as he became at home, he did not neglect the interests of commerce, while he maintained the honour of England abroad. He made very great improvements in the work his father had commenced. By his prerogative, and at his own expense, he settled the constitution of the present Royal Navy. An Admiralty and Navy Office were established, and commissioners to superintend naval affairs were appointed by him. Regular salaries were settled for admirals, viceadmirals, captains, and seamen, and the sea-service at this time became a distinct and regular profession. In 1512, Henry, having entered into a league with Spain against France, fitted out a fleet under the command of Sir Edward Howard, Lord High Admiral, and by an indenture, dated 8th of April of that year, granted him the following allowance: -For his own maintenance, diet, wages, and rewards, ten shillings a-day. For each of the captains, for their diet, wages, and rewards, eighteenpence a-day. For every soldier, mariner, and gunner, five shillings a-month for his wages, and five shillings for his victuals, reckoning twenty-eight days in the month. But the admiral, captains, officers, and men had also further allowances, under the name of dead shares. I doubt whether the naval officers and men of the present day would be satisfied with a similar amount of pay. Certainly the mariners of those days had more dangers and hard ships to encounter than have those of the present time under ordinary circumstances. That year Henry's fleet consisted of forty-five ships, of which the largest was the Regent, of 1000 tons. War was now declared against France, and the English fleet put to sea under the command of Sir Edward Howard. Afterwards, being reinforced by a number of stout ships, the admiral sailed for Brest, in the hopes of falling in with the French. Sir William Knevet had command of the Regent. The fleet arrived off Brest just as the French fleet, consisting of thirty-nine sail, was coming out of the harbour. On seeing the enemy, Sir Edward made the signal for an immediate engagement. Scarcely was the signal seen than the Regent and the Cordelier, the latter being the largest ship in the French navy, attacked each other as if by mutual consent. The Cordelier, it is said, carried 1200 soldiers. Undoubtedly her commander hoped to carry the English ship by boarding. In the course of the action, when locked in a deadly embrace with their grappling-irons, another English ship threw into the Cordelier a quantity of combustibles, or fire-works, as they were called, and set her on fire. In vain the crew of the Regent endeavoured to free their ship from her perilous position. The magazine of the Cordelier was reached, and she and the Regent went up into the air together. In the Regent, Sir William Knevet and 700 men were lost, and in the Cordelier, Sir Pierce Morgan, her captain, and 900 of her crew are supposed to have perished. After this dreadful catastrophe, the action ceased; the French, horror-stricken, hurriedly making their way into Brest. The ships, also, of both parties, had received considerable damage. Although cannon had been employed on board ships since the time of Edward the Third, this was probably one of the first sea-fights in which they were used by both parties on board all the ships engaged. Even on this occasion the combatants seem to have trusted more to their battle-axes and swords than to their artillery. The French give a different account of this battle. They say that an English ship having discharged a quantity of fire-works into the Cordelier, she caught fire, when her Breton commander, finding that the conflagration could not be extinguished, and determined not to perish alone, made up to the English admiral and grappled her, when they blew up into the air together. On this the two fleets separated by mutual consent. Prerogative. This is the title given to that power which the sovereign exercises in virtue of his being sovereign. The Tudor kings pushed the royal prerogative to great lengths, and it was only at the Revolution in 1688 that the limits of the royal prerogative were settled nearly on their present basis. Boarding.―This is an attempt to get on board an enemy's vessel, and so capture her by overpowering her crew. QUESTIONS:-1. When did Henry VIII. succeed to the throne? 2. How old was he? 3. How did he set about the improvement of the navy? 4. What is meant by the king's prerogative? 5. What offices did Henry establish? 6. Name the rate of pay given to the different ranks in the service. 7. What was the extent of Henry's fleet? 8. How large was the largest vessel? 9. Describe the fight between the Regent and the Cordelier. 10. What is meant by boarding? 11. What became of both ships? WHEN the British warrior queen, Sage beneath the spreading oak "Princess! if our aged eyes Weep upon thy matchless wrongs, "Tis because resentment ties All the terrors of our tongues, · Rome shall perish !—write that word Perish, hopeless and abhorred, "Rome, for empire far renowned, "Other Romans shall arise, Heedless of a soldier's name; Sounds, not arms, shall win the prize, Harmony the path to fame. "Then the progeny that springs From the forests of our land, Armed with thunder, clad with wings, Shall a wider world command. Regions Cæsar never knew, Such the bard's prophetic words, She, with all a monarch's pride, |