*

Then, with respect to corporal punishment, if the British sailor be subjected to its effects, he braves this treatment with his brother soldier. Not so in France, where, although its army has removed this punishment from its Military Code, the navy by its own, of 1790, and now forming their only guide, is still shackled, not only with the disgusting terrors of the gauntlet, but also with the inhuman spectacle of La Cale mouillée; a punishment which, in the present day, is at such variance with the professed principles of this gallant nation, that its approval is really more astonishing than its former actual adoption. To this the British sailor is happily not degraded, and therefore he may claim a superiority over, or at least an equality with the French seaman in the article of corporal punishment. These observations, though not necessarily applicable to the subject under consideration, I have nevertheless introduced, from the circumstance of their being the leading naval questions of the day; I shall, therefore, without further comment, compare the respective state of the junior official class in both naviesviz., the French Elève and the English Midshipman.

In the British Navy, although no preliminary examination is held as to the qualities and attainments of the youngster, and therefore it is possible, though not probable, that one may be introduced unworthy of his pay and allowances, while in the French service the education of a gentleman is a sine qua non to his reception; yet, in the latter he is assured of his eventual though gradual promotion, and also the certainty of being in his turn employed afloat, by means of a roster, vigilantly attended to by all, and kept by the Major-General (Rear-Admiral) of the ports to which they are attached. Now with us, a midshipman, although backed with the Admiralty, and the still more irresistible Parliamentary interest (the bane of the service), by which he may have obtained admission into the Royal Naval College, even then the Admiralty confine its indulgence only to one solitary appointment afloat, and as soon as the ship is paid off, the youngster is thrown back on his anxious parents and the chance of the world, when it frequently happens that many, after a long period of vainly soliciting to re-obtain an appointment, during which their hopes have administered too strongly to their patience, ultimately abandon a profession, in which they have idly sacrificed the best part of their youth, and retire with feelings of acrimony against a system, which in peace is notoriously supported by the rich and privileged for the sole purpose of political ascendancy. man who is always disssatisfied, unless he finds himself commanded by chiefs capable of appreciating his merit. For who ought to know the sailor better than he who associates with him from his infancy? Who knows his character? Who is it that even indulges his caprices? Certainly not the man of the pen, who is unable to harmonize with these men of the ocean; he merely knows them by the profits which he extracts from those who seek by chicanery to avoid that turn for service afloat with which they are threatened."- Annales Maritimes.

*We have formerly condemned the cruelties of our penal Maritime Code. Here is another act which has left at Toulon the most painful remembrance. The 5th of September, 1834, the report of a gun announced that the punishment of La Cale would be inflicted on a seamen. This unfortunate man, after having been dropped into the water from the main yard-arm, was drawn out senseless. The ship-surgeon, however, by careful attendance produced re-animation. This punishment is characteristic of a barbarous people, and is the subject of general astonishment that the French are still subjected to it. A few days after a seaman twice ran the gauntlet; this is another of those corporal punishments which can only inspire horror and disgust.-Eclaireur de Toulon.

If the advantageous position of the French Elève is so manifest at the very outset, his financial support from government bears the same friendly ratio-the Second Class monthly salary being 21. 18s. 4d., while that of the Midshipman is only 21. 8s. The Elève of the First Class is 47. Os. 6d., and the English Mate only 31. 18s. But if, in the comparison between the French and British soldier's pay, one-half, justly considered by the writer of that article as the favourble difference in France between their respective expenditure, be carried to the account of the French Elève, the two ranks will stand thus-47. 7s. 6d. to 21. 8s., and 61. Os. 9d. to 3l. 18s.* Indeed, while the pay of our Midshipman is so inadequate, that an annual allowance of 50%. is required from his parents for a period, definite not by merit, but by interest, and falling the heaviest on the ill-requited veteran who can the least afford it, the French Elève of the Second Class pays only the half for the first two years, and the First Class are enabled to maintain both their rank and corresponding social enjoyments, and even to economise on their appointments alone. In these advantages the public participates, by the certainty of possessing at all times efficient officers. For the number of Elèves, 200 First Class, and 100 Second Class, to which the French Navy is so advantageously restricted, keeping them either constantly afloat or in their respective sea-ports, while it practically consolidates a vigorous naval arm, neither causes disappointment to meritorious and ardent youth, nor creates, as with us, a nest of importunate applicants for our badgered Admiralty lay lords, whose utter ignorance of the service must sometimes render their situation by no means a bed of roses. These superior advantages in the French Elève, who claims a gradual right to the rank of Commander, are extended through all the ranks of their profession, as the following extract, made from the Journal de la Marine (1833), will show :

"There are 3 Admirals, each receiving 1500l. per annum, when employed either at sea or as a public functionary on shore; 10 ViceAdmirals, idem, at 7507.; 20 Rear-Admirals at 500l.; 28 Post-Captains, of the First Class, at 250/.; 42 Second Class at 2157.; 70 frigate Captains at 1751.; 90 Commanders at 1507.; 450 line-of-battle-ship Lieutenants at 1007.; and 550 frigate Lieutenants at 757. Independently of these fixed appointments, the Ward-room officers and Midshipmen receive when afloat table-money, exceeding in value the third of their pay, while to the superior ranks these advantages are more than doubled. Every officer, the Admirals and Captains excepted, have equally with the rest of the crew daily rations of ten pence value." Thus the 3000l. a-year of a French Admiral afloat, assisted by the 50 per cent., equalling 4,500l., contrasts painfully with the pay and allowances of 29167. of a British Admiral: that of a French Capitaine de Vaisseau 750%., with the 6441. of our Post-Captain;, that of the French Commander 450/., with the scanty Commander's pittance of 2781.; and the 2101. of the French Lieutenant, with the 1387. of our own. Nor are these the only superior advantages possessed by the French officers: for while dandyism and luxuries have been for ever unknown in the

*At Brest, for the superior officers, the expenses for the table d'hôte, providing two substantial meals with a bottle of wine, is from 60 to 70 francs a month; and for the other officers 45 francs. A decent lodging can be obtained at 20 francs a month,

French Navy, they have, since the peace, owing, on the one hand, to the negligent leniency of our old school warriors, and on the other to the exertions and wishes of the Parliamentary shore-going new school, been so extensively encouraged in our Navy, that the articles of dress and the table leave nothing for those contingencies not only required for the rank, but incidental to our profession.* This virtually prohibits the practical veteran from assisting his son to embrace that profession, of which his father's experience would enable him to become at a future period an ornament; while, on the other hand, the French married officers, when afloat, are not only enabled to support themselves and to administer to the comforts of their families ashore, but also economize one-third of their appointments.

As the cadre of each grade is restricted by enactments to a certain number, the officers of the above classes are enabled, proportionably with the Elèves, to be kept 18 out of the 25 years constantly at sea, being the amount of time required of each French officer before he can obtain his retirement. Hence this restrictive system enforced on the officers, combined with the liberal treatment, reciprocate with the country, which is thus benefited by the establishment of practical officers, all of whom, from the Elève to that of Commander, rise by gradual seniority. A proportion of each grade, however, is reserved, in cases only of extraordinary merit, for the exercise of the king's prerogative, for which an exclusive gazette is necessary. Thus at least two-thirds of the French Lieutenants are constantly at sea, while in the English Navy only one-eighth are in this really desirable and necessary state, frequently creating anomalies by giving appointments from the half-pay list to old Lieutenants, almost incompetent by (as it were) a forced retirement of 15 and 20 years, and thus bringing them over the heads of officers, their juniors in rank, but superior in practical seamanship: the government appearing to consent to an extravagant expenditure, and the increase of unpractical and useless officers, by the illadvised and cruel rejection of the veteran classes; to gradually create by their neglect a body of avowed hostility, which would subsequently force, by numbers and despair, their claims on the country's notice; would neglect the public weal and sound principles for private patronage and expediency in short, would commit any extravagance, rather than abandon the only hopes of securing that political atmosphere in which they have ever been accustomed to exist.

Although the rank of Commander is guaranteed to every Elève in right of seniority or merit, he is not, after the attainment of this rank, disposed of in a summary manner, or his claims resisted on the plea of the simple quarterings of his shield, his want of influence, or, that still greater want, a strong purse as a corruptive principle in electional matters. No; these stoppers to his preferment are not brought to bear on him. On the contrary, a conviction of the justice which animates the Minis

"The gun-room officers' mess costs them each 100 francs monthly without wine, there being no government allowance for the table. Thus do the officers of the British Navy spend more than half of their appointments for the table; and as custom exacts a rigid propriety in their dress and in the reception of strangers, they can find with difficulty in the other half the means of meeting these expenses."-Extracted from a book entitled "Two Months on board an English Frigate, by a French Naval Officer."

ter of Marine stimulates him to the hopes of attaining that high honour of the king's adviser on questions of naval affairs, which are enjoyed in the present day by the minister who has, equally with himself, moved in the humble rank of Elève or mousse. The want of this system in our service is not only sensibly felt by the interminable and inert life, which those active but no-interest veterans are doomed to endure who head the list of their ranks, but the country is subjected to an annual increase of national debt, which, according to the statement of Sir John Barrow before the last Parliamentary Committee of the House, amounted to the sum of 150,000l. To illustrate the truth of this fact, let it be observed that, while in France the senior Lieutenant's commission, and that of the Commander's, by the lists of 1833, bear the dates of 1821 and 1822; that of the senior Lieutenant in the Royal Navy indicates the year 1778, and its Commander 1787. Thus, while with our neighbours these appointments are directly in accordance with their legitimate privileges with us, the claims are, unless too strong for evasive sophisms, invariably in an inverse ratio to merit. To applicants of a medium service, the usual political reply for appointment is "too young;" and when exhausted patience has too frequently reiterated the claim, the answer is, "too old,"-thus adding insult to misfortune.

The Admirals, also, who could only attain their rank by graduating through a long ordeal, meriting the utmost consideration of their sovereign and their country, are subjected to harsher treatment than the inferior grades, because they less demerit it. For how many are there whose servitude is double, aye treble, that of the clerks about the government offices, and who, though they are covered with wounds and empty honours gained in the exertion to keep the enemy from the doors of these very gentlemen, yet receive not one-half of the retiring pension which these soi-disant civil officers manage to extract from the public exchequer? Nay, even the application of the general principle, which went to promote one out of every three deaths, has not been extended to them or the senior Post-Captains. We, therefore, must naturally come but to one conclusion-that, in the present day, neither service, valour, merit, nor any manly qualities can avail, unless assisted by Parliamentary influence; and that, if the system be not shortly altered, the British Navy will be, bit by bit, gradually offered up as a sacrifice to appease the voracious appetite of those political supporters, who seem in the present day to consider the appointments and promotions in the Navy a just reward for their political profligacy.

Those posts of honour for which men of the world seem so well adapted, and which in France are frequently conferred, and very properly, on Admirals; such as ambassadors, ministers, and governors, are considered with us a kind of sacred property, not to be even approached by the naval hero. In France, while the three Admirals enjoy the rank of FieldMarshal, with a salary of 40,000 francs, what have our Admirals to advance? With the exception of a few paltry sinecures, what honorary appointment has he on shore? Their Vice and Rear Admirals hold between them the governments of Martinique, Guadaloupe, Bourbon, and the French establishment in India, while not a British Admiral holds the government of any of our numerous colonies; though, singular as it may appear, a few of the minor ones, which went a begging, have been doled out to a couple of old Post-Captains.

The establishment of the French Admiralty, which formerly presented a union of civil and naval functionaries, has, since the late revolution, become, with respect to its Director, purely naval, the three late ministers being all of this profession. Two naval officers, as secretaries in their uniforms, give each alternately duties to the Minister, and thus spare to naval men the pain of exposing, as has been the case with us, his grievances to officers of a rival profession. One hundred and twenty thousand francs is the income of this personage, with a sum of 5001. for his outfit; but the country is not saddled with a retiring pension on his resignation.

The half-pay of the English Navy is unknown in Frence; but after a period of 25 years' active service, the different grades become entitled to a retirement (solde de retraite), about equalling our half-pay, and proportionate to their service and merits. At his demise a part of his retired allowance is awarded to his widow, or, in her absence, to his children below the age of twenty. True,, they have no freight, and their prize money is reduced by one-third, to which the state lays claim; yet the little prize-money made in these days reduces the advantages in this respect in either country to the same level, for freight in our service is now the exclusive property of the monied interest. No man is struck off the list except for offences of great magnitude, and then he has the privilege of being tried by a court-martial.

The decorative honours, which are of five different grades, are extended in the French Navy to the Lieutenants, and no officer can obtain an advance unless he can claim it in right of successive merit, while with us it is limited to Post-Captains; and there are many Admirals, of well-known valour and long-tried experience, who have performed brilliant exploits, and received from their country unequivocal testimonies of their services, who have been passed over neglected. In France, the institutions for the education of officers' children, and preparing them for either of the military professions, are more numerous and on a more liberal footing than in England. Those officers, without fortune (sans fortune), procure easily gratuitous, or semi-gratuitous, education at the government expense; a number of purses (bourses) or half-purses being given to the Army and Navy by the Minister of Instruction, annually, while one daughter of each family of the Legion of Honour is entitled to receive a similar gratuitous education, which for eight years, at the rate of 50%. per annum, to which it amounts, is a bonus of 400/.

To the Ecole Navale (the Orion at Brest) each pupil pays 800, although his cost to government amounts to 4000 or 5000 francs, while in the Royal Naval College the English Lieutenant pays a sum equal to that which is paid by the French Admiral; and so limited are the means of our officers, so few are the public institutions to which they can claim even a partial admittance for their children, that many Post-Captains, rather than witness their children conducted to manhood without education, resort painfully to the alternative of placing them in the Naval School at Greenwich; where, by associating with the children of common seamen, who compose the great majority of the establishment, for whom it was exclusively intended, and ought to be for them alone, they in some measure nullify the advantages of a good nautical education, by reducing their social attainments to the level of the lowest