powder burns so slowly that the shot is half-way down the bore before it is all ignited. Hence the use of long guns arises. Fine powder, on the contrary, ignites instantaneously, and we accordingly find that the barrels of fowling-pieces have been shortened, exactly in proportion as gunpowder has been improved; and it is upon this principle that I have recommended short guns instead of long ones, as being much easier worked, and much more handy in every respect. I have to apologise for stating this to any one acquainted with the first principles of gunnery: but it is by overlooking it, that the decks of our men-of-war are lumbered with many hundred tons of useless metal, and the tumbrils of our artillery with double the weight of powder that is necessary.

The French, it appears, have fitted up some of their steamers with Paixhan's guns, ten and twelve inches in the bore. We also are getting some of tolerable dimensions. There is one now at Woolwich, a cousin-german to the great Turkish gun which was fired at the siege of Constantinople in 1453. Its bore is amazing. Its weight is 90 cwt. besides the carriage, and that of its shell 112 lbs. When once we see

this instrument in full operation on board of a steamer, we shall be able to determine whether it is likely to prove more formidable to friends or foes. In the mean time prudence bids us to suspend our judgment.

BEN BOBSTAY.

CIGAR-SMOKING.

THE Surgeon-General of the Forces has recently made public his belief, that never, till within the last twenty years, did he see so many young men with pale faces and emaciated figures, and he attributes the existence of the evil to the use of Cigars. The unreflecting servility with which men adopt new and foreign practices, is fully exemplified in the present case; for it is notorious that the practice of cigarsmoking, the modern foppery from Regent-street to Cheapside and Cornhill, was an importation of the Peninsular War;-the imitation having been begun by the Spaniards, whose models are what are usually called the savages of America. The dietetic mischief, and consequent paleness of complexion and emaciation of muscle, which are attributable to the use of cigars, belong, no doubt, to an injury inflicted, perhaps, in more ways than one upon the aids and organs of digestion; nor is that hypothesis at all inconsistent with what we hear from so many cigar-smokers, namely, that their cigar is their dependence for digestion! That, after having impaired the organ, or weakened its tone, or dried up the salival menstruum, they should need a stimulant, even in the very form of the bane which injures them, is only of a piece with all that has been said of drinking, and especially of dram-drinking, with which latter debauch, the debauch of cigar-smoking has the closest possible alliance. We never pass one of those stifling rendezvous in the metropolis-a cigar-shop, open till the latest hours-without mentally classing it with the gin-shops, its only compeers!

Exclusive of the low habit of imitation, a dullness and feebleness of understanding, an absence of intellectual resources, a vacuity of thought, is the great inducement to the use of this, as of all other drugs, whether from the cigar-shop, or the snuff-shop, or the gin-shop, or the wine-cellar; a truth by no means the less certain, because it happens that men of the highest powers of mind are drawn into the vice, and made to reduce themselves, by their adoption and dependence upon it, to the lowest level of the vulgar; but, at the same time, it is not to be denied, that a great support in defence of cigarsmoking is found in the medical opinions sometimes advanced as to its salutary influence. Now, if we admit, broadly and at once, that there may be times and circumstances in which the inhaling the hot smoke of a powerful narcotic drug is useful to the human body, must it follow that the habitual resort to such a practice, and this under all circumstances, is useful also, and even free from the most serious inconveniences?

It is the admitted maxim, that if smoking is accompanied by spitting, injury results to the smoker; and the reason assigned is, that the salival fluid, which should assist digestion, is in this manner dissipated, and taken from its office. But may not the habitual application of the narcotic influence to the nervous system have its evils also? May it not weaken or deaden the nervous and muscular action which is needful to digestion? And may not even the excessive quantity of the matter of heat, thus artificially conveyed into the body, tend to a desiccation of the system, as injurious under general circumstances, as it may be beneficial under particular ones?

Smoking invites thirst; and there is little risk in advancing, that whatever superinduces an unnatural indulgence in the use of liquids is itself, and without farther question, injurious, even if the liquids resorted to are of the most innocent description; but, in point of fact, the cigar-smoker will usually appease his thirst by means of liquors in themselves his enemies!

It is said, however, that the use of cigars is beneficial when we find ourselves in marshy situations, with a high temperature, and generally, whenever the atmosphere inclines to the introduction of putridity and fever into the system. We believe this; and perhaps a useful theory of the alternate benefit and mischief of cigar-smoking may be offered upon the basis of that proposition. When and wherever the body requires to be dried, cigar-smoking may be salutary; and when and wherever that drying, or desiccation, is injurious, then and there cigarsmoking may be to be shunned. We know that, while surrounded by an atmosphere overcharged, or even only saturated with moisture, moist bodies remain moist, or do not part with that excess of moisture from which a drier atmosphere would relieve them; and that living bodies, so circumstanced, are threatened with typhus and typhoid fever. It is highly probable, therefore, that narcotics, in such cases, may allay a morbid irritability of the nerves, or effect a salutary diminution of healthful sensibility; under such circumstances, the desiccating and sedative effects of tobacco-smoking may prove beneficial; while, in all ordinary states of the system and of the atmosphere, the same desiccative and sedative influences may produce immediate evil consequences, more or less readily perceptible, and undermine, however gradually, the strength of the constitution.

E. A. K.

NAVAL REMINISCENCES.

NO. VIII.

DINING OUT-AN ADVENTURE IN PORTUGAL.

Ar the close of 1810, I was a youngster in an 80-gun ship lying in the Tagus, one of the squadron which formed a retreating point for Lord Wellington, in case of need. Our boats, with those belonging to the rest of the ships, some of them carrying guns, were detached up the river to aid the operations of the army, then, I believe, near Torres Vedras. They were occasionally employed in transporting, foraging, and skirmishing parties, and frequently conveyed large bodies of troops; at other times, they were firing upon and clearing French redoubts, or conveying dispatches, or sick and wounded men down to Lisbon. Near both armies, we had a full view of what was going on, though we generally kept at a respectful distance from the enemy; except when ordered to make a dash, at which times we were occasionally saluted with a dropping fire of musketry. However, a perfectly good understanding was kept up between the enemy's picquets and ourselves, and although a large squadron of English boats, a single French sentry would come down and drink, or offer his canteen with

the most perfect confidence, close to the water side. We had often immense labour in pulling up against the stream, and at times carrying or dragging our boats, which, from our ignorance of the river, were constantly grounding over sand-banks and shoals, half-a-mile long, and scarcely was one of these obstacles overcome, when another of the same kind presented itself; the current all the time running like a sluice.

It sometimes occurred that we lay idle for days together, and during one of these cessations from work, Lieut. E, who commanded our division of boats, received an invitation from an English general officer, to dine with him in his tent. Away went the gay Lieutenant, a very fine young man, though somewhat, perhaps, too much of the beau. At this time the full dress of the navy, unlike the present commodious and really serviceable uniform, was the absurd attire of tight white breeches and silk stockings, a fine open waistcoat, showing a yard of frill, with a neckcloth that took a particular man at least ten minutes to tie. Then there were brooches and buckles of all kinds, and I know not what other follies. Well, imagine Lieut. E― in full dress, having escaped from his boat with, perhaps, only one leg of his white pipe-clayed breeches dirtied by a muddy grapnel-rope, and not more than one of his silk stockings torn by the ragged tin on the blade of an oar; or let him, an active fellow as he was, have sprung clear out of the boat, in perfect order, and fit for the Queen's drawingroom. This, one would think, was but a bad dress for climbing trees; however, Lieut. E- having to walk some short distance before he could reach the English lines, felt thirsty, and seeing a most inviting fig-tree near, he ascended it, and regaled himself, till a thought probably crossed him that he was spoiling his appetite for the general's dinner; one, alas, that he was not destined to eat, for as he looked down from "his pride of place," he espied the glitter of arms, and beheld the tree surrounded by a French picquet, who were much amused at finding an officer so situated, en grande tenue, or as we might term it, in full fig. They invited him to join their party, and carried him to the commanding officer on duty. He was then taken before Massena, and he confessed having felt some apprehension of being shot as a spy; but the farce, so near becoming a tragedy, ended fortunately for him, in a much more agreeable manner. He was put on his parole, and handsomely entertained by the French Marshal for several days. Furnished by him with horses and servants, supplied from his wardrobe, and commended to the care of a staff-officer, he was allowed to ride over all parts of the camp, and even to visit the adjacent country. At the expiration of a week he was dismissed, on giving his parole that he would not serve until duly exchanged, which did not happen for a month. In the mean time he remained on board the Tt, but did no duty, and was fortunate enough to escape all inquiry as to the cause of his absence by the Admiral.