as the seals of Tackle's secret remained un-I wash the flour off your head under the pump. Don't broken, are found to be insufficient to support commence action,' said I to half a hundred of my messthe wife and family decently, so Brace be-mates: 'but only let them fire the first shot, and we'll soon see if we, old as we are, can't tackle them to comes, and glories in the metamorphosis, a their hearts' content. I only asked a civil questionGreenwich pensioner. All this part of his I wanted to know to whom the carriage belonged, life is rich and genuinely natural. We like and I was then going to take them over and give the old sailor better as a pensioner than in them something to drink the king's health, when they any other capacity. The tale now begins to began to jeer an old man of seventy-five with only one arm. But what can you expect from chaps who wind up rapidly; his few old shipmates die are ashamed of their own colors and their master's off-old Tom the last. His sister's daughter, livery?' by Tackle, of whom he has a long while lost "These flamingoes began to think it was no good sight, and who was a protegée of Lord Nelson battling the watch with us; so they all three got upand Lady Hamilton, has in the interim, mar- for a public house. Here's after them!" said about on the forecastle of the coach, and they steered away ried a post captain, a lord, and a young lord a dozen of the old ones; and we'll get them into a of the Admiralty to boot. The meeting be-line for their impudence!' and I was left alone by the tween the uncle and niece is too good to be omitted.

"Well, I got thinking of one thing and another, when I was startled by the noise of a carriage which drew up alongside the gates, whilst two chaps in cocked hats and long canes, who had been standing abaft, jumped down, opened the cabin door, and out comes the captain and his wife. Up I got directly, and steered towards the gate; for I thought I had never seen so fine a concern, with such a crew. The gentleman was a man about five-and-forty, togged off to the nines; and he gives his arm to his lady, and makes sail right towards me, steering for the governor's house. Well, I did as we always did-saluted a stranger when he came into port; so, as they went by, I took off my hat and scraped my leg. The lady was looking the other way at a gingerbread barge belonging to the Lord Mayor, which was bringing down a batch of hungry fellows to eat small fish; but the gentleman took off his hat, and said to his lady, for I heard him, 'My dear, you did not see that gallant old fellow who welcomed you to Greenwich.'

"She gave a hasty cast of her eye, and they went on. 'Well,' thought I, now we've exchanged salutes, I'll just ask the admiral's name; so I steered up to the gates and hailed the servants, although, to be sure, they looked more like Austrian generals than English footmen.

What cheer, lads?' said I; upon which all these land-lubbers began to grin. 'Cheer!' said one; who cheered? I should think, old boy, you didn't give a cheer when the Frenchmen whipped off your arm, or bunged up your eye?'

"Then you're just on the wrong tack,' said I; 'for it was at Trafalgar, and I did not value my arm, no, not a shilling, when I thought of the victory.'

gate. But as for the line business, that was a failure; for the servants, not liking to get amongst the old boys, remained on the coach-box, and drank their beer aloft, and shortly returned. I was backing and filling about the place-for the weather was warm, and I felt better by being in the air-when I saw the servants come down by the run from the box, clap their scrapers all right and square, and handle their sticks like the drum-major of a regiment. I turned round, and I saw the lady and gentleman coming towards the carriage, accompanied by Sir William. I heard him say, 'Idare say your lordship will find him at his wife's cottage, for he generally goes there about this hour. Poor old fellow! he was rather ill last night, and he is getting very aged for a sailor. ('Well,' thinks I, 'what can the doctor mean by a great age for a sailor?' but I heard his reason.) 'When they first enter the navy,' the doctor said, 'they are habituated to much ardent spirits, and the continued use of them is more pernicious than all the fatigues they undergo. Oh, here is Brace!' he said. I took off my hat, and made a bow. This is Lord Nelson's old follower, for whom your ladyship inquired.'

"She looked at me-I knew her, for the mole in her forehead was as plain as the seal on a letter. I did not do what my heart prompted me to dorun and kiss her, and welcome her who had come to me at the very moment when I was most beset with difficulty; for I thought it would be wrong for me, an old sailor in the Greenwich uniform, to take hold of a lady covered up with silks, and with tle! Well, I was fairly aback; and it was of no a bonnet over her jib large enough for a coal-scutuse turning the hands up to brace about, although I had got stern-way and was backing a small distance off. I can't write what I did feel-it was 'Ah!' said one of them, 'that happened before we uncommon to me. I felt as if I could have hugged were born, old boy, and we are not going to believe her and kissed her; and yet somehow I felt as if all you choose to tell us about that.'-'What a rum the thought was a kind of presumption :-I thought coat the old fellow has got on! said another. And my heart bade me go forward like a man and an twig his cocked hat.'-Why,' said the coachman, I uncle, and then I thought discipline kept hauling wonder he walks about, when the pigs might mistake his legs for cabbage-stalks! Upon which they me back: it was a regular squabble between affecall set up a laugh; and one fellow takes his white tion and duty; but when the heart's in the right gloves off and claps them in his pocket, whilst the place, affection will carry the day, without neglectother asked who had the honor of making my ing one's duty. The servants were looking-the clothes. coachman had placed himself as upright as a "I say, my lads,' said I, for there was a crowd of pumpbolt-Sir William had just called me-his pensioners and idlers gathered about, is that the way you answer a civil question? I thought you servants were taught better manners.'

"Servants!' they all exclaimed; 'mind your own business, old boy, and don't talk about what you don't

understand.'

lordship was eyeing me; when what does Jane do, but she drops her rain-preventer,-and she gets headway upon her, ruus me right aboard, claps her arms round my neck, falls to a-kissing me, and bursting out a-crying, said, 'Uncle Ben, uncle Ben ! "What!' said I, are you ashamed of your rigging let this prove that I have not forgotten you!' -are you ashamed of your master's clothes? Now "My eyes and limbs!' said old Lanyard, as he look here,' says I, as I showed the Greenwich mus-hobbled away, that is a queer go, surely; there's tering suit: 'these clothes are the reward of honest old Brace a-kissing the lord's wife! service for my country. I have fought for it-bled

for it-whilst you powder-monkies have only cleaned "I am thinking that I should have been done outright if I had not been afraid to touch her; my stick fell out of my hand, and somehow my arm got round her waist, and says I, Blessings on you, Jane! you have hove in sight when the

your master's shoes, or carried away the plate on which he fed.-What, strike me!' said I, for one of the fellows raised his stick; 'strike Brace if you dare, and we'll haul you through every pond in the place, and

enemy were likely to capture me; and now that I see you-ay, and see you happy-I don't care how soon I die. Lord love you, Jane, and bless you! I always knew your heart was a good one-I knew that you would come and see me.'

"Give me your hand, my fine old fellow,' says his lordship: Jane has often told me of your kindness to her, and the manner in which you behaved to her during one very trying hour of her

father's”

"Belay all that, your lordship,' said I, inter. rupting him; 'not a word about it: I'm at this moment in great distress about that affair, and if Jane-I beg your honor's pardon, but I can't help calling her Jane-will just let your honor unlay the strands of this difficulty, you will make me and Susan happy forever.'

a

"Oh! said Jane, I insist upon going directly to Susan; I have never seen her since I was little child, and I remember her pretty face.' "It's better you did not, Jane,' said I; for you never will be able to make out her features she's grown old.'

เ

"No, no,' said his lordship: get into the car. riage, Brace, and we'll drive to the cottage. Come, Jane, let me hand you in first.' And he walked off with his wife.

"Well, it was a fine sight to see those footmen who had jeered me, standing at attention, one fellow holding the door open, and the other standing like a marine at muster, whilst I, the old sailor, was handed into the carriage by a lord. I felt I had always done my duty in this life, and there fore I was not ashamed to look any man in the face."

produce the document, though with all the uprightness of the British sailor, he confesses, that he believes that the seal is broken and that the letter is open. Upon this Lawyer Hawk chanteth his "O be joyful," and beginneth to administer the wealth to himself, and Ben returns disconsolate to Greenwich Hospital, and buries the papers, tied up in his silk handkerchief, at the bottom of his chest.

His new friend, the young lord, and the husband of Brace's niece Jane, is determined to bring the matter into court, and the issue is tried in the Common Pleas. All this is exquisitely written. The impudent warping of the truth, and the insulting of witnesses, so much the present practice in our courts of law, are admirably described. When will

this nuisance be abated? However the doc

ument is, after much ingenious pleading to and fro, at last handed up to the judge; it is examined, and the broken seal appears, after all, only to be one affixed to a supernumerary envelope, the two seals of the real and substantive document being still untouched; consequently the fortune remains with the Brace family, and the story concludes.

From this brief outline and these cursor y extracts, the reader may form a tolerable judgment of the materials, and of the excellent manner in which they have been employed, that constitute this admirable naval novel. It will be dear to every man before the mast. The messes of his Majesty's ships will, we are sure, club up to buy each one a copy of it. The foremast man will now see that heroism is not altogether confined to the quarter-deck. To him, these pages will be a cheering contemplation; and we doubt not that they will make many a bad man good, many a good one better.

We must make no more extracts from this very excellent story, but pass it rapidly in review to its conclusion. The dilemma into which this most renowned of Bens had fallen, was precisely this:-Old Tapes, of whom we have before made dishonorable mention, notwithstanding his wealth, and his most decided wish to the contrary, found himself very likely to die. On his death-bed he leaves all his As a work of literature, we pronounce, it is wealth to Mistress Benjamin Brace, his sister- deserving of high praise. It is consistent in-law, on the proviso that the document con- throughout, and in that consistency is to be taining his secret and Tackle's has not been found the brightest feature of its excellence. opened; which opening is to be ascertained The language is germane to the matter; and or disproved by the sealing-wax being, or the reader will find that, though it never rises not being, unbroken. The document, in the in refinement of expression beyond what presence of the executors, is to be burned un- might be expected from a man in wide trowread, and then the fortune to go to Brace's sers and a straw hat, it is sufficient for the wife. Brace gets into an omnibus to go up to deepest pathos, the most exalted sentiment, town with this momentous seal, of course, un- and the broadest humor. Is not this the exbroken; but in the omnibus, as the driver, act praise that is given to the pastorals of the after the manner of the most approved of the ancient poets? Why is it not, therefore, amdrivers of omnibi, waits his full couple of ply due to the author of Ben Brace? When hours until his long trough is full, Ben, to we first opened the book we began to fear wile away the time, breaks the first envelope, that we should weary of the eternal techniwhich was his own, with his own seal sealed, calities of the noble sailor, but our alarm but unfortunately sealed immediately over was soon dissipated. At the termination of the seal of the Tupeserian document. So, in the third volume we wished for three more removing the one the other is broken adrift, in the identical and forcible palaver of honand thus, to all appearance the fortune is lost, est-hearted Ben Brace. as the interdicted seal is now, to all intents Captain Chamier, making Ben his mouthand purposes, broken, and so almost is Ben's piece, has touched upon delicate points :heart, not for his own sake, but for the sake the flogging, general to the two services, and of his wife and children. He meets the ex- the impressment peculiar to the naval one ecutor, with a small squad of lawyers, one of only. We heartily agree with Chamier on whom is the heir, providing the conditions of the first point; on the second, we have a difthe will have not been complied with. Ben ference, a very slight difference of opinion. knowing of the mishap, is wary, and will not | But rising, as we are now doing, fresh with

admiration from his work, we shall not, in | arms. This fact, at once establishes, that this place, enter the lists against him. We they are inclined to war. Their arms gene. will merely humbly state, that Sir James Graham's plan should be tried before it be condemned, as it certainly is from the lips of the last of the Agamemnons. But, perhaps, in this instance Ben is only giving himself more headway than his commanding officer approved; if so, we have not another word to say on the subject.

In conclusion, we are about to pay Captain Chamier a compliment: he may not like itthat we cannot help; but, as he deserves it, he shall have it; and if it galls him sorely, he must call to mind the memorable speech of Alexander the Great, in which he said, that if he were not Alexander he would wish to be Diogenes. It is true we never thought much of the good taste of this speech, for surely there was some little difference between the conquerer of armies, the destroyer of nations, and the dirty defiler of a tub, who disgraced mankind in his own person, and reviled it in all others. Ben Brace is surely a character as much superior to the cynic as an Englishman to the Chimpanzee. We do not know whether, in an honest Christian way, he may not compete with Alexander himself. Now, what we have to say is this; that were not Chamier the identical Chamier he is, perhaps the future winner of victories, and, we trust, the future admiral, we heartily wish that he had been the humble hero that he has so strikingly portrayed:-the active foretopman in his youth, the gallant admiral's Coxswain in his middle age, and the venerable and garrulous Greenwich pensioner in his decline, in fact, his own brilliant creation, an incarnation of Ben Brace. But, perhaps, this would be too much glory for any single individual, and we had better let Captain Chamier remain just the good, clever, pleasant fellow that he is, and wish that such he may live many, very many years.

DIARY OF A BLASÉ.*

rally consist of a double-handed sword, a weapon of great force, and very large spears; but every one that can possess a musket will, and if it has not a lock, they will fire it with a match. It is in this point that the Burmahs are so deficient in arms: we used to consider it a very courageous act to venture to fire off a Burmese musket, they were in such a wretched condition: and to crown all, every man makes his own gunpowder. Now it may be easily imagined what stuff this must be; as, previous to an expected combat, each Burmah sits down and composes the article to the best of his knowledge and belief. The consequences are, that when these muskets do go off, which is ten to one they do not, it is again ten to one but the bullet falls short, from the inefficacy of the powder. There is another singular fact, and one which proves that they have been used to muskets but a short time: it is that they have no bulletmoulds or leaden bullets. All their bullets are of iron, hammered as round as they can hammer them at the forge; of course the windage produced by this imperfect missile, occasions it to deviate much from its intended direction.

The guns on their stockades and war-boats are equally defective, from bad powder and the hammered bullets. It is difficult to know where they could have collected such a curious assemblage. Sometimes you will fall in with a small brass piece of exquisite Spanish manufacture, at others, you will find the strangest forms that can be conceived. I rather think they were purchased, or taken as a part of the duties on vessels trading to Rangoon. I recollect one at the first taking of a stockade: we knocked off the trunnions of an old iron gun, and left it there as useless. The Burmahs re-occupied the stockade, and we had to take it a second time, when we found that they had most ingeniously supplied the want of trunnions with iron hoops and rivets, and the gun was fired at us before we entered. I doubt whether they would have hit upon the expedient at Woolwich Yard. At another time, we entered a stockade which had kept up a brisk fire for a few minutes, and, to our surprise, found February, 1836. that they had made wooden guns, very well THE Burmahs are decidedly a brave nation, bound and braced with iron hoops. Of the government being despotic, their_rulers course these guns would not fire more than are cruel, but the people are not. I state two or three shot each, as the touch-holes this, as cowardice and cruelty usually go were inflamed, and were soon so large as to hand in hand. The character of the people render them unserviceable; but I mention is good temper and generosity, and they are these points, to prove the perseverance of excellent materials to work upon in judicious these people, and the efforts they made in hands. I witnessed acts of courage at the their own defence. After the first campaign early part of the war, before the Burmahs it is true that they deserted, and the levies found out how impossible it was to cope with were made by force; but the reason of this, our superior arms, which were most surpris- for I inquired into it, was not that they had ing, and which excited our admiration. They are peculiarly a warlike nation, and of war they are fond. Every man is a soldier, and when ordered out to join the ranks, obeys without receiving any pay, providing his own * Continued from p. 105.

CHAPTER XXIV.

any objection to fight, but that, fighting without pay, they wanted to go home and put the seed into the ground, as otherwise their wives and families would starve.

The Burmah war-boats are very splendid craft, pulling from eighty to one hundred

oars; the Burmahs manage them very dex- Their system of defence is good, their braveterously, and will pull them from seven to ry is undoubted, but they had no effective eight miles an hour. They have a war-boat weapons. I strongly suspect that they will, dedicated to the duty, which brought intelli- now that they have been taught their inferigence that saved the nation at the time of the ority, use every means to obtain them; and war with the empire of Pegu, in a space of if so, they will really become a formidable time so short, as almost to appear incredible. nation. As one proof of their courage, I As I before observed, the gun mounted on will mention, that at every stockade there is the bow is of little effect, but their spears are a look-out man, perched on a sort of pole, really formidable. At a night attack upon about ten feet or more clear of the upper some of our vessels, anchored off a stockade part of the stockade, in a situation completewhich they wanted to regain, I had an evi- ly exposed. I have often observed these men, dence of the force with which they are and it was not till the cannonade had fairly thrown. The sides of the vessel were covered commenced on both sides, that they came with them, sticking out like porcupine's quills, down. And when they did, it was without and they had entered the plank with such hurry; indeed, I may say, in a most leisforce, that it required a very strong arm to urely and indifferent manner. Of their inpull them out again. We lost some men by vulnerables and their antics I have already them; the effect of a hundred spears hurling spoken. through the air at the same time was singu- In countries governed despotically, life is larly appalling to our men, who were not ac- not so much valued as it is in others. The customed to the sound, especially during the very knowledge that it may be taken in a night. I heard several of the sailors observe moment at the will of the rulers, renders afterwards that they "did not like that at even the cowardly comparatively indifferent. all," and I am sure they would have infinite- When we are accustomed from our earliest ly preferred to have been met with fire-arms. years to anticipate an event, when it actually Some of these spears were sixteen feet long, arrives, we meet it with composure and indif sharp at both ends, and with an iron head, ference. The lad in England who is brought weighing from twelve to fourteen pounds. I up to thieving, and who is continually rehave seen bows and arrows in the possession minded by his parents, that he must be hung of the Burmahs, but never have observed before he is twenty, goes to the gallows, when that they used them in their conflicts with his turn comes, with much sang froid. So it us. They appeared to despise them. The is in a despotic country, where the people system of warfare and defence pursued by witness the heads of their fellows roll on the these people, is, undoubtedly, excellent for ground, and surmise how soon their own turn the peculiarities of the country. Their stock- will come. I had more than one evidence of ades are usually built of any thick teak tim- this during my stay. In one instance I wishher, or rather squared trees, which are much ed to obtain information from a prisoner, but too strong to be penetrated by any other than could extract none. He had been sitting bebattering cannon, and, in consequence, were tween the carronades on deck for twenty-four invariably carried by escalade. Some of hours, and some of the men or officers had them are built of bamboos, running from a given him a bowl of grog and a couple of cifoot to two feet diameter. These are equally gars, with which he was busy when I interstrong, with the peculiarity that if you fire rogated him. As he professed ignorance, I cannon at them the bamboos yield, admit the told him that if he would not give me the deshot, and then close again. If these stock- sired information, I should take his head off; ades are not close to the river side, they usu- and I sent for the serjeant of marines, who ally have a deep ditch round them, and are appeared with two of his party, and with his further protected by what was more serious drawn sword. We called him out from beto us than the escalade, which were abba- tween the guns, but he begged through the tis of pointed bamboos, stuck in a slanting interpreter to be allowed to finish his grog; direction in the ground. The slight wounds to which I consented: when that was done he made by these bamboos, brought on lock-jaw, was again ordered out, but requested leave to and too often terminated fatally. In the at- finish about an inch of cigar which remained tacks upon us at Rangoon they made their in his mouth. To which I also acceded, not approaches with some degree of military being in a particular hurry to do that which skill, throwing up trenches as they advanced. I never intended to do. During all this the Their fire-rafts on such a rapid river were man was perfectly composed, and did not also formidable. They have wells of petro- show the least alarm at his approaching fate. leum up the country, their rafts were very As soon as the cigar was finished, he bound large, and here and there were old canoes on his long hair up afresh, and made preparathe rafts, filled with this inflammable matter. tion. I again asked him if he would tell, When on fire, it blazed as high as our main- but he pleaded ignorance, and stepped fortop, throwing out flames, heat, and stank ward, went down on his knees and took off quite enough to drive any one away.

I have mentioned their mode of warfare and their deficiencies, to prove that if the Burmahs had been as well provided with every species of arms equal to our own, the country would not have been subjugated.

the cloth from about his loins, which he spread on the deck to receive his head, and then putting his hands on the deck, held it in the position to be cut off. Not a muscle trembled, for I watched the man carefully. He was, of course, remanded, and the sailors

were so pleased with him, that he went on seven miles from Rangoon, and it was detershore with more grog and more tobacco than he had probably ever seen in his life.

The Burmahs have, however, a means of extracting information from spies, &c. which I never saw practised by them, although it was borrowed from them. It was in our own quarter master-general's office that I witnessed this species of torture, so simple in its operation and apparently so dreadful in its effects. It consists in giving one single blow upon the region of the heart, so as to stop for some seconds the whole circulation. The way by which this is effected is as follows: -the man-the Burmahs are generally naked to the waist-is made to sit down on the floor; another man stands behind him, and leaning over him, takes a very exact aim with his sharp bent elbow at the precise spot over his heart, and then strikes a blow which, from its being propelled so very mechanically, descends with increased force.

The effect appears dreadful; the dark hue of the sufferer's face turns to a deadly white; the perspiration bursts out from his forehead, and he trembles in every limb. I never witnessed such apparent agony. These blows repeated three or four times, will unman the most resolute, and they will call for death as a favor.

mined to dislodge them. Colonel S, who was very partial to the native troops, was ordered on this service, and he requested particularly that he might have no troops but the sepoys. Sir A. Campbell did not much like to consent,. but, as the stockades were not higher than breastworks, and the Burmahs not in very great force, he unwillingly yielded to the Colonel's arguments. Fifteen hundred sepoys were ordered out, and the Colonel went on his expedition. The Burmahs had good intelligence that there were no European troops, and when the sepoys arrived, they did not wait to be attacked, but attacked them and put them completely to the rout. One half of the sepoys were said to be killed, the others came back to Rangoon in parties of ten or twelve, and in the utmost consternation and confusion. Sir A. Campbell was much enraged, and the next day a European force was despatched against the Burmahs. On their arrival they witnessed a dreadful and disgusting scene. A long avenue had been cut in the wood, and on each side of it were hung by the heels at equal distances, shockingly mutilated, the naked bodies of the seven hundred and fifty sepoys killed. The Burmahs did not, however, attempt to resist the European force, but after a few shots imThere is a point which demands the most mediately retired. Now this is a very imserious attention of the Indian government, portant fact: and it is a fact which cannot be which, connected with those I have already denied, although it has not been made known. mentioned, makes the Burmese nation more In India there is a nominal force of three hunformidable; it is, the great contempt they dred thousand men, but they are scattered have for the sepoys. And what is equally over such a vast extent of territory, that, altrue, the fears which the sepoys have of them. lowing they could be made disposable, which The Burmahs are only afraid of the white they could not, it would require many months faces, as I shall very soon establish. They before they could be collected; and if the despise the sepoys, although they are so well Burmahs despise the sepoys, and the sepoys armed. Now, that the sepoys are good troops, dread the Burmahs, the only check against there can be no doubt; they have proved it the latter will be the European troops; and often; but, at the same time, they are not, as of them how many can be called out? Not some of the Indian officers have asserted in ten thousand, at the very utmost; and the difmy presence, the best troops in the world, and ficulty of collecting them was well known at preferable to Europeans. That they are the commencement of the Burmah war. much easier to control, and that they excel in There certainly is a great difference between discipline, I grant, because they are never in- attacking others in their own territories and toxicated; but they have, in the first place, defending ourselves, but if the Burmahs could very little stamina, and are, generally speak- hold out against us, as they did, for nearly ing, a small and very effeminately-built race. three years, without arms to cope with us, Still they have fought well, very well; but what might be the consequence if they were they never fought well against the Burmahs; supplied with arms and officers by the French and for this simple reason, that superstition is or any other nation? I was at Pondicherry more powerful than courage, and subdues it. some time after the war had been carried on, The sepoys are very superstitious, and have and I found that the French authorities there the idea, which was never eradicated, that the were quite alive to this very unexpected quarBurmahs are charmed men, and they never ter from which India might be assailed. If went out against them willingly, even when the French were to lead 100,000 Burmahs, they were headed by the English troops. As they would march through India, for we could for the contempt of the Burmahs, it was noto- muster no force which could oppose them. rious. I have myself seen one of the Burmah We have now a footing in the country, and it prisoners at Rangoon lift up a piece of timber must be our object to prevent the ingress of that six of the sepoys could hardly have mov- any other, and to keep the Burmahs as quiet ed, and throw it down, so as to make it roll and as peaceable as we can. But our very at the feet of the sepoy guard who watched intercourse will enlighten them by degrees, him, making them all retreat several paces, and we have more to dread from that quarter and then laugh at them in derision. But it than from all the hordes of Russia or Runrequires greater proof than the above. The jeet Sing, and the whole disaffection of India. Burmahs had stockaded themselves about

If ever an officer deserved to be created a