On the Supposed Contagious Property of Yellow-Fever. By Dr. W. Fergusson, Inspector-General of Army Hospitals. Earl St. Vincent and Captain Brenton Journal of the Movements of the 43rd Regiment in North America Petition of Launcelot Subcut, M. D., Assistant-Surgeon Further Notices of the Port of Brest. By an Oxonian Capture of the Formidable, slaver, by H.M. brig Buzzard THE UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL. ON NAVAL BIOGRAPHY. STRICTURES ON SIR J. BARROW'S LIFE OF LORD HOWE. (Concluded.) THE noble and judicious conduct of Lord Howe, in the eventful mutiny of 1797, affords Sir John Barrow an opportunity of expatiating on the condition of the seamen of the Royal Navy, respecting whom, more political myopism has perhaps been broached, than on any other of the agitations by which the Demus delighteth to be tickled ;-and we are much gratified to find that our own views of the same subject— repeatedly expressed in these pages-are fully corroborated on such authority. Those demagogues who so often traduce in words what they approve of and adopt in fact, in decrying our whole naval system, are especially given to dilate upon the superior pay and personal liberty enjoyed by the merchant tars over those of the pendant. Freedom and money are certainly sonorous terms, and must be very taking to the uninitiated Who scorn the rules of martial law to keep, Yet fain the harvests of the globe would reap. But such reasoners are mightily inclined to overlook the low tyranny, indifferent diet, dirt, and deficient accommodation to which merchantmen are liable; as well as that their wages cease altogether the moment the ship returns home, when the crew, without further thought or consideration-whether aged, maimed, or sick-are cast adrift to shift as they may. Contrast this with the Baronet's statement of the man-ofwar's man's condition and prospects, a statement which, as it cannot be too widely disseminated, we beg to insert : "Successive Boards of Admiralty have been emulous in their endeavours to better the condition of the seamen, which is now, in fact, superior to that of almost any class of men who must earn a subsistence by the sweat of their brow. A man-of-war's man is better fed, better lodged, better and cheaper clothed, and in sickness, better taken care of, than any class of labouring men; and when he has completed twenty-one years' service, he may retire, if he wishes it, with a pension for life, from tenpence to fourteen-pence a day; and if severely wounded, more than double these sums; or if discharged after fourteen years, or less, for sickness or debility contracted in the service, a pension of sixpence or nine-pence a day. Petty and non-commissioned officers have increased pensions, U. S. JOURN, No. 114, MAY, 1838. B according to the petty or non-commissioned time they may have served. To show the difference since the time of the Mutiny, it may be observed that the number of these out-pensioners at that period was about 1500; at the present time they are from 18,000 to 20,000, and the average amount of the pension of each person is at least as three to one. "Again, when seamen are worn out by old age or infirmity, that noble asylum at Greenwich, unparalleled in the world, is open for the consideration of their claims. The number at present therein is nearly 3000. As a further encouragement for good conduct, and a service of twenty-one years, gratuities are awarded to a certain number of seamen and marines, on the paying off of each ship, which entitle them also to wear a silver medal of the size of half-a-crown, at the third button-hole of their jackets, having on one side of it the words- For long service and good conduct,' and on the other, an anchor and crown. Annexed to Greenwich Hospital is a splendid building, in the midst of a beautiful piece of ground, appropriated as a school for 800 boys and 200 girls, who receive an excellent education; many of the boys in the upper school attaining such progress in mathematics, astronomy, and navigation, as to make them sought after in the merchant service, where by good conduct they become mates and masters. "To every ship in the Navy, and to every mess, the Bible, and other books of religious instruction, and also of amusement, are allowed; and the present Board of Admiralty, anxious to extend the advantages of edu cation to the petty officers, seamen, marines, and boys of the fleet, have recently authorized an additional rating of first-class petty officers, in every ship, under the name of Seaman's Schoolmaster,' whom all may attend, and all the boys are required to do so. They are instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic, trigonometry, and keeping a ship's reckoning at sea." The benefits here enumerated, ought to be far more generally made known among the nautic multitude-to use a phrase from Xenophonthan they appear yet to have been. There is evidently a something still wanting, or there would not be the existing difficulty of procuring seamen for the few ships at present in commission. With respect to Sir James Graham's bill for the encouragement of volunteers, it is not reported to work well, as, indeed, we predicted. Some might allege the cat as a preventive; it is truly a grating affair, but the power of gangway punishment is now exercised under sufficient form and regulation to prevent its being capriciously inflicted. The abolition of flogging became one of the stock shouts of the parliamentary pigmies, who will never be brought to allow that the opinions of practical men are entitled to as much attention as those of theorists, and therefore cannot perceive the extreme peril to which they expose the effective discipline of the nation's bulwark. It is the belief of our best and kindest officers, that the summary though disagreeable system which has so long obtained, is far more efficacious, as well as less injurious to the public, than all the solitary confinement, black-listing, stopping of grog, apportioning extra duties, and the other new and obnoxious substitutes recommended. But the complaint itself is not from the fleet. It is well known that, for the last fifty years, the attention of naval officers has *An able seaman in the merchant-service now has forty-five shillings a calendar month, and all told. The man-of-war's man has thirty-four shillings per lunar month, with the advantages above detailed,- besides the bounty, systematic victualling, medical attendance, regular work, and prospects of promotion and prizemoney. been strongly directed to the consideration and comforts of the men committed to their charge; and though corporal punishment and impressment were rife and favourite cries with the humanity-mongers, and their well-meaning but weak-minded allies, it is a striking fact, that so necessary for the preservation of right and order did the seamen themselves think these evils, that they were not once alluded to in the detailed statements of their grievances which they presented to the King, the Admiralty, and the House of Commons, in the memorable mutiny of 1797. From the treatment of the seamen, we turn to the state of their officers, a body now amounting to nearly 8000, of whom more than a third are not likely to allow their nostrils to inhale bilge-water again. As most of these gentlemen, in surrendering their best days to the service of their country, have debarred themselves from all the sources of personal emolument, the stipend on which they subsist is sufficiently small; while their station in society is not a bit the better for the taunts of the split-farthing economists. Now, even though idlers and incapables may have crept in upon so extensive a list, what righteous or patriotic man can deny the claims of the body to the gratitude and support of the nation? In the hour of danger, and when the scalingladders were actually planted against the walls, it was readily admitted that every person who serves faithfully is entitled to compensation for such devotion, according to the rank and nature of the situation in which the services were performed. Now if this right be claimed by civilians, who usually serve in situations of ease and comfort, it surely cannot be denied to those who embrace a life of danger, toil, and privation; and the Navy, therefore, through all its grades and offices, requires the utmost consideration which an indulgent government can manifest. The remarks of Sir John Barrow, however, refer mainly to the superior classes of naval officers; and he has treated the knotty and contested topic of flag promotions with great attention. As the formation of an effective list is the all-engrossing theme of the hour, among the true-blues, we shall insert our author's comments, since, flowing from such a source, they bear somewhat of an official stamp. We must premise that, in 1827, his late Majesty, then Lord High Admiral, procured an Order in Council, by which it was enacted, that all Captains who shall in future be set aside at any flag promotion, may be appointed retired Rear-Admirals, provided they retain an unblemished character, and have not avoided or declined serving. The provision for effective preferment enacts, that Captains who shall have commanded one or more rated ships four years during war, or six complete years during peace, or five years of war and peace, shall, if considered eligible for character and qualifications, be deemed entitled to become flag-officers of the fleet. On the spirit and letter of these preliminaries Sir John thus descants: "There is still some absurdity, and great injustice, in this regulation. The injustice and hardship of this order consist in the difficulty, perhaps it may be said impossibility, of a great number of Captains, however high their character, having a chance even of being able to procure appointments to command ships for the specific periods, especially during peace; in consequence of which the very best officers in the Service, being thus disqualified, must be passed over-the absurdity is, that officers, however old, infirm, and helpless, having completed the proper time of service, and being therefore qualified, must be promoted to the rank of RearAdmiral, and placed on the effective list: for it may be observed, that the other qualifications of eligibility, mentioned in the Order in Council, have not been taken into any consideration. It is more than probable, therefore, that selection, for which Lord Howe was so much abused in the House of Commons, will be the next rule resorted to; and that officers must be content to rest their claims, where alone they can be best known, on the equitable decision of the Board of Admiralty, which can, or ought to, have no other object than to select those who will do most credit to its administration of naval affairs, by their characters, services, and efficiency. "When the state of the list of Captains is looked into-when the ages of those within 200 of the top are considered, and the little probability of another brevet promotion speedily happening, and when, if ever it does happen, the few that can be deemed eligible for the effective flag-the necessity of doing something to clear that list must be apparent; and perhaps the simplest and most equitable mode of proceeding would be, to let it be generally understood that, on application to the Lords of the Admiralty, any Captain within the 200, who shall not have declined or avoided service,' will be allowed to retire with 3651. a-year (or some other sum) for the remainder of his life, with the rank of retired Rear-Admiral. A stipend to this amount, commencing immediately, would probably be considered by many preferable to an indefinitely deferred annuity of 4507. the half-pay of a Rear-Admiral. "A motion, it seems, has been made by a Captain of the Navy, and carried, in the House of Commons, to clear the Captains' list of non-effective officers by survey, an ordeal to which few Captains will probably submit. A voluntary retirement must be far more acceptable than a compulsory one thus procured. But while clearing the Captains' list, are the Admirals, composed, as they mostly must be, of old and inefficient Captains, and not the better for increasing years-are they to be exempt from survey, and to go on in their promotion from the lowest to the highest rank? Is an inefficient Captain, made, as by the present order he must be, an effective Rear-Admiral, and some twenty years afterwards, when is he to be promoted to a full Admiral, with nearly a double increase of half-pay?" To these observations we take the liberty of appending a few strictures, although we at once acknowledge their general liberality and reasonableness. There can be no question that some system of dividing those who are in full possession of their mental and physical powers from the non-effective and effete, or those incapacitated by accident or circumstance from active service, and thereby allow the swollen Navy List to collapse, is becoming daily more imperative. But in establishing the desired retirement, the process ought to be effected with a tone and feeling commensurate with the magnitude and delicacy of the object, and in no way to compromise the respect due to the high rank which a seniority among the Captains confers upon him who gains it, or the example will be injurious both to the aspirants and the public. On this account, we beg to remind Sir John, that he is mistaken in supposing that the "Captain of the Navy" intended to clear the list of its non-effective officers by survey-at least, we are not aware that so harsh an ordeal was ever contemplated by Captain Dundas, nor that the detracting word appears in his recent motion. This considerate |