A LAY OF FREEDOM. 900 long uncrowned, fair Freedom, thou hast been, Thy name has fostered many a bloody scene, Yes, thou art slavery's fierce unconquered foe, With loud acclaim make known thy sovereign will: Proud of thy bravery and thy dauntless skill; And though thou art not throned in every land, Thou shalt be queen where perjured tyrants stand. Thy glorious battles in the days gone by But like the stars in yon eternal sky, Live on to brighten every dawning age: Like lessons read by every eager eye, And loved by every true and righteous sage: For though thy victories have been stained with gore, Thy cause is holy-sacred is thy tongue That speaks the prayers of every groaning state, In words as tender as a plaintive song, That tells of some poor outcast's tragic fate : For those whom thou art with have suffered long, For justice like imprisoned children wait; Desert them not, but when their hour has come Rise up and boldly strike their rulers dumb! The good of every land, fair Freedom, own. Thy worth, and pine to see thy beauteous face, Like culprits chained in some small sunless place; Thy struggles have inspired the weak and low, In nations, as when storms have ceased to blow, And Heaven gleams through the clouds that break and part; Still chainless as the wind that roams the plain, Thou mayst be curbed, but never, never slain! S. H. BRADBURY. ALABAMAS OF THE FUTURE. O feature of our foreign policy possesses at the present time anything like the interest and importance which attach to the "Alabama claims," and there is little likelihood that the name of this ship will be forgotten by future generations, either in England or America, even if it does not become associated with anything more serious than the efforts of the diplomatists of the two countries. We do not in this article propose to say much of her exploits-are they not written in the book of Captain Semmes ?-but to draw attention to some of the lessons in naval policy so forcibly taught by her career, and to describe the attempts made by the Americans and ourselves to profit by the experience thus gained. Looked at from this point of view, her history is soon told. A ship of very moderate dimensions (900 tons burden), of far from high speed under steam-said by Captain Semmes not to exceed ten knots per hour-and with a light armament, but fully rigged and speedy under sail, did much in the course of two years towards destroying the mercantile marine which at the outbreak of the war stood next to our own in the carrying trade of the world. It is true that in performing these services the Alabama had the help of one or two similar cruisers, but to her fell the lion's share both of the service and the fame. The Sumter led the way, and did good service, but she was not at all to be compared to the Alabama; and the names of the Florida and Shenandoah have almost faded out of the public memory, while the mere mention of the Alabama's name brings back to all our minds the vivid recollection of the time when every paragraph of news respecting her doings was eagerly devoured, and when the latest information respecting her whereabouts was looked for almost with as much interest as news from the mighty armies then face to face. In America, as we can well understand, even a deeper interest was taken in her doings, both by the Federals and the Confederates, the one regarding her as a pirate preying upon their unprotected merchant ships, the other as a gallant upholder of the Confederate power. We have no means of judging how great the amount of damage actually done by the Alabama may have been; but, while Mr. Sumner's late estimate is pro bably a little too high, there can be no doubt that the actual loss of property to the citizens of the Northern States, added to the loss consequent on the terrible check thus put upon the development or their mercantile marine, really constituted a most important item in the balance of the national accounts rendered necessary by the civil war. There were, of course, certain conditions essential to the complete success of a cruiser like the Alabama; and we can readily discern what those conditions are, now that the events of the civil war have become matters of history. In the halcyon days when the Alabama was rapidly adding prize to prize, and Captain Semmes was increasing his collection of chronometers-which he naïvely admits it was one of his amusements "to wind and compare daily "—the Federal flag was almost entirely absent from foreign stations, nearly every available ship being used for the maintenance of the blockade, so that the Alabama in the course of her cruises only had to fight twice with war ships. The first of these actions was that with the gunboat Hatteras, which was sunk, and the second that with the Kearsage, in which the Alabama met the same fate. In nearly every sea she sailed her course was unopposed, and the record of her doings presents scarcely any other features than those connected with the capture of unarmed merchant ships. The Federals were fully conscious of the only means that would suffice to put a period to her havoc-spreading career, and as soon as ever they had provided for the still more pressing exigencies of the blockade, proceeded to construct the Kearsage and her consorts specially for the purpose of destroying the Alabama. The spectacle must, however, have been most irritating to the citizens of a powerful republic, when they had for the time to bear unresistingly the injuries done to their commerce by such an intrinsically despicable adversary; injuries which, by their frequent repetition, threatened a serious drain of vital vigour, although, like the gnat's bite, individually of little moment. The strenuous efforts required and made at this time to provide an efficient blockading force are, perhaps, appreciated by only a few of our readers. When the war broke out, the navy of the United States consisted of 42 ships in commission, 26 of these only being screw vessels of war. With this force available, the Secretary of the Navy was called upon to form the blockade of a coast-line exceeding 3000 miles in length, and abounding with inlets, ports, and inner coast-lines, while in the neighbourhood were hovering crowds of adventurous blockade runners, ready to take the risk of capture for the sake of the chance of getting safely through with their precious cargoes. Both sides fully recognised the important effect which the blockade must have if it could be completed, and in one of his Reports the Secretary of the Federal Navy thus describes the action he took under these circumstances:-" It was necessary, first of all, to make available every naval vessel, to recall our foreign squadron, to increase our force by building new vessels, and by procuring for naval purposes from the merchant service every steamer which could be made a fighting vessel, to enlarge at once the capacity of the navy yards, to put into requisition the founderies and the workshops of the country for supplies of ordnance and steam machinery, to augment the number of the seamen, and to supply the deficiency of officers by selecting experienced and able ship-masters and others from the mercantile marine." By efforts such as these the number of ships m commission was doubled within four months of the commencement of hostilities, and in nine months had risen from 42 to 264. A year after the number stood at 427, and at the end of the year 1864-about three years and three-quarters from the outbreak of the war-it had reached 671. These are noteworthy facts, and they show most conclusively that nothing but sheer inability to do more prevented the earlier construction of ships of the Kearsage class. We all know how the end came at last, and how the efforts of the Federals were rewarded. Gradually, but surely, the grasp of their blockading squadrons tightened round the Confederate coast; port after port was closed to the blockade-runners; and unable themselves to produce the munitions of war or the matériel required for the continuance of the struggle, the Confederates had to yield. Had they become possessed of any armoured war ships which could have broken the blockade, the result might have been different, or at least the end would not have come so soon. But while the Federal war-fleet, numerous as it soon became, was fully occupied in keeping watch and ward along the Southern coast, the Sumter and other cruisers at first, and afterwards the Alabama, were roving far and wide, and bringing home most unpleasantly to the minds of Northern ship-owners the fact, that while the Confederates had no navy that could meet their own, they had ships afloat which could overhaul, capture, and ransom or destroy any merchantman. In the instructions which Captain Semmes received before sailing in the Sumter he was ordered "to do the enemy's commerce the greatest injury in the shortest time;" and certainly all the cruisers equipped by the Confederates acted up to the letter of these instructions. The policy adopted by the Southern States was not at all a new one, it was only a repetition of that which, under the name |