shops, supplying all the articles required for the consumption of the towns-people, it would materially interfere with the independent shop-keepers-particularly as the co-operators, from their superior education, would be likely to excel these in skill, and, by working for themselves, would be able to undersell them in price. But this effect must inevitably be slow; the present generation would scarcely feel it; and as to the next, as they gradually come into employment, they will betake themselves, we may suppose, to those modes of living in which there may appear the fairest prospect of a maintenance. The co-operators would seem to have as fair a right to these niches in society as those who are unborn.

Other evils may be anticipated, or rather the same evil in different shapes;-for all resolve themselves into the fear, that the working classes might become so independent that the unworking classes would not have sufficient control over them, and would be ultimately obliged to work for themselves; but we think that these are visionary fears. The disposition to live in a community, and by that means relinquish the good as well as the evil, the hopes as well as the fears of independence, is never likely to attract a very large number even of the lower classes; especially Englishmen, who have more of repulsion and less of attraction in their composition than most people. A very small number of them ever attain competence or wealth; but every man thinks he may be the happy man, and many would not relinquish that chance for the comforts and dependence of a community. It would be giving up all the pleasures of hope and ambition, which stirring spirits cannot live without. Beside this, supposing these associations were to succeed splendidly, how long would they last? Nothing is more probable, than that, finding that their common property had become so large they did not know what to do with it, they might come to the resolution of selling it, dividing the spoil, and separating again into independent members of society. Man is a restless and dissatisfied animal; as long as he is hunted by the dread of poverty, he thinks that any plan which offers him a comfortable provision and a tranquil mind, comprehends every thing in life; but let him continue in this state so long as to forget what it is to feel or to fear hunger, and will he not begin to think his mode of life insipid, and long for a more adventurous one? There is another, and a very serious point to be considered. The most active manager of the Brighton Society, the man that kept their shop, left them lately, and went to America. On inquiry, nothing of dishonesty appeared against him; but had it been otherwise-had he plundered or embezzled the joint stock, of which he was in part the owner, he could not have been proceeded against criminally; and the other members would have

had

had no remedy but a chancery suit. The law respecting partnership, therefore, must be taken into view, when we would form an estimate of the probable permanence of such societies in this country. It would be absurd to overlook these difficulties: at the same time, they should not be rashly pronounced insurmountable. No scheme can be devised for improving the condition of the poor which shall not be liable to some objections and apprehensions; but they must be shown to be equally certain and great as the evils which at present exist, before we admit them as conclusive against the scheme.

We have ventured on the above reflections concerning the tendency of co-operative communities-but we offer them only as conjectures, and with a diffidence proportioned to the uncertainty of the events to which they relate. These societies are all of them of too recent establishment to allow of our forming any judgment at present concerning their future progress and ultimate effects. Whether co-operation will make a stir among the working classes for a few years only, and then die away and be heard of no more; or whether it will increase and multiply throughout the island; what influence, finally, supposing them to succeed, this new organization of society among the working classes would have on the aristocracies of capital and rank-all these are questions which we are not far-sighted enough to determine with the naked eye, and we have no telescope through which we can see clearly. The political economists will, of course, point their glasses at the distance, and calculate the result with unfailing certainty; but we have no faith in the reports of these political star-gazers. We leave them to prophecy, contenting ourselves with the humbler task of watching the progress and awaiting the issue of the experiment. It is at present in its infancy-a cloud no bigger than a man's hand. Whether it is to dissipate in heat, or gradually spread over the land, and send down refreshing showers on this parched and withered portion of society, God only knows, and time only can reveal.

ART. V.-Life and Services of Captain Philip Beaver, of his Majesty's Ship Nisus. By Captain William Henry Smyth, R.N. Svo. London. 1829.

THE

HE race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,' and that thought should carry with it a salutary sense of humiliation to the heart of every one who has won the prize, whatever it be, for which he contended. The most successful of fortune's favourites may call to mind men who started

with him in the same course, having equal ardour, prospects equally encouraging, and equal, or perhaps greater natural endowments, yet who have dropped on the way, or been left lagging far behind him, at hopeless distance: some, perhaps, owing to their own misconduct, but others neither for want of strength, nor of wise and virtuous exertion: he has been in the full stream of fortune; but they have been caught in its eddy, and embayed, or borne back, or sunk, it having so seemed good to that Providence which directs all our ways, while its own are inscrutable: this, let us repeat, ought to be a solemn, and humiliating, and, therefore, a salutary consideration for those who in their lifetime have received their good things.

The person whose memoirs are now before us will be known by name to a very small portion of our readers, though a braver, an abler, more accomplished, or more high-minded officer never trod the deck of a British ship. Philip Beaver (the third of eight children, two of whom died in infancy) was born on February 28th, 1766, at Lewknor, in Oxfordshire, a village in which his father resided seventeen years, as curate. In the summer of 1777, the father was presented to the living of Monksilver, in Somersetshire just as this better prospect had opened, he died in the vigour of life. His widow, in the complicated misery of her situation,' received from her friends that active kindness which was due to her husband's worth and to her own; and at General Caillaud's request, Captain Joshua Rowley received Philip as a midshipman on board the Monarch. The boy was then in his twelfth year; he had never seen the sea, scarcely even a boat;' but he had an ardent predilection for a sailor's life.

The Monarch, in Admiral Keppel's action (July, 1778), received the fire of the enemy's whole line,-great havoc was made in her crew, her spars and rigging were seriously injured, and her hammock nettings set on fire by the enemy's wads.' Beaver was only in his thirteenth year; but when he was questioned by Admiral Forbes concerning the particulars of the action, his relation was so clear and satisfactory, that the veteran declared he had never heard a consistent account of it before. As he told a straightforward tale, so he delivered a straightforward opinion; for, being asked what he thought of the two flag officers, whose recriminations were then the general topic, he replied, They both deserve to be shot.' We must not mention Admiral Forbes without noticing, that he, when a lord of the Admiralty, refused to sign Admiral Byng's death-warrant, a refusal more to his honour than if he had gained a victory like that of the Nile or of Trafalgar. At the close of that year Commodore Rowley hoisted his broad pendant on board the Suffolk, took all the officers of the Monarch

with him, and went with seven sail-of-the-line to reinforce Admiral Byron in the West Indies. Byron was so proverbially unfortunate, that it was said he had never once met with a fair wind; yet his acknowledged merits were such, that his disasters were always imputed to his ill fortune, never to his fault.

We must pass over the details of some busy months, including an action 'more remarkable for gallantry than success,' with D'Estaign. That able commander, notwithstanding his superior force, avoided a close and general conflict, and Byron made the best of his way to Basseterre roads, there to repair his damaged ships. This allowed Beaver time to improve himself in navigation and nautical astronomy, there being a master's mate on board who had a considerable proficiency in both sciences. At this time he was not more remarkable for buoyant spirits than for occasional sedateness and caustic observation, which drew from the admiral a remark, that if that boy should get safely through the snares which snap us up between fifteen and five-and-twenty, he would turn out an admirable officer.'

War now took place with Spain, and brought with it the usual expectations in which sailors indulge on such an occasion, and the usual disappointment which ensues. He was present at the destruction of part of a French convoy under the batteries of Port Royal Bay, and at the capture of three frigates belonging to La Motte Piquet's squadron; one of these the Suffolk chased, and having come up abreast, gave her a few random shot, which (says our midshipman in his journal) she impudently answered with a broadside, and then struck.' This has been often done by French ships of war, when about to strike to a superior force; so often, indeed, as to show that many of their naval officers see in it nothing inconsistent with honour and humanity, and to render it fitting that effectual means should be taken in any future war for putting a stop to a practice which is at once cowardly and murderous. After this success, Admiral Rowley shifted his flag to the Conqueror, and took Beaver with him: Rodney soon arrived to take the command, and it was then the boy's good fortune to serve, and in an active scene, under one of our best naval commanders. In the action of April 17th, 1780, the Conqueror had her masts, yards, and rigging much torn, her hull riddled by some heavy shot, besides the hits between wind and water; thirteen men killed and thirty-seven wounded: As for myself,' says he, in his Journal, I have still my proper complement of legs and arms; but I have twice to-day narrowly escaped a dive into Davy's locker.' The success which was that day within Rodney's reach was let slip, because some of the British ships, instead of doing their duty, took it easy. One captain was brought to

a court

a court-martial: another, who inquired of Rodney why he had been mentioned in terms of reprehension, received this impressive answer: Could I have imagined that your conduct, and your inattention to signals had proceeded from anything but error in judgment, I had certainly superseded you; but God forbid I should do so for error in judgment only. I merely resolved, Sir, not to put it in your power to mistake again upon so important an occasion as the leading a British fleet to regular battle.'

Beaver followed Rowley's flag into the Terrible and the Princess Royal; but when that admiral was ordered to convoy the homeward-bound traders in the Grafton, it was thought best to leave him on so active a station, recommending him to the notice of Sir Peter Parker, who held the Jamaica command. While in the Princess Royal, he wrote a ballad on the battle between the Milford frigate and the Duc de Coigny, (fought on the 10th of May, 1780)—which, both for its spirit and diction, is a most remarkable production for a boy in his fifteenth year. Up in the wind, three leagues or more,

We spied a lofty sail;

"Let's hoist a Dutch flag, for decoy,
And closely hug the gale."

Nine knots the nimble Milford ran,

"Thus-thus," the master cried;

Hull up, she raised the chase in view,

And soon was side by side.

"Down the Dutch ensign, up St. George,

To quarters now all hands,'

With lighted match, beside his gun,

Each British warrior stands,' &c.

Early in the ensuing year, an American brig was brought in prisoner off Cape Nicola, and the charge of it given to this youth, as an efficient officer. Proud of this first command, he parted from the fleet in high spirits; but his joy was of short continuance. That same evening the vessel caught fire at the fore-peak, owing to the drunkenness of one of the men. All hands were half the night in extinguishing it; and hardly was this done, before he saw himself chaced by a privateer, whom he could neither resist nor escape, and he was carried into Portau-Prince. War was not then carried on upon the barbarous system of not exchanging prisoners; and after about eleven weeks' confinement, he was sent on board the Southampton frigate. In less than four weeks after he had joined her, that ship, in company with the Pomona, burnt two enemy's vessels, captured one, escaped from a French fleet, and took some shipwrecked sailors off the great Inague island, She then parted from the Pomona;

suffered