RECOLLECTIONS OF PORTSMOUTH.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 219, 25 November 1859, Page 3

RECOLLECTIONS OF PORTSMOUTH.

(i?y a Naval Officer, in the United Service Magazine

for August.) My first recollections of Portsmouth were of a comparatively early date; some years it is true after Nelson's cypress wreathed victory had swept from the sea the maritime strength of France and Spain, but there still remained plenty of laurels for our hardy tars to gain, and they reaped a plentiful harvest of them. The sympathies of the nation were with our sailors, for the remembrance of how they had fought and saved England;was still fresh in men's minds; though with this feeling was intermixed a painful, though carefully concealed conciousness, that the brave men who had so nobly and unsparingly shed their blood for their country, were, whilst being lauded as heroes, often but little better treated than slaves. The army was then the least popular, ser-vice of the two, for it had onlyjust commenced, under Wellington that brilliant career of victory which, culminating at Waterloo* threw for a time the sister service in: She shade, and caused it to be treated with unmerited coldness and neglect. The sailors of those days, ever buffeted by the waves, and battling witb. enemies or storms, were rough, weatherbeaten, war-worn looking fellows* with all the peculiar characteristics of their calling most unmistakea.bly stamped upon them and the knowledge of the hardships they had undergone, and the. dangers they had encountered, gave, rise to a, feeling of professional, pride in both officers ap,d men, 'which made them look down upon a landsman with a very considerable degree of contempt. At the^tima X speak of, a large fleet was at pithead, the harbor was filled with renting aijd newly commissioned shiips, and. the. streets swarmed wit'a officers and. men, clothed in navy bl^e-r-not the iqaietest or most respe^ble, streets, in the worldi I must conjess, for there was much both to. shp#k ttjhe.; eaj; and offend the eye; but in tbose days profligacy was lessoouceal.ed thau it is at present, when an attempt is ma,de to enshroud it by a veil of decency from the view of lII© public j and if Jack were moje ooarse and open in his consm\ than his neighbors, I very much doubt whether he was in reality one whit more dissipated or depraved. Some years had elapsed wh©a I again visitectPoftsrooutb,; i^ th« intwval^ tM» Iwi cony^^iw ■ t^wj|

war had ceased; Napoleon, Prometheus-like chained to the Atlantic rock, loomed iff th» distance, an awful warning to the age-*-a living sacrifice to the Moloch of the pan. Peace ! peace! was in everybody's mouth and. whilst peace once more smiled her soft smile upon the long-suffering world, nations were for a moment dazzled by the purity of her spotless robe, and forgetting to hate, exclaimed we will have no more war! Acting on an impulse of this nature, and urged on when it had ceased to operate by an endeavor to reduce our enormous expenditure within moderate limits, and relieve the over-taxed people from the weight of. .some of their heaviest burdens, retrenchment became the order of the day, and our naval and military establishments were^ cut down with an unsparing hand. What a change for the navy ! what a change for Portsmouth! Sailors paid oft* from their ships and unable to get employment were starving in the streets; with the natural recklessness [of men accustomed to regard money as a mere means of obtaining <a certain amount of animal gratification, their hardly-earned wages had become quickly squandered in drunken frolics, scattered in very wantonness, or stolen from them by the miserable occupants of the low lodging houses which they frequented. Some ot them had not been allowed to leave their ships for years; they had become brutalized by the life they had been obliged to lead, and were then reproached for being what they were, —for being what along period of imprisonment and toil had made them. "This was the condition of a very large proportion of j men; the mass of the officers were not j very much better off, but they had their ■ half-pay, and on it many a poor fellow struggled through a dreary life, of poverty and disappointment. Immediately in front of the hotel, in which I found myself pn6e more domiciled, was the dingy^-looking house formerly occupied by the Port Admiral, but which has been for some, | years past the official residence of the Lieutenant-Governor. Instead of th 6 ! groups of naval officers and sailors by which its neighbourhood was once distinguished, and the uninterrupted stream of blue jacket comers and goers which flowed between it and the classic shores of Sallyport and Point, a solitary sentinel paced up and down, and two or three lounging soldiers at the shabby entrance of an adjoining house, proclaimed to all the world; a public-office. Soldiers passed and repassed in quick succession; a tall man in blue with a book, a short one in red, with a rattan cane—a much bewhiskered officer, with clanking sword and jingling spurt, seemingly determined that he should be heard as well as seen; and now, marching with measured tread, two men in green, with a prisoner between them; a hangdoglooking ruffian, yet defiant withal, and pretending to rejoice in the privilege conferred upon him of having his wrists decorated with iron cuffs; not the less food for powder, and, let us charitably hope, ft better soldier in the field than in the camp. The scene was novel and amusing, but after a short time, the painful conviction stole upon me that in this, the chief naval arsenal of the empire, I had not as, yet seen one solitary specimen of the British sailor. I consoled myself with the Meat that I should find them in the Dockyard, and on the Hard, and I decided upon going to the latter place without delay. I returned from my ramble dispirited and depressed; I had hoped to. have seen our gallant tars, if not in crowds, at least in considerable numbers, and exhibiting in their persons that love for neatness for which they have been for so long a period popularly associated; what was my disappointment! a few dirty-looking men, in ill-cared for blue suits of various shapes and patterns, with badly-made, and but too often greasy cloth caps, were chatting together in the close vicinity of the different public houses, with which the Hard abounds. They were shabby-looking fellows, who* took no notice whatever of the military officers who might pass them, and bat little. more of those who wore the uniform other Majesty's Navy. I felt that I ought not! t©, regard these as favorable, or, perhaps, even, as average specimens of their class, yet I saw but one exception, and that was a well-dressed, respectable-looking seaman* coming out of a grocer's shop with a basket on his arm; who certainly cameuptftifiy idea of what a man-of-war's ma. a ought to be, and was, I found, the coxswain of a captain's gig. Such were the first impressions, created by my last visit to Portsmouth* impressions that may have been a little modified, but were most certainly not des?troyed by any information subsequent iaquiry enabled me. to gain. :

The French Empress and the War,—>A Paris correspondent of the Bostmi Post say* • that the Empress Eugenic, as Regent, is said to have given great cause of uneasiness by her behaviour at the Council. She broke forth into an opinion of her own which astonished them all. She declared the war to be unjust and wicked, expressed her conviction that it would never come to a, prosperous end* and, in the mid9t of sobs and exclamations begged the Council, by sundry appeals and passionate entreaties, immediately to cause the strife to. cease; then betraying that all these ideas had beea lodged in her beautiful head by no less a> personage than the Archbishop; of Paris* she went off into a fit of mild moist hysterics* and sinking back in her chair, coveted her face with her handkerchief, and spoke no more.

A Frenchman says that th» principal productions of Great Britain are east winds,. fogs,; rheumatism, pulmonary complaints,, and taxes; and that her imports are logwood for her port wine drinkers, and chickory for layers of old Mocha.

An iwiiacreet, man is more hurtful than an ill-natured one, because he in]owi inbotl> friends tndfoef.