position peculiarly suitable for navigation and commerce, and above all, by the intervention of the ocean, which, environing us on every side, points out that element on which we are best calculated to contend

and to conquer.

This obvious truth has been known and acknowledged from the carliest periods of our history; but unhappily, until a recent epoch, it was not always steadily and uniformly acted upon, Our Edwards, and our Henrys, snitten with a love of glory, and swayed by the spirit of chivalry, rather than by the dictates of sound policy, conceived ridiculous pretensions in respect to foreign empire, and, as kings of England, wasted the blood of their feudal followers (for regular armies, as well as regular fleets, were then unknown), on purpose to attain a diadem, which would have rendered their native dominions a province to France! Even in latter times, statesmen, who never viewed the ocean but when contemplating it from their castellated mansions in the maritime counties, and never were borne on it, but while rapidly wafted in a packet across the straits of Dover, have been miserably ignorant in respect to the true strength, natural defence, and potent resources of our isle. Lifted to power, on the obsequious back of party, and retaining their exalted station by the display of a gaudy and unsubstantial eloquence, they forgot the genius of the nation which they were unhappily destined to rule, and, intoxicated with the cup of ambition, dreamed of achieving conquests on a new element.

But,

But, notwithstanding a few seductive exceptions, the history of all our wars, particularly the last, will evince that we ought to abstain from continental acquisitions, and that we are fitted, not for the empire of the earth, but of the ocean; that our victories on the former have been, for the most part, hollow and unsubstantial, and that it is by attending to our ships and our seamen; by supplying our dockyards and our naval arsenals; by establishing and following an enlightened policy in respect to maritime affairs; and above all, by exhibiting ourselves the protectors, rather than the tyrants of the main, that we can either acquire or retain a permanent dominion.

The ocean then by which the British isles are surrounded, at once points out the sources of their wealth, their empire, and their defence. The oak, venerated during the times of druidical superstition, has been since dragged from the sacred groves, and launched into the sea; the inhabitants, leaving their native woods, have built cities, founded universities, cultivated the arts and sciences, and rendered the new world, as well as the ancient continent of Asia, tributary to them. Their fleets now cover the channel and the Atlantick, while their flag waves in the Pacifick, and throughout the most distant seas; their manufactures are consumed not only in Europe, but in the remotest countries of the east; and the sun

* Oppidum Britanni vocant quum sylvas impeditas vallo atque fossá munierunt, quo incursionis hostium vitandæ causâ convenire DE BELLO GALLICO, lib. v. c. 21. scarcely

consueverunt.

scarcely rises on any land that does not confess the unrivalled workmanship of our artisans.

It would be curious to trace the sources and the progress of this mighty power, from its first dawnings to its present meridian splendour. At the epoch of Cæsar's descent, we find that the island was but little visited except by traders from the neighbouring continent, and it appears certain that the chief intercourse, anterior to this period, was kept up by means of small vessels from the opposite coast of Gaul. The Roman gallies, but a little larger than the Gravesend boats of the present day, doubtless appeared formidable to the astonished natives, who, unable to cppose them on an element in some measure consecrated to their posterity, nevertheless appeared ready to give battle to the invaders on the shore, and thus defend all that was dear to freemen.

The commerce that began to take place, during a later period, in Germany, enabled the inhabitants of the sea coasts contiguous to Britain to fit out a small ficet of transports for the conveyance of the Saxons, who from allies became conquerors; and in the time of Alfred, we find the Danes, then a nation of freebooters, infinitely superior to the inhabitants both in the art of navigation and in the size of their ships. But that great Prince may be justly considered as the founder of the British navy, for it was during his memorable reign that the first rudiments of a national establishment of this kind evidently took place.*

* It must be confessed, however, that at this period the navy of England was scarcely equal to the armaments fitted out by the

inhabitants

But it was found impossible for the English, in the time of Harold, to cope with a petty Norman fleet of three hundred sail, and it was left solely to the issue of a battle by land, to decide the fate of the nation. During the reign of the first princes of that dynasty, which ascended the throne immediately after the Conquest, although ships were occasionally collected at London and the cinque ports for expeditions against France, yet at this period we cannot discover any thing worthy of the appellation of a royal navy.

The house of Tudor, however, deemed it necessary to pay greater attention to naval affairs; and the wise and judicious economy of Henry VII. enabled his son to become formidable both by sea and land. It was accordingly in the time of Henry VIII. that we find the first regular fleet, consisting chiefly of gallies, which, after scouring the Channel for some time under Sir Edward Howard, presented itself before Brest, after the manner of more recent times, and defied the French to single combat.

During the reign of his illustrious daughter, a new and a still more formidable enemy was to be encountered, in the person of Philip II. king of Spain, every part of whose extensive empire resounded with preparations for the invasion of England. The Marquis of Santa Croce, a sea officer of great reputation and ex

inhabitants of the South Seas: "We found some war-canoes of Otaheite (says Dr. Forster, in his Observations made during a Voyage round the World) that required one hundred and fortyfour paddlers, eight men to steer, one to command the paddlers, and about thirty warriors for the fighting stage."

perience,

perience, was nominated to command the fleet, which, along with his benediction, had already received from the Pope the title of the "Invincible Arınada," and consisted of one hundred and thirty large vessels, accompanied by twenty caravals, and ten salves, of a superior size to any that had hitherto appeared in Europe. Two thousand six hundred and thirty pieces of brass ordnance, of a large calibre, twenty thousand soldiers, eight thousand mariners, and two thousand galley slaves, tended to render this armament almost irresistible.

But the Queen of England and her gallant people, equally undismayed, prepared to meet and to defeat so formidable a force. Accordingly, while a squadron, consisting of forty small vessels, lay off Dunkirk, on purpose to intercept the Duke of Parma, who had assembled thirty-four thousand men in the Netherlands, and meditated a descent, by way of a diversion, on one side, a fleet of about thirty ships of war, under the admirals Lord Howard of Effingham, Drake, Hawkins, and Forbisher, the most renowned commanders of their age, being unable to contend in line of battle with vessels termed galleons, and which were larger and more lofty, as well as superior in numbers, guns, and weight of metal, hung upon their rear, and cut two of them off. Having then followed the main body up the Channel, the Lord Admiral, who had by this time received an accession of strength from different ports, determined to give battle, and the victory that ensued proved decisive of the safety of England, and the valour and experience of her scamen and commanders.