METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER,

KEPT AT THE OBSERVATORY OF CAPT. W. H. SMYTH, AT BEDFORD.

S.W. to W. fr. breezes, sq.
W.S.W. blow. fresh, threat.
N.W. blowing hard.

W.S.W. fr. breezes, clouds.
W. by N. light breezes, clear.
S.S.E. light airs, very hazy.
S.W.toN.W.agale, overcast.
W. fr. breezes, el. breaking.
W.S.W. light airs, fine day.
S.W. light breeze, hoar frost.
S.W. light airs and cloudy.
W.N.W. light breezes, fine.
W. by N. fr. breezes, squalls.
S.W. a gale, clouds rising.
W. by N. fr. breeze, foggy.
N.W. blowing fresh, with sq.
N.N.W. blowing hard, fine.]
W.N.W. fresh breeze, fine.
'W. by N. a moderate gale.
W. light breezes, and fine.
S.S.W. high wind, hazy.
S.W. a gale, overcast.

W.S.W. light breezes, fine.
S.W. fresh breezes, squally.

S.W. light breezes, fine.
N.N.E. It. breezes, overcast.
E. by S. light airs, very fine.
E. by N. light airs, fine day.
N.N.E. It. breeze, hoar frost.
N.W. fresh breeze, cloudy.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

A will observe, by the "Apology" in our present Number, that the Indian Army has fair play at our hands, as well as zealous advocates to plead their cause, in our strictly impartial pages. Our object being solely the attainment of truth, we offer the lists fairly marshalled, and reserve ourselves as to the final award. A will thus understand why we have postponed his communication, which will remain available, if needed, for the further defence of a Force, for which we have always proved ourselves much interested.

"N. C." always welcome—unluckily too la'e for our present Number-destined for our next. "M's" communication shall have our best attention.

A Memoir of Admiral Walker in our next.

Thanks to Mr. S. — for his present and promised favours.

We shall endeavour to digest a satisfactory reply to "A Subaltern's" very proper query.

We can only refer "Au Assistant-Surgeon, R.N." to the existing orders upon the subject of his inquiry.

Mr. F.'s plan is startling, but shall receive due consideration, and, if fitting, insertion.

"E. M. S." is associated with many other Correspondents on the same subject, the Trisection of an Angle, the investigation of which we shall assist, as far as our limits permit.

We thank Lieut. C, R.N. for his suggestion, to which we shall take an opportunity of adverting. The letter of " C. H. S." (Devonport,) reached us too late for insertion last month. The purport is just, but at present would appear out of season.

The paper of Mr. W. (Porchester,) in our next. We shall be happy to hear further from him. The First Letter of " A Veteran Soldier" would have been imperfect without the portion he wished expunged. We regret that his last was too late.

We feel for "An Old Soldier's" difficulty, but the quantity of our matter compels us to stow it compactly.

We request that Communications, intended for immediate insertion, may be transmitted as early as possible in the month.

ON THE MARITIME POPULATION OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

NO. II.

IN our Number for November last, we endeavoured to direct public attention to some of the many evils, moral and political, which certain systems and expedients resorted to by Government in the course of the French revolutionary war, have entailed upon the maritime population of the empire. We adverted to the political necessity of impressment, and to the positive iniquity of converting King's ships into engines of punishment for convicts and felons, as the two great causes of evil, not only to the royal but also to the commercial navy during the war; and we trust that we satisfied our readers that the "lumper monopoly," as pursued by the Dock companies in the river Thames since the peace, has proved a most fruitful source of misery and of moral degradation to our seamen of all ranks and conditions. In offering our remarks, we have been entirely guided by an honest zeal for the welfare of a most useful and interesting portion of our fellow-subjects; we have pointed out errors and evils, avoiding exaggerated statement son the one hand, and querulous misrepresentation of facts on the other; we again assert that the moral regeneration of our gallant tars is within reach of the legislature, and should our weak voice succeed in awakening the smallest attention to their wants and requirements, we shall consider ourselves most abundantly rewarded. On the subject of impressment, we have hitherto contented ourselves with merely pointing out the baneful effect of that truly singular anomaly in the constitution of a free people; we may call it one of the last stumbling-blocks which the feudal system has left in the way of improvement, forming a part of the royal prerogative which enabled the monarch to compel the services of any of his subjects in a more remote period of our history-and sanctioned by imperious necessity in our own times-its discussion (particularly in time of war) was most strenuously avoided by all parties, from the wildest reformer to the most outrageous philanthropist, till our worthy friends, the Whigs, settled the matter for a time (see the Jervis Act), and decreed that the resistance of an impress warrant on the part of a seaman amounted to felony. We have now before us the schemes and speculations of many able and intelligent men, on the various modes of manning our fleet in case of sudden emergency, a subject worthy of our most serious consideration, involving, we may say, the best interests, the security, and even the existence of the empire; and we have, moreover, the crude undigested theories of many persons who seem to have been possessed of very little ability or intelligence of any kind; but as neither the subject of impressment, nor that of registration which has been proposed as a means of modifying the rigour of the impress laws, come within the purposes of our present design, (which is merely to point

*

This obtained so late as the reign of James the First, who enjoyed, or at least exercised, the prerogative of employing any man (even without his consent) in any branch of public service. On one occasion he sent Sir Dudley Digges, Sir Thomas Crew, and others, commissioners to Ireland, as a punishment for opposing him in Parliament.-Hume.

U. S. JOURN. No. 39. FEB. 1832.

L

out the evil consequences which those laws have entailed upon our maritime population,) we shall reserve the discussion for another opportunity. Nor is it our intention to offer any farther observations on the impolicy and injustice of again having recourse to the convict system of manning our ships; we have this satisfaction, however, that even should no compunctious visitings oppose themselves to the wishes of the civil magistrate, who, in the event of a war, might be anxious to get rid of his vagabonds by sending them into the navy; we have, we say, the satisfaction to know that he will not find it so easy a matter as in former times; the days of blockading squadrons are long since passed, and the days of large fleets appear to be already numbered; the inventions of James Watt in the nineteenth century are about to produce as vast and as important changes in the art of naval warfare, as those of the German Schwartz did upon warfare in general in the fifteenth century; and the harbour of Navarino has in all probability witnessed the last instance of one fleet destroying another on the olden principle.

In directing the attention of our readers to the London Dock system, we have endeavoured to show the very pernicious effect produced by that scheme of monopoly upon the minds and morals of our seamen; and we would fearlessly appeal to any one in the slightest degree acquainted with the subject, or who will give it one moment's consideration, to say, if in common justice to our seamen they ought not, not only to have permission, but even receive a decided preference in unloading those ships in which they have faithfully performed their voyages, instead of being cast idle upon the streets of London the moment their ship gets into dock. And we would bid all those who may wish for farther information on this most important subject, to consult some of the many benevolent individuals whose kind and affectionate endeavours have long been directed to a higher and a holier aim, than the mere temporal welfare of our seamen; and they will assure them that the greatest obstacle which opposes itself to the moral, the intellectual, and the religious improvement of sailors in the port of London is that remorseless system (the Dock) which sends them forth the moment they have completed their voyage, in all the gaiety of unreflecting security, to become the immediate prey of the sharpers, crimps, publicans, and prostitutes of a profligate metropolis.

The many advantages which the seamen of the metropolis would otherwise derive from the floating-chapels, schools, receiving-houses, &c. which have been established since the peace, are in a great measure circumscribed by the idleness and vice created by the Dock system. They who say that it is injudicious to encourage education amongst sailors, must have studied human nature to very little purpose, or be utterly blind to passing events. Let us consider the awful distance between the intellectual and the unthinking man, and say if it is not a thing to be wished for and rejoiced in, that our seamen should be advanced by education, we may almost say, in the scale of existence. The community at large has lately had abundant experience of the licentiousness, vice, and brutality proceeding from the ignorance of the lower orders in various parts of the country; such scenes must awaken the most indolent and unreflecting to a sense not only of their duty but also of their danger, and show them that

without universal instruction the country cannot expect to prosper. The moral and religious education of our seamen, therefore, becomes not only an act of piety and benevolence, but it is one of self-defence and self-preservation. The seamen at the outports are, generally speaking, much better behaved, both at sea and in harbour, than those from the port of London, a circumstance that may easily be traced to a somewhat better system being pursued; for instance, they are in certain cases enabled to maintain that connection which ought at all times to exist between the sailors and the ship-owners, by being suffered to work about the ships when in harbour. This naturally encourages them to consider themselves the citizens, and not the outcasts of a free country. The education of seamen is, however, but too much neglected throughout the whole empire.

It is to the immortal honour of that great and noble-minded Prince, who so long and so ably presided over the British army, that he encouraged universal education in that branch of His Majesty's service, and the system of instruction which he introduced, if fully carried into effect, would give to British troops a moral superiority over the soldiers of every other power on earth. We sincerely regret that a like attention has not been paid to the moral and intellectual instruction of the young people in His Majesty's fleets, or in the commercial marine of the empire.

Before leaving the subject of "river monopoly," we would offer a few observations on some portions of that most magnificent and complicated machinery of impost and exaction, employed, to the no small discomfort of the citizens at large, by those who have the direction and regulation of the coal trade; not that we feel much compassion for the worthy citizens who at this inclement season of the year are blowing their fingers, cursing the high price of coals, and wondering that the reduction of duty has brought with it no reduction of price; but that the shipping interest is, to a certain degree, concerned; we would suffer them to wonder and blow on. It is no part of our present design to meddle with the profits or the patronage, or even the gluttony, of the worshipful corporation, so far as the land is concerned, and so peace be to fitters and meters, deputies, clerks, factors and their assistants; may they enjoy their many good things with thankfulness. It is of whippers and undertakers, and gin-shop keepers, that we would speak; those worthies to whom the monopoly of discharging coal vessels is consigned, which otherwise would be done by British seamen, as is the case in every other port in the kingdom; and we shall show that this single item of exaction costs the citizens of London upwards of one hundred thousand tons of coals in the course of the year. But let us look for one moment to the report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons.

"The whole system by law provided for the discharge of colliers into the barges is altogether defective. The allowance made to whippers by law amounting to 3s. for each score of twenty chaldrons, being higher than the present wages of labour, much abuse has arisen in the distribution of the excess. It appears that the undertakers, who usually provide the gangs of whippers for unloading the vessels, connect themselves with publicans and shopkeepers, and compel the men whom they choose to employ to purchase liquor and goods from those persons upon very disadvantageous terms.