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must obey that or crush that superior, for 1 pageant and an effective display of strength. of compressing that will, except by exter- On the previous evening great doubts were nal force, there is no chance whatever. entertained whether the review could be Reason will be as powerless as if it sought held at all. The weather had been steadito make the pulse beat slower. The supe- ly becoming worse for two days, with little rior cannot give up his determination. The chance of its moderating; boats could not partial exertion of the will to which we are communicate with the fleet, and a postall accustomed, by which we all act, is to him ponement was only prevented by the ansimply as impossible as M. Schulz's habit of nouncement that Wednesday was absolutelifting one eyebrow without the other is to ly the only day at the Sultan's disposal. On anybody else. He says anybody could ac- Wednesday morning, however, the look of quire it, and perhaps they could, as possibly things so far improved that everybody anybody could acquire Marie Antoinette's agreed there would be a review of some power of moving her ears backward and kind, and started for Waterloo ex Victoria. forward like a horse, but generations would The Sultan went by the South-Western, elapse, and a good many of them, before and reached Portsmouth without any furthe power would be hereditary. So it will ther inconvenience than the presentation of be a good many years before an Asiatic's an address at Basingstoke it seems there will is restrained like that of an English- is a corporation there, as well as a railway The Viceroy had left Victoria man, by an instinctive deference for all op- station. posing facts, many generations before he some time before the Sultan had left Nine cares for the restrained and infructuous Elms, but did not arrive till almost the form of authority which we term constitu- same moment at the dockyard, and hence some delay and a little confusion. Not only tional power. had the Admiralty to divide itself in order to receive each of the two with due honour, but the irrepressible Mayor and Corporation, who had calculated on waylaying and settling with the Viceroy before they attacked the Sultan had to rush distractedly From the Spectator, 20 July. about with their addresses. In the mean time the weather was getting worse and The wind had worse every moment. If the Naval Review at Spithead cannot freshened since early morning into a viobe absolutely pronounced a success, it is at lence that soon cleared the water of all least gratifying to reflect that crowned sailing craft except a very few of the most adventurous yachts, and rose into perfect heads, the Admiralty, and the public were in no wise to blame for the result, and that fury as each one of the dull gray masses of It now beto the weather and the railway companies rain-cloud that kept gathering to windward two forces equally unamenable to sup- broke over or near the scene. must be attrib-came almost certain that the original proplication or remonstrance uted the falling off from the splendid pro-gramme could not be carried out, and that gramme. St. Swithin, after spoiling Belgian the briefest inspection of the fleet as it lay uniforms, marring the fête at the Crystal at anchor would most probably be the exPalace, and giving Volunteers colds at Wimbledon, might have been a little more gracious in his own diocese. The Brighton Railway might have taken the Viceroy of Egypt and the House of Lords down to Portsmouth in a little less than four hours. But manqué as the display was in many points, there were still elements of greatness in it that defied the squally weather and minor hitches in the arrangements. There was the most powerful, if not the most numerous fleet ever seen, even at Spithead, assembled to do honour to a monarch whose very appearance amongst us is one of the strangest events of the times. It was the one way in which England could at once present the Sultan with a great

THE NAVAL REVIEW.

tent of the day's proceedings. Stories of the roughness of the sea off the Nab had been circulated till there was clearly a feeling of relief in many minds at the thought that comparative freedom from sea-sickness would at least accompany the loss of the great features of the Review. It had been originally intended that the fleet should proceed in two parallel columns down to the Nab, where after sweeping round in opposite directions the two columns would have rejoined each other in the same order, each pair of ships engaging as they approached, but this was now felt to be out of the question. At last the curtain of haze and scud rose for a few moments on the first scene of the spectacle. Soon after

mid-day the Sultan's yacht steamed slowly the grandeur and power of many of the out of the harbor, followed by that of the Viceroy, and the other Admiralty yachts. Next came the Tanjore, with foreign Ministers, then the Ripon, with the House of Commons, and lastly the Syria, with the House of Lords-all three splendid steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The scene presented to those on board each vessel as she cleared the harbour mouth was full of the most varied interest. On one side were the hulls of the Victory, the St. Vincent, and the Duke of Wellington giants of former days; on the other, one Long black line of human beings occupied every point of standing-ground on the shore, right up to where the spray dashed in their faces, and stretching away in the foreground was the monster avenue of vessels, with its vista of flag-crowned masts, and blue and white-fringed yards, finally losing itself in hazy distance. On the Isle of Wight shore was the long line of fifteen iron-clads, in an exact parallel on the Hampshire side were a corresponding number of the finest screw liners afloat, while, again, the same number of gunboats prolonged the columns still further. As the Sultan's yacht neared the line a Royal salute rolled grandly up the terraces of portholes, and thanks to the wind-the smoke cleared off sufficiently to disclose each ship to the spectators as the procession passed. Naturally eager attention was first called forth by the ironclads. At their head was the gigantic Minotaur, with her five masts, looking the very embodiment of monstrous strength and powers of destruction not ungraceful, though, in spite of all that has been said. People seem never tired of mourning over the departing glories and the beauty of wooden ships, and ringing the changes on every word expressive of ugliness as applied to their iron successors. But a great deal of this is aesthetically somewhat unsound, and a good deal of it untrue in fact. It is true that a host of glorious traditions and a host of poetic similes clothe every feature of our old wooden ships with a charm it is impossible not to feel, but, after all, the use of a man-of-war is not to recall old associations or to come up to preconceived ideas of beauty. The thought that any couple of the iron-clads on Wednesday could have sent to the bottom, without a chance of escape, the entire line of wooden ships opposite breaks the true spell of their beauty at a blow. With the loss of their power and prestige all the accessories go too. Besides, though the lofty tessellated hulls, tapering spars, and gleaming sails have their beauty,

iron-clads are far from incompatible with gracefulness, even according to the old ideas. After the Minotaur and Achilles came the Warrior and Black Prince, the latter of which combines the long low black hull, and the grim and frowning battery, with graceful curves, comparatively light spars, and bows that sit on the water with real beauty of outline. After passing the Pallas, Valiant, and Research, about whose appearance not quite so much can be said, the turret ships came into view. The Royal Sovereign, under the fitting command of Captain Čoles himself, excited great interest. In appearance, it must be said, she looks the image of a butter boat with three pats of butter, but the simile is strangely in contrast with the fact that the heaviest artillery in the fleet, then present, could have barely made a dent even on the small target exposed to them. At last, the lines passed through, the little fleet of yachts and steamers came to off Osborne, the woods and new-mown glades of which never perhaps looked so lovely as they did during a faint glimpse of what was, by comparison, almost Queen's weather," which lighted them up just previously to her reception of the Sultan on board the Victoria and Albert. After some little delay during which another furious squall of whistling wind and stinging rain seemed to beat straight down on the sea, the flag of the Grand Turk ran up side by side with that of Queen Victoria, and almost immediately the signal of "annul weighing" showed that the possible dangers of sending a great fleet to sea in rough weather, and with a tremendous tideway, in a narrow channel, were to be avoided. Now commenced the real display. Headed now by the magnificent Royal Yacht, the procession re-formed, and steamed majestically down through the path marked out by the fleet. This time manning the yards was manifestly impossible, as also was any display of bunting in face of the gale, though a Danish frigate, well under the lee of the island, accomplished both afflicted, apparently, with a perfect" peplomania " as regards the latter. However, the rigging was manned, and all down the fleet the blue and white clusters in the shrouds contrasted beautifully with the bright flash of marines drawn up in line on deck. Now, too, the salutes began with redoubled vigour, and as the progress was now with the wind, they could be heard with grand effect. After passing through the fleet, the Royal Yacht came to anchor a short distance to leeward, while the at

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tendant squadron remained in company, slowly forging ahead, or drifting back with the tide. Then came the signals for the ships to engage, and for the gunboats to weigh and attack the forts. In a moment the roar began, from one end to the other, and the smoke came rolling down, ship by ship fading spectrally away in the gloom. From the far end came a mingled mass of sound, from the nearer ships came incessant but distinguishable peals. The vast tiers of the Britannia blazed out till she looked sometimes one glare of flame, while every few seconds the ponderous crashes of sound from the twelve-ton guns of the Minotaur and her companions seemed to drown every thing else. Presently the gunboats began to move stealthily about the haze, working up in front of the Portsmouth forts, along which frequent spots of bright light showed they were responding in earnest. At length the firing ceased, the smoke sullenly rolled away over Southsea and down the Channel and first the spars of the fleet stood out faintly against the sky, then the hulls came out indistinctly, and in a few minutes every thing was quiet again. After a short delay, Osborne was again made for, and soon reached. Her Majesty then took leave of the Sultan, and the latter, after one more salute from the fleet, arrived at Portsmouth Harbour, passing as he entered just under the Syria and Ripon, and receiving their cheers-cheers all the more hearty on account of the broad blue ribbon on his breast, which had just been conferred upon him by the Queen, and the visible appearance of satisfaction on his face. So ended the great Naval Review of 1867. It is only just to add that all the arrangements made by the Admiralty for those invited were every thing that could be expected in face of the weather, and that no praise can be too high for the way in which every thing was managed on board the steamers hired by them from the Peninsular and Oriental Company.

material prosperity of the country, and that prosperity has received of late a visible check. It is calculated, that, in spite of the Exhibition, the trade of France has this year declined one-fourth, partly, it is true, in consequence of the failures in joint-stock speculation, but chiefly on account of the prevailing distrust in the continuance of peace. Distrust of that kind is felt in France as it is felt in no other country in the world. Her men of commerce, always timid-for bankruptcy in France involves the alternatives of suicide or disgrace—are rendered still more cautious by a terrible experience. They know that a defeat might produce a revolution, they remember 1848, and at the first rumour of war they contract their dealings to the amount sufficient to keep their establishments open from day to day. They will make no contracts of any kind, and they can obtain no loans. Trade is reduced at a single squeeze to the narrowest limits within which it can exist, every stock falls, every factory works short hours, and every section of the population not directly dependent on the crops finds itself under a sudden, and, to the majority of the sufferers, an inexplicable pressure. At the same time the finances are embarrassed. The Treasury has been compelled to increase its floating debt by siz millions sterling, till the statesmen angrily murmur that the margin of safety has been eaten up and the market will bear no more, and France, the richest country on the Continent, the only one in which the debt is held by peasant proprietors whom no government would dare to rob, borrows money at rates thirty per cent. higher than those paid by Great Britain. It is in the face of all these facts that the preparations go on; that Napoleon permits the papers to speak uneasily of increasing armaments; that he inserts in the Moniteur an order reconstituting abolished companies and troops, an order which increases the regular Army by 25,000 men; that he embodies the reserves of 1865 and 1866, who, at first called out "for drill," are now "incorporated;" that he purchases in every part of Europe horses, forage, and camp furniture, including items such as tents and camp kettles, by the hundred thousand, which are utterly useless while the Army is in cantonTHE aspect of affairs on the Continent is ments. It was at first asserted that these by no means re-assuring. Lord Stanley's purchases were intended to replace the patched-up peace will not, we fear, last long. losses sustained in the Mexican campaign, It is very difficult for observers who watch but the French War Office values the opin French politics closely to doubt that Napo-ion of the Army, and the Moniteur de leon is arming fast, and with some definite l'Armée, a strictly official journal, has this and very important end in view. The week formally denied these assertions. All Emperor is not a man indifferent to the Mexican losses, it states, were replaced in

From the Spectator, 27 July. THE ASPECT OF THE CONTINENT.