of vessels, directs the shore operations. The
monstrous marine locomotive must be warped
out by means of a cable or " check," lying
coiled up at my feet; one end of which is
fastened to a Titanic post. The Bentinck's
cutwater is close upon us. The moment is exciting.
A row-boat, which is bringing a rope from
the ship to the shore, ruffles the admiral-
superintendent's serenity. He roars, speaking-
trumpet-wise, through his hands, " What are
you doing with that hawser ? Send a line
ashore for the check." The vessel drifts
nearer to the harbour wall: excitement
increases. " Bear a hand with the line! " The
smaller rope is pulled ashore in another boat;
is attached to the check, and is returned to
the ship. " Send up all hands upon deck;
cook, firemen— everybody— to run out the
line! " Twenty men seize the rope all in a
row, and run a mad race aft with it, until
the check is rove in and secured to the
vessel. " Go on easy! " The paddles revolve;
the ship almost touches the coping-stones
upon which I stand. I hold my
breath. " Hoist the jib. Keep her head
well off. Bear a hand with the fenders!"
The ship's bows scrape the wall as they glide
past it. " Port your helm— Down with the
jib! " The check, tight as a fiddle-string, now
holds the ship to the post, and sways her
head round into deep waters. " Cast off the
check!"

I breathe again. The mail-coach has been
driven through the neck of the phial: the
Bentinck has found her way out of the wry-necked
water-bottle, and is steaming off
gallantly through the broad Southampton
Water.

As she recedes with the steady power
which, in a fortnight, will guide her into the
harbour of Alexandria, I reflect on her
score of sisters— members of the Peninsular
and Oriental Steam Navigation Company
family— immediately smile at Invasion, and
defy the French. I communicate my sentiments
to the superintendent. His responses
strengthen my defiant valour. He tells me,
that the steam navy belonging to his company
alone, consists of twenty-four vessels in
active service, and six more in course of construction
(including the Himalaya, which will
be the largest steam-boat in the world):—
total, thirty ships. To which I add, flatteringly,
that his single fleet nearly equals the
Imperial steam navy of Russia; it is double
that of Holland; the State steam squadron
of Brother Jonathan numbers only six more
vessels; and the entire Danish flotilla,
including sailing ships, musters one less, or only
twenty-nine. The number of persons employed,
continues the P. and O. S. N. C.'s Admiral,
afloat and ashore, in the year 1851, was about
two thousand three hundred persons. That
(I add, telling him that I am a schoolmaster
and am " up " in these matters) nearly equals
the entire military force of Saxe Altenbourg.
The salaries paid to them amounted to ninety-seven
thousand pounds (says he). One-third
more (says I) than the cost of the Belgian
navy for the same year; and four times
greater than the entire revenues of the
principality of Saxe Coburg. Four hundred
colliers (he continues) are employed in
transporting English coal to the different
coaling stations between Southampton and
Hong Kong; some of them having to
double the Cape of Good Hope. The
average yearly consumption of coal is one
hundred and thirty thousand tons; and the
average cost per ton being forty-two shillings,
two hundred and seventy-three thousand
pounds per annum is spent to keep the
steam up. Your disbursements (I remark),
for fuel and wages, fall not far short of the
payments for the Civil List of this country
for the year 1851. Yet (I begin to consider)
there are other steam-packet companies
equally flourishing, and the combined
fleets of these powerful associations could
show to our enemies, in case of utmost need
—how many steam-vessels at one view
averaging upwards of one thousand tons
burthen? "Let us see," replies the Admiral,
"about seventy; besides smaller steamers
and swarms of colliers." "With complements
of how many thoroughly trained British
tars?" I ask. "Quite" (he answers) "eight
thousand, not to mention the crews of the
coal-vessels; and guns innumerable." A fig
for the French!

"Rule, Britannia! Britannia rules the waves,
For Brit"——

"Pray, don't sing here ! " remonstrates my
excellent informant.

"Here? Where?"

I look round in amazement. Have I been
bewitched? or has the good, hearty, earnest
Admiral Superintendent so thoroughly interested
me, that he has brought me " here"
without my knowing it? I see dangling
above me, stacked around me, and strewed
below me, so thickly that I am obliged
to mind where I tread, every sort of
article that the daintiest housewife could
desire. I hear a steam-engine driving circular
saws, grindstones, and paint-mills. I smell
(and that loved fragrance restores my
scattered senses) tar. I am, it seems, in
the P. and O. S. N. C.'s storehouse— a
spacious piece of architecture just outside
the dock-gate. I am brought here to be
plunged from my informant's comprehensive
statements, into the actual working
of P. and O. S. N. details. He leads
me through forests of brushes of all sorts,
sizes, and descriptions; lakes of paint;
more oil-cans than would have concealed the
Forty Thieves; museums of pickles and jellies;
stacks of spare spars; mountains of sailcloth;
round towers of coiled rope; piles
of carpets, rugs, blankets, counterpanes;
show-rooms of glass and crockery; warehouses
crammed with cabin stoves, cooking