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FRENCH INFANT MARINE.

47

taining to the sea-service; to the sailing of vessels, to their trim, to breaking the line, to manoeuvring, to tacking, &c. &c. which may most easily and conveniently be done in a harbour, our young able seamen will then be handed over to other preceptors, to be taught the higher elements of their profession. Those whose rising genius has been remarkably displayed in the earlier part of their studious course, will be accomplished as Marine Voltigeurs. Others, who have shown a profundity of acquirement, will become equally famous Plongeurs, and have the direction of Infernals to blow the British navy out of their own element, and try to beat them in the air, since they cannot beat them in the water. Leap-frog will be the chief study of the former of these classes-Pope's Dunciad of the latter, and from him their motto:

"Here strip, my children! here at once leap in! Here prove who best can dash through thick and thin." After these "cold long-winded natives of the deep," others of more aërial mental powers will be consigned to teachers of Gascony, by whom they will be completed in the logic of which the first rudiments were taught in the Raisonable. From these, in future wars, gasconading accounts of their achievements, and poetical details of imaginary victories, may be expected. As they will surpass the present race in naval skill, so will they be eminently fitted to surpass them in descriptions

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of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field; Of hair-breadth 'scapes,

Of being taken by the insolent foe"—

and such-like adventures, to which they will be exposed in their sea-faring career. Those of a more mechanical turn will be instructed in the art of notching bullets, that they may meet on equal terms those

villanous

villanous English, of whom this notable discovery has been lately made that they practise this murderous art!!

Thus variously and wonderfully accomplished, these 600 pupils of the Schools of Brest and Toulon (whe shall be, according to Article 3, "of a good constitution, and without bodily deformity'), may be expected to put to sea, like another Argonautic Expedition against Colchis and the Golden Fleece, or rather against Britain and her staple wool. Yet, with all their learning, we do not feel dismayed at the prospect of encountering these fresh-water sailors, who, when they get out of the protection of their batteries, may e'en, like their predecessors, exclaim with Horace,

"O Navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus ?-0 quid agis?——-”

Then, as now, our gallant tars will know how to despise all their vain theoretical tactics, and to chastise their presumptuous ambition, in attempting to rival the e sons of Britain on the ocean! Our Commanders, after a long career of naval glory, skilful from practice, accustomed to conquer, fired by the recollection of their own past victories, and emulous of a Nelson's fame, will scarcely acquire a laurel by whipping these puny Captains from the face of the deep. Our sailors will laugh at their new-fangled stratagems of war, which, like their old ones, will be found insufficient to oppose the intrepidity inspired, by former glory and the love of their country, in the breasts of freehorn Britons. The French of the new, like the French of the old schools, must bow to British valour, and confess their inferiority amid defeat and destruction. Their new Navy must follow the fashion of their old Navy; and then any speculative Ruler, who may chance to be at the head of the Grand Na

FRENCH INFant marine.

tion, will have another opportunity of founding other Schools, and forming other Captains..

There is somewhat of whim and folly in this Marine schoolery, that ill agrees with the acknowledged talents of Buonaparte. But he expects nothing from it; and it is only one of those bagatelles which serve to amuse the Parisians. We, indeed, have treated it seriously, as if intended to be the source of future greatness to the infant Navy of France. We have not considered, that the best way to inspire French boys with contempt for the enemies they are destined as men to cope with, is to educate them in a situation where they must witness these very enemies cooping up, driving in, beating, and destroying every vessel belonging to France. We have not ascribed to the constant view of the British blockading squadron in the offing any such wonderful effects. We have not endeavoured to comprehend how a home education of two, three, or four years, can better qualify a young man, of from fifteen to twenty years of age, for the naval service, than the system by which the British navy is replenished with youthful heroes, gallant officers, enterprising captains, and glorious veterans. When we see our young midshipmen old (for we may use the expression) in service-our boys who have visited the Eastern, and Western, and Northern seas, and have fought the battles of their country in various situations when we see the fruits of this education after such are intrusted with command, it is with ineffable contempt we deign to notice that which Gallic vanity would attempt to compare with it! The comparison is, indeed, a splendid one for Old England and her Old Naval School, against France and her New Naval School, and all her new principles in morality, in religion, and in politics!

It is scarcely possible that persons embarked in the profession of the navy at the age of twenty, or any

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period

period nearly advanced to that, can ever reach the same degree of skill and excellence acquired by a more early entrance into a sailor's life. Our habits are formed while yet we are very young; and the total difference between the situation of seamen and landsmen, renders it almost intolerable to endure the hardships of the former, if not initiated at an age, when, like wax, the body as well as the mind is capable of taking any impression. It is, therefore, in this line, that, unlike to any other, it is better to begin with practice, and add theory to it. The very habit of seamanship (if we may say so), being the most difficult part of the profession, must be earliest begun with; and while our boys are at sea, they imbibe, with wonderful facility, a thorough knowledge of those matters which they have every day experimentally proved, as well as theoretically inculcated. Above all things, they acquire by emulation, as it were from their cradle, an heroic firmness, a cool intrepidity in action, a contempt for dangers the most appalling, an ardent thirst for glory, a delight in their profession, and a skill and precision in every branch, pertaining to it, which cannot be equalled, far less excelled, by all the inventions of Gallic ingenuity.

Such are Britain's Defenders, and such are to be her French Invaders. May Britain never have more to fear than the result of their meeting half-seas over!

ANECDOTES OF BUONAPARTE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

[Oct. 16.]

SIR,

MA

ANY particulars have been related, at different times, respecting the private habits and manners of this extraordinary person, but seldom with suffi

ANECDOTES OF BUONAPARTE.

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cient regard to truth: partiality has represented him as a demi-god, and prejudice as a monster. He has no just claim to either character. The writer of this has recently had frequent opportunities of conversing with him, of seeing him both in public and in the bosom of his family, and will endeavour to give a short, but unbiassed, account of a man whose importance is beyond dispute, though his virtues way be questioned, and his foibles thought more numerous than those of most others. He is not, as Mr. William Cobbett supposes him, by any means an angel in his person, or a divinity in his mind; neither is he, as the Morning Post asserts, a stunted goblin, a prey to turbulent passions, and delighted with human misery: moreover, he does not at all answer the conception commonly entertained of him by that person who calls himself honest John Bull; for he has only one head, no visible horns or tail, and not a nail or a tooth of more than the ordinary length. He has, however, many strange, and even laughable, peculiarities both in appearance and manners. He is, for instance, accustomed to take off all his clothes on going to bed, but previously puts on a night-shirt and a cap. From the moment sleep seizes him to that in which he awakes, he continues in a state of repose, and rises as soon as ever he gets up in the morning. His first meal, which he preposterously terms his breakfast, consists of different articles, and he usually eats this with the appetite of one who had not eaten any thing since the evening before. In mounting his horse, which he invariably does when he rides, he puts his left foot first into the stirrup; and has been frequently seen to hold the reins with one hand, and his whip with the other, and in this curious fashion, booted and spurred, and wearing a black hat, and sometimes a blue coat, has he gallopped for nearly half a mile, as if in a hurry, and then trotted, or even walked, his horse,

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