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PETER SIMPLE. BY THE AUTHOR OF THE KING'S OWN," ETC. Concluding that the generality of our readers have become acquainted with "The Fool of his Family," whose career has already figured seriatim in the pages of the Metropolitan, we shall not stop to analyse the plot and progress of a production which adds to the reputation of Captain Marryat as a vigorous and original writer of the Neptunian school. In nautical detail and description, of graphic truth and high power, these volumes are not inferior to their predecessors by the same author; in quaint and irresistible humour and skilful discrimination of character, naturally developed, without any apparent labour to produce effect, they excel them. In proof of the former we would instance the extrication of the Frigate, when embayed on the French coast, and set on a dead lee shore by wind and wave, (vide p. 229, &c. vol. i.) -a most powerfully told incident. The latter characteristics are fully attested by the sketches of the hero of the tale, Falcon the first lieutenant, O'Brien, master's mate, Chucks, the boatswain, &c., as well as by the general tenor of the language and narrative. The character of Captain Savage tends to raise our esteem for the responsible and important class of officers he is made to represent, an object far more legitimate and beneficial than the vulgar and malignant depreciation of the Service by anonymous and cowardly

caricatures.

Having briefly illustrated our opinion of " Peter Simple," we commend that original personage to the better acquaintance of the Service.

MEMOIRS OF MARSHAL NEY. VOLS. I. AND II.

As these volumes only bring down the career of Ney to the surrender of Ulm in 1805, and the most important and interesting portion of his eventful story is yet to come, we shall postpone our critical notice of these Memoirs till the sequel is before us. We cannot, however, refrain from remarking generally on the bad taste, bigoted spirit, and tone of rhodomontade which characterize the style of the first portion of a biography eminently calculated to interest and instruct. The preface especially is arrogant and offensive, and repels at the threshold all readers but those of the French revolutionary school. The British are held up to the detestation and jealousy of our peacepreserving allies of Antwerp, who, we have reason to believe, cherish towards us that cordial animosity becoming “natural enemies," and duly "reciprocated by the vast majority of its objects-the only species of "free trade," we believe, in which there exists a national reciprocity.

The work is further disfigured by a strain of flippant exaggeration and thin sophistry which detracts from our highly-excited interest in the subject, garbles facts, and checks our confidence in the recorded memorabilia of an admirable soldier.

We shall resume the subject when completed. The mechanical execution of these volumes is creditable to the publishers.

TRAITS AND TRADITIONS OF PORTUGAL. BY MISS PARDOE.

"Pleasant Portugal!" is the euphonous apostrophe with which the accomplished authoress commences these graceful and characteristic volumes. To that heartfelt ejaculation we cordially respond. "Pleasant Portugal!" of how many buoyant and thrilling associations is thy name a talisman even unto us, seared and soured as we are by the cares and crosses of later life! We would not, for worlds, be divested of the memory of Portugal: 'tis a point of repose; even now, in its long lapse, that era of our existence offers images more bright than we can ever hope to look to ere the last volley peals our requiescat."

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Miss Pardoe accompanied her father in the expedition to Portugal in the years 1826-7. Endowed with talents highly cultivated, and an ardent imagination, the fair campaigner was naturally attracted by the romantic scenes and picturesque people of one of the most beautiful countries and climates

on earth, and has most graphically and agreeably recorded in these volumes the results of her personal experience and traditionary researches. We are conscious of a tendency to wander on this most interesting ground, but having, alas! too little leisure for matters of sentiment, we are driven to an abrupt conclusion, as the readiest mode of escape. In Miss Pardoe's delineation of localities and the natives we follow her step by step, recognising every spot of the ground, and every trait of the people she describes. She has, we think, introduced too many Portuguese phrases, which are frequently incorrect-misprinted, we conclude. A-propos, does not the fair censor couch a point of "satire in disguise" in the little tirade which reproaches the absolute Miguel with liberally loving that liquor so loved and honoured by the lovely Liberales of her own sex and country-need we name GIN- the bane of Home and Hymen?

THE KEEPSAKE.

The classic group of Sappho and "Young Love," which first met our eye on opening this "crimson-tipped" volume, intimated significantly enough the general character of the contents. This Annual abounds in pleasing and gracefully told tales in prose, with snatches of poetry by gentlemen and ladies who write with ease. The plates are generally good, though the subjects are scarcely enough varied: the repetition even of sentiment palls. First Affection" is very beautiful and expressive-the View of Havre is equally excellent. The Keepsake will be found worth keeping.

FINDEN'S LANDSCAPE ILLUSTRATIONS, ETC. PARTS XVIII. AND XIX. WITH AN APPENDIX TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

Often as we have had occasion to express our admiration of this beautiful series, we still find in each succeeding Number fresh objects to invite our gaze and merit our critical commendation. How beautiful and true is that scene of the Rialto at Venice-of the Ponte Rotto at Rome-the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli—of Padua—of Madrid! A lovely engraving of Lady Jersey, and a most characteristic one of Southey, terminate the two Numbers respectively. The Appendix, by Mr. Brockedon, comprising a description of the subjects of these Illustrations, with an exquisite frontispiece of Rome and vignette of Lausanne, by Stanfield, is fully and judiciously executed, and forms a valuable companion to these most interesting engravings, the price of which has, with good faith to the public, been reduced.

THE ROMANCE OF HISTORY-ENGLAND. BY HENRY NEELE.

This is the first volume of a republication, in a neat and popular form, and with appropriate illustrations by Landseer, of the agreeable and ingenious series by several authors, and on various countries, already published and favourably received, under the title of "Romance of History." The present publication, executed with spirit, will prove an acquisition to modern libraries.

THE FAMILY CLASSICAL LIBRARY, NOS. XLVI. AND XLVII.

The first and second volumes of Livy, translated by Baker, form the 46th and 47th Numbers of this excellent and useful collection, which is to close with the present author. We shall offer a general opinion on the merits of this publication at its termination.

VALPY'S SHAKSPEARE, WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOLS. XII. AND XIII.

Cymbeline, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, &c. are contained in these volumes of a work which will prove one of the most national, neat, and popular yet undertaken.

We are still compelled, by want of room, to postpone many Notices already prepared.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE PRINCIPAL PORTS AND STATIONS.

Portsmouth, Nov. 16th.

MR. EDITOR, Taking up by chance the other day a number of the Courier, I perceived the Editor's bonhommie was aroused by the article in your last Number on "Naval Punishment." As a dexterous critic, he makes a partial extract, the one certainly least to the point, not intended to stand alone, and, being able to turn that rather against you, he thinks he has refuted your arguments. Criticism on so important a subject, especially when the subject is dispassionately treated, should be just. He has not even the fairness to observe that, while you uphold the necessity of corporal punishment, you radically oppose, and indignantly expose, the abuse of it. Quoting the instance given, of a man that refused to lie out on the spanker-boom in a gale of wind, for which he was punished, he goes on to say, "We have heard of officers, nay we have seen them, who, in such a case as that quoted, would have convinced the captain of the afterguard, by their practice, that there was no danger which it was not their duty to brave, and would have set an example by going themselves on the spanker-boom. ̈ Excellent argument! So, if a man refuse to wash decks of a freezing morning, because he is afraid of catching cold, the officer of the watch is to do it for him, in order to show him there is no fear of taking cold! So, if a man refuse to sponge out a gun, lest his arm be blown off by the remnants of the last cartridge by chance igniting, the officer of the quarters is to do it for him! So, if a sentry refuse to take an exposed outpost, in a North Amercan campaign, for fear of being shot by a lurking Indian, his officer is to shoulder his musket for him!

Thank God! we are not come to that yet. Our men are not yet so like the Braves Belges," or "la Garde Nationale" of Paris, as to require an officer to show them their ordinary duty. Methinks British seamen would not thank their officers for implying cowardice to them, as they would do if they wished to lead them on on every trifling occasion. Methinks an officer would strangely misconceive his duty if he were to take on himself the part of an inferior without an adequate necessity. But let a fitting occasion arise, and then you will see the officers act as well as speak. Let the ship be on her beam ends, her masts quivering beneath the ardent breath of the hurricane, who will be the first to go up her straining shrouds to cut away the topmast?-An officer. Let an enemy have to be boarded under all disadvantages, who will be the first to plant his foot on the hostile deck?— An officer. Let the dread cry "Fire!" even in the magazine, resound through the ship, who will be the first to dive into the fatal spot?—An officer.

Such are occasions for an officer to set an example. Such are occasions when an officer would lead. Such are occasions when "follow!" would be his only word of command. But for every-day work, so paltry an occasion as reefing a sail,-is an officer to leave the quarter-deck, his post, to set an example? He would set an example most unbecoming an officer if he did; and he would find he would be called upon to repeat the same game nearly every gale of wind, in favour of some skulker. Really the writer in the Courier should get some more sane ideas about the duties of officers and men, and the nature of discipline, before he put his thoughts on the subject to paper. Of all the home thrusts made against discipline,-and there have been a good many delivered lately,-I know of none more calculated to subvert it than the doctrine he lays down, that an officer should request his men to do their duty, and if they object to it, he should then do it for them. Why, I would ask, are we alone, of all classes of society, to be so particularly accommodating to our inferiors? If a bricklayer, for example, were to refuse to mount a ladder, alleging the height of it, or some such U. S. JOURN. No. 61, Dec. 1833.

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nonsense, would his master take his hod from him and go up in his room? Would he not, instead of patting him on the head (as is insinuated we ought to do), punish him on the spot by discharging him? In any other position of social life,-in the printing-house, in the lawyer's office, in the factory, in the mine,-would not the result of disobedience be the same? Then why, in the name of common sense, should the fleet and the camp be exceptions to the general rule!

The Courier goes on to say, "How are the officers so energetic as never to need flogging? and how are the men sometimes so skulking, sluggish, and inert, as to make flogging necessary? Our solution of the problem is, that the officers are all volunteers, the seamen are pressed and degraded by punishment. By what process he arrives at this result, on what data he works it out, I do not know. Such, however, being his opinion, he will be surprised to learn that many of our masters and nearly all our warrant officers-more valuable, perhaps, in their respective callings than any other classes in the service,-were originally "pressed men." We hate impressment; we trust that the progressive improvement in the situation of seamen will prevent a recurrence to the system; but we have yet to learn what there is in the mere act of being pressed that should alter the tenor of a man's character. C'est la fortune de la guerre. Is a man, because he have the ill luck to be captured and detained at Verdun for some years, to remain morally inferior the rest of his life to what he would otherwise have been?

The question-of deeper import than appears on the surface-"How is it that officers never require flogging?" is as easily disposed of. It may be answered by another question--How is it that such men as are raised from before the mast to the quarter-deck do not stand in need of the lash as officers, although they required it (at least in terrorem) as foremast-men? Because this is the ready solution, exemplified parallelly in every situation of life--because the loss of a commission, the publicity attached to it, the blasted career, the ruined prospects, altogether form a punishment a hundred fold more severe than a few dozen lashes on a seaman's back, which punishment does not degrade him in the eyes of his companions; does not acquire publicity; does not deprive him of his situation. If rank, and the consequent standing, in some degree, in the eye of the public, can produce so salutary an effect on the mind of an officer who has risen from before the mast, is it not reasonable to expect more refined results in those who have advantages of education; who have had honourable principles instilled int them; a spirit of emulation kept alive among them; and who have been accustomed from boyhood, to view the flag at the main as a prize within their reach? Let the writer in the Courier consider this, and he will find no difficulty in coming to another conclusion than that, because officers do not require flogging, the men do not require it either. He will find that the solution of his problem does not depend on pressing or flogging, but on the broad principles of human nature. For he that will get drunk as a foremast-man, at the risk of being flogged, will not, as a lieutenant, get drunk at the risk of being cashiered.

TYRO.

Our zealous Correspondent, whose able exposition of the point in question we insert for its own merit alone, has given himself unnecessary trouble in this case. We have a due respect for sound and honest criticism from whatever source; but were "Tyro" less a novice in Newspaper Craft, (we mean, of course, the Weathercock Press,) he would hardly waste his time by raising into factitious importance such flimsy clap-traps as those he has volunteered to demolish.-ED.

Portsmouth, Nov. 20, 1833.

MR. EDITOR,-Numerous reports have been in circulation here relative to a naval force being equipped for service. The Thunderer and Edinburgh, of the line, and the Blonde frigate, have actually been commissioned, but nothing further. None of the two-deck ships in the Mediterranean and at Lisbon can be spared at present; indeed, their time is not yet up. The St. Vincent has been provided for by H.M.S. Caledonia. As to small frigates and sloops being brought forward, it is but natural to expect it, for when the East India trade is opened next year, a very large fleet of merchant-vessels will be despatched thither from all English ports, and of course the naval Commander-in-chief's force must be strengthened to protect them. It is possible Sir John Gore will require twenty sail of pendants under his orders, instead of his small force of only one line of-battle ship, four small frigates, and three sloops (for the Undaunted and Talbot have completed their sea-service, and are ordered home); moreover, the Mauritius, being added to the East India command, must always have one or two ships stationed at that island to keep the slaves and their owners in check. So far from a reduction taking place in the naval force of the country, there is every reason to expect an augmentation: for a moment's reflection will satisfy the most sceptical, that the Mediterranean, Portugal, Spain, and the East and West Indies are far from being in a tranquil state, and where so much British property is at stake, it behoves the Government to afford every protection. In South America, the very extent of the command must always cause a respectable naval armament to be employed there.

H. M. S. Rattlesnake, Capt. Graham, came up to Spithead on the 30th of October, from South America, with a very large freight of specie, amounting to 400,000l. She left Rio on the 4th of September. The Algerine, a 10-gun brig, commanded by Commander the Hon. F. De Roos, arrived on the 16th inst., having quitted Rio about three weeks after the Rattlesnake. By her we learn, that the Commander-in-chief, Sir M. Seymour, with his flag in the Spartiate, had sailed for a short cruize, leaving Capt. Eden in H.M.S. Conway, as commanding officer. The Snake, Capt. Robertson, had sailed for Maladona, with provisions and stores for Capt. Fitz Roy, of the Beagle, who is surveying in that part of the world. The Dublin, Tyne, Samarang, and Pylades were cruizing in the Pacific, and Capt. Smart, in H.M.S. Satellite, had sailed for Bahia to protect the British property in the northern ports. The Rattlesnake has since been paid off in this harbour, and the Algerine will be disposed of in the same manner at Chatham, whither she has sailed.

Among other things saved from the wreck of the Thetis, brought home by Capt. De Roos, is a gold seal, bearing in old English, the initials J. C. Capt. De Roos has left it with the publisher of the newspaper in this town, and I mention the circumstance, that the owner, should he see this notice, may know where it is, and have it restored to him.

H. M. S. Blanche was paid off on the 2d of November, and recommissioned by Capt. F. Mason, C.B.; but on being taken into dock for general repair, it was discovered that she would not be worth the expense, and the Admiralty have transferred the officers and crew to H.M.S. Blonde. It is intended she shall relieve the Dublin on the South American station.

The Nautilus, Commander Lord G. Paulet, came up from Falmouth, and was intended to be paid off, but has suddenly been despatched to the coast of Spain. The Pantaloon, Lieut. Dacres, has been refitted since her return from Lisbon, and will proceed in a day or two to the Mauritius with despatches.

The Etna and Raven went to Spithead on the 2d of November, were paid wages, and have departed to resume their surveying operations on the coast of Africa.

The Orestes, Commander Sir W. Dickson, sailed on the 13th for Por