on a uniform pattern at the government armories; it should be worn securely upon the hip, suspended from a concealed shoulder-strap. As for the trifling swords of every possible pattern, which now dangle at the heels of our officers, they are, in connexion with the general ignorance of their use, rather a danger than a protection. The only variation we would allow from this single uniform, should be that of round-jackets, of similar cloth and fashion to the coat, and cloth foraging-caps.

A large double-breasted fatigue surtout, of the same color, should relieve the whole family of plaid cloaks, upper benjamins, pea-jackets, and monkeys. This or some similar general system of uniform once established by order, we would compel all the officers, on all occasions, to dress in uniform or fatigues, in conformity to the temporary regulation of the commander. This authority is already exercised to produce uniformity in the appearance of the seamen, though no regulation of the service specifies their uniform; much more, then, may it be applied to the dress of the officers, whose dress is regulated, and with whom subordination should ever begin. We would have a uniform system running through the dress of the various ranks of officers, and reaching, to a certain extent, to the sailors, whose dress should also be regulated; the superior officers should be distinguished from their inferiors, less by superior glitter, than by the quality of their epaulettes, or some minute ornament, obvious rather to their own corps than to a stranger or an enemy. Nelson lost his life at Trafalgar by the conspicuousness of his uniform. We think this subject worthy of attention, not merely because it has much to do with the appearance and display of our navy; but because it might always affect its efficiency; and because a neat uniform would, among the younger officers, do much to cherish in them a love and pride of profession.

Let us now consider what room there may be for improvement in the organization of the most numerous class of our navy, the class of inferiors. In the first place, then, we consider the abolition of the marine-corps absolutely necessary to the efficiency and harmony of our ships. The marine-corps was adopted in our navy with the rest of the system which we copied from Britain, although the reason of its institution did not apply to us; it having been originally instituted in order that the officers might avail themselves of the aversion existing between the seamen and soldiers, to make themselves a bul

wark of bayonets in the event of mutiny, so likely to result from the vexatious irksomeness of a compelled and hopeless servitude. The voluntary enrolment and regular discharge of our seamen entirely remove this danger from among us; so that we do not derive from the marine-corps the advantages which led to its institution, whilst we are fully exposed to all its inconveniences. These are manifold. In the first place, soldiers, when embarked, whilst they are more in the way than an equal number of seamen, are either of no use for the ordinary duties of the ship, or else, in becoming useful, they lose entirely their distinctive character, and cease to be more of soldiers than the seamen among whom they become mingled. Between the marine and sea officers, too, there is a perpetual discord, arising from their unnatural association. The marines carry on a continual contest of conflicting privileges, as to the command of their guard, and sometimes even endeavor to set themselves free from that law of universal subjection to the commander, which is the sole bond that keeps a naval community together. We would say, then, to avoid the great injustice of disbanding the marine-corps, and depriving its members of their profession and support, either make it an exclusive appendage of our naval stations, or else incorporate it with the army.

The marine-corps abolished, or, at least, its unnatural connexion with our ships severed, it would be easy to introduce a more perfect and harmonious organization among the crew. Nothing would be easier, if necessary, than to have all the men trained to the use of the musket, and qualified to act on shore in defence of the coast, without the danger of dispersing. But the great object of rendering them effective at sea would be perfectly attained by enlisting them for a particular ship, with the right of transfer, and in all cases for the duration of the cruise. This arrangement would save our commanders the infinite embarrassment which often results from the expiration of the term for which their crews have entered. No men are greater sticklers for the letter of the law than seamen; and when thus illegally detained beyond their time, they often become discontented, and the commander must either yield a portion of his authority, or resort to a harshness of discipline, which the circumstances render as unpleasant as it is unjust. To obviate the dread of an unlimited term of service, which might deter seamen from entering for the cruise, care should

be taken that no cruise exceed three years; a term already sufficiently prolonged. In entering a crew, we would not allow them to enter for any particular rank or wages; but would classify them according to their merits when embarked, awarding the stations of petty-officers to those who should possess recommendations for having faithfully filled those stations in other ships, and retaining the power to promote, through all the various gradations of boys, ordinary seamen, seamen, and pettyofficers, according to individual merit and good behavior. We do not think that the boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and sail-maker, should be warrant officers, but entered like the rest of the crew, and equally subject to promotion and degradation. These offices are best filled by individuals temporarily appointed, and liable to removal at the pleasure of the commander; while those who have warrants, having no hope of going higher, and no immediate fear of descending lower, lose all ambition. Moreover, they would furnish to the whole crew, when within their reach, a powerful motive to emulation and excellence. Finally, we would not receive a single individual into our ships who was not a native-born American. But under the present system of discipline, and whilst there is danger of being for ever degraded by the stroke of the lash, American seamen, or, at all events, the better class of them, will not enter the service of their country. That system which deters Americans from serving their country, and forces us to receive a large proportion of foreigners as the only alternative, must be false, cannot be permanent, and, therefore, demands of legislative wisdom (we do not appeal to humanity) an immediate reformation.

Our naval system, as we have already seen, was received from Britain. Her sailors, forced into her navy like slaves, and forming at least one excepted class from the boasted spirit of universal emancipation, could of course only be controlled by the same bodily compulsion by which they were kidnapped and deprived of their liberty. Though voluntary enrolment was at once substituted among us for compulsion, the lash, which was its counterpart, was most inconsistently retained. Hence the more worthy of our seamen were excluded from the public service, except when out of employment in time of war or embargo; and of course it was compelled to supply itself from among the less scrupulous; out of whom and the foreigners, who entered extensively, a class was formed and per

petuated of degraded individuals, who have rendered the name. of man-of-war's men a stigma, and who, accustomed to obey no law but that of brute compulsion, are still kept in order only by the means of their degradation.

The navy, in point of ease of labor, quality of food, and the chance which long voyages offer for accumulation (to which sailors, however quickly they may spend their money, are not indifferent, as may be seen by their making long voyages in the merchant service, at reduced wages); the pleasures to be derived in it from a numerous society and stated leisure; its festivities, music, dancing, esprit de corps, pride of ship, and all its multiplied means of enjoyment, holds out strong inducements to seamen; all, however, counteracted among the less corrupt by the terrors of the lash. Take away these terrors, and our best seamen will enter in abundance. Associate with them a large number of youths, alike unimpaired in character and constitution; and these, cherished by their officers, and ambitious to excel, will soon become skilful seamen. Seamanship is incomparably more perfect in the navy, and it will, therefore, be easy to send these young men forth more perfect, than if they had been reared in the merchant service. Hence, then, instead of being indebted to the merchant service for seamen, whom we send back corrupted, and only susceptible of being kept in order by naval discipline, to mutiny, and cause the miscarriage of voyages, we should furnish it with seamen equally distinguished for skill and habits of subordination.

We agree with the author of the Naval Sketches,' in condemning the daily issue of ardent spirits as part of the naval ration. A whole crew, without reference to previous habits or individual constitution, learns to swallow the poisonous dose. We can indeed conceive no idea more shocking, than that grave legislators should have thus set their names to a law, whose sole effect is the promotion of intemperance. There is no truth in the idea that grog is a bounty for enlistment; it is only a bounty to those whom it would be desirable to exclude from the service. In merchant ships, where our best seamen are found, the issue of grog is unusual. Grog, in a man-of-war, is a sufficient source of all discord and of every crime; while grog continues to be drunk there, the sound of the lash and a shriek of the tortured and degraded victims will continue to reverberate through our ships. We agree farther with him in believing that much advantage might be derived from the cul

tivation of the moral character of seamen; and one can, indeed, see no sufficient reason why a ship of war, instead of being a school of ignorance and vice, might not offer a spectacle of intelligence, good order, and morality. We are aware, that in every system of government there will be crimes, and, consequently, that there must be punishments; but what prevents those punishments which are found efficacious ashore, from being equally efficacious afloat? and why might not the hope of reward furnish as strong an excitement to good conduct as the fear of punishment? Be it as it may, substitute whatever punishments you please, even death itself, but let corporal punishments cease henceforth and for ever from among us. With our seamen, as with our children, let us leave them to that nation in which everything is complicated, factitious, unnatural; let it not be said that, while Frenchmen, bowing to the nod of their Emperor, were able to conquer the world by the aid of moral incitements, Americans cannot defend their country but by the impulse of the lash!

it Sidell.

C.C. Filton

ART. VI.-Elements of Geometry, with Practical Applications for the Use of Schools. By T. WALKER. Second Edition. Boston. Richardson, Lord, & Holbrook. 1830. 12mo. pp. 104.

THE progress of Geometry, from its rude beginnings in Egypt, to its present state of advancement, exhibits one of the most perfect and beautiful developements of human intellect. Starting from a few simple truths, the application of which the necessities of common life first taught that primitive people, it passed, step by step, along its forward path through the Grecian and Alexandrian schools, and from them through the middle ages to modern times, until it has at last entered a region of unerring truth, no less wonderful to the uninitiated eye, than would be the fabled glories of oriental Fairyland. As the science advanced from truth to truth, each more surprising than the last, it is no wonder that the imaginations of its devotees were enkindled to the most dazzling anticipations of the grandeur of future discoveries. The delight, which the mind VOL. XXX.-No. 67.

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