REVIEW.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1298, 17 May 1878, Page 3

REVIEW.

“THE NINETEENTH CENTURY,” Mahch, 1878. [feom the pbbss.] The place of honor in this month’s “ Nineteenth Century ” is very properly and worthily given to the Laureate “ ‘ The Revenge,’ a Ballad of the Fleet,” is printed in big, bold type, which spreads it over eight pages of the Review. The time of its appearance is most - opportune, for at any moment the new ironclads may be called to do what was so often and splendidly done by the “old wooden walls maintain and advance the honor of old England as the mistress of the sea. What the “Charge of the Light Brigade ” did for the army this stirring sea song will do in some degree for the navy. The battle which was fought by Sir Richard Grenville in a single ship against the Spanish navy, in 1590, has been celebrated more than once, both in verse and in prose. As usual with Tennyson, he has caught up every striking feature of the famous scene, and has reproduced it in his own felicitous and incomparable language. Not that the poem is as perfect as it should be when Tennyson is the writer. There is plenty of fire, of pictorial phrase, of suggestive epithet. But there is a lack of the laureate’s usual smoothness and melody. The poem is wanting in ease and polish. The two finest stanzas are the following. Seeing the tremendous odds against them the English crew asked the gallant commander— “ Shall we fight or shall we fly ? Good Sir Richard, let us know, For to fight is but to die.” Said Sir Richard — “ Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil, For I never turned my back, upon don or devil yet.” “ Sir Richard spoke, and he laughed, and we roared a hurrah, and so The little ‘ Revenge’ ran on, sheer into the heart of the foe, With her hundred fighters on deck, and her ninety-six below ; For half of their fleet to the right, and half to the left were seen, And the little Revenge ran on, thro’ the long sea lane between. And the sun went down, and the stars came out, far over the summer sea, But never a moment ceased the fight of the one and the fifiy-thieo. Ship after ship, the whole night long, their high built galleons came, Ship after ship, the whole night long, with her battle thunder and flame, Ship after ship, the whole night long, drew back with her dead and her shame ; For some were sunk, and many were shattered, and so couid fight us no more, — God of battles, was ever battle like this in the world before ?” The news has reached us that Sir Garnet Wolseley is to be second in command should England be compelled to settle the Eastern question by force of arms. What Sir Garnet, therefore, has to say on “ England as a Military Power ” is sure to attract attention. And what he says is most reassuring. At no previous period in our history have we ever been so strong in a military sense as at present. “ In 1854 we were very weak in field artillery; the military force in these islands was under 70,000 men, and there was no reserve whatever beyond some pensioners who were too old for field service. Were war declared tomorrow, about 400,000 drilled men would fall into line if required, supported by 372 field guns, manned and horsed by the Royal Artillery.” “ When I compare the military strength of England now with what it was in 1854, I am as amazed at the condition of military weakness and helplessness in which we were when we began the Russian war of that year, as I am at the ignorance of those who are now to be heard croaking over our supposed want of strength and our alleged consequent inability to fight. Unlike most other nations, if we declare war we need have no apprehension of invasion ; this confers upon us the great advantage of being able to choose our own time for beginning active hostilities, and as our army would necessarily have to be conveyed by sea to the theatre of war, we are always able to select the line of operations considered best and most suitable to the force we act with. In fact, the initiative would rest with us, and I need not tell the student of history how invaluable it is to the commander who knows how to take advantage of it.” (455.) There is another part of the article to which it may not be useless to call special attention. It shows that our Government have not been a minute too soon in telegraphing for the 64 pounders. When the Czar’s army crossed the Pruth, his ironclad squadron was despatched from Europe to America — clearly to be out of the way of the British fleet, and then to menace and pillage the colonies. “Consider,” says Sir Garnet, “ what that insignificant squadron might have done against us. Being kept ready coaled and prepared for sea, as soon as the the telegraph announced the declaration of war, it would most probably have started for St. Helena, picking up some of our finest West India and South American steamers on its way. On arrival at St. Helena, it would most likely have found there one of the small English wooden war vessels belonging to our West Coast of Africa squadron. Such a vessel would of course have fallen an easy prey to the Russians who, filling with coal, burning all they could not carry away, and having taken from Jamestown as much money as it could pay to save it from destruction, would steam for Simon’s Bay, where the same performance would be gone through There we have a small dock-yard establishment, and almost always one or two war vessels. All would be destroyed, as well as every coal store in Cape Town. Every merchantman in Tabic Bay—and there is always a large quantity of shipping there—would be captured, and most probably burnt. This gams would then be repeated at the Mauritius, Aden, Bombay, Pointe de Galle, Singapore, and Hong Kong, whence the Russian squadron would make its way to Petropolovski, where it would he comparatively safe from our fleet.” (435). Now, every one can see that this is really no fanciful chimera. It is a thoroughly practical scheme, and had war been then declared, it would certainly have been attempted, and as the sagacious general continues, “ not only should we have thus lost millions of pounds worth of property, and several small ships flying Her Majesty’s pennant, but the destruction of the coal stores at those several ports would have completely paralysed the action of our war vessels in these seas, and would, therefore, have secured the Russians against ail danger of pursuit. It would have brought our trade to a standstill, for the merchantmen depend now nearly as much upon our ; coal as our navy does.” : Robert Walter Dale, the eminent Congres gational preacher of Birmingham, has been visiting America, and in tin' present number t of the “ Nineteenth Century ” gives his impressions of its people and their institutions. The paper is very readable. Like some other : recent tourists, ho is struck with the reserve, s the gentleness, and the good temper which t prevail not only in New York, Brooklyn, ) and Boston, but throughout the States I generally. There is clearly an immense improvement in the manners of the people since Dickens paid his lirst visit to the country, j Indeed, Dickens himself was struck with the r change for the better on his second visit. Perhaps he himself had no small share 1 in bringing it about, We know tlnjt the rei of diffupyaysk WfbooHy

brought against American -writers has had the effect of making their best authors write the tersest and clearest English in the world. The reserve spoken of is sometimes ctrried too far, as when at a lecture, or in a theatre, or at a public meeting, the audiences are so undemonstrative. When Kean was once performi 1 g in the United States, he came to the manager at the end of the third uo f , and said, “ I can’t go on the stage again, sir, if the pit keeps its hands in its pockets. Such an audience would extinguish Etna,” Alter receiving this altrming threat, the manager appeared before the curtain and informed the audience that, Mr Kean, having been accustomed to audiences more demonstrative than was habitual to the severer intelligence of an assembly of American citizens, mistook their silent attention for disapprobation ; and in short, that if they did not applaud as Mr Kean had been accustomed to be applauded, they could not have the gratification of seeing Mr Kean act as be had been accustomed to act. But though the Americans are reserved, they are very appreciative. The celebrated Oliver Wendell Holmes, himself an American, at first did not understand the quiet demeanour of his countrymen. Lecturing at some city in Vermont, he was perplexed and baffled by the unruffled severifc of the audience. There was no sign of inter< st. His brightest wit and his shrewdest humor failed to produce even a passing smile. The people sat. as if they had been in church, listening to the dullest of sermons. He was walking away with the conviction that he had made a miserable failure, when his host quietly said to him : “ Why Mr Holmes you said some realty funny things; I could hardly help laughing.” And so the lecturer was comforted.

In a very calm and dignified article Professor Tyndall writes his Just wo"d on spontaneous generation. Any one who has read carefully the arguments for and against roust feel that the truth is on the side of the Professor and not on that of Dr. Bastion, who, in his pompous “ reply ” to the physicist has left untouched the main facts and the most conclusive facts in favor of life having oorne from life only. The experiments of Tyndall actually lead him to a different conclusion from his avowed creed. It is therefore perfectly clear that no bias or prejudice has led him to his present conviction. It is simply a question of fact. And the eminent man of science affirms “that no shred of trustworthy experimental testimony exists to prove that life in our day has ever appeared independently of antecedent life.” Some of the very important discoveries in science have been made by two different persons at the same time. Such was the case with the planet N-ptune, with the new metal thallium, and with the s itellites of Mars. And such too has been the case with the liquefaction of oxygen, followed very quickly with that of nitrogen and hydrogen. Till last December this was a problem which baffled every attempt at solution. When Faraday succeeded iu liquifying the first gas, that of chlorine, he expressed a hope, even a strong conviction, that all the other gases would iu due time follow. This hope ho himself was never permitted to realise. At last it is realised by two eminent men, working one in Geneva and the other in Paris, each pursuing a different method, and each arriving at the same brilliant result. The term incondensable, as applied to gases, can be so applied no longer. And the honor o this remarkable discovery must be equally given to two Frenchmen, M. Pictol, of Geneva, and M. Caitletst, of Paris. This information, with much more of a similar kind, is conveyed in a capital article in the “ Nineteenth Century ” on “ Beoent Science,” which article has the benefit of the careful supervision of Professor Huxley.