very dered her fecretaries to draw up in- ter than a collection of fhips, on board ftructions, which were to be commu- of each of which the commander and nicated to the admiral, the general, 'his fhip's company did their best to and the five counsellors of war, and annoy the enemy, but with little by them to be copied and tranfmitted dependence on each other, or on the to the feveral fhips of the navy, not orders of the admiral; and in the difto be opened till they fhould arrive in ferent actions which the English fleet a certain latitude. It was on this oc- had with the Dutch, every thing was cafion (fays our hiftorian Guthrie) confufion as foon as the battle began. that we meet with the firft regular It is remarkable, that the famous penfets of fignals and orders to the com- fionary De Witt, who from a statesmanders of the English fleet. But, man became a navigator and a great till the movements of a fleet have at- fea commander in a few weeks, made tained fome fort of uniformity, regu- the fame reprefentation to the ftateslated and connected by fome princi- general on his return from his first ples of propriety, and agreed on by campaign. perfons in the habit of directing a number of fhips, we may with confidence affirm, that fignals would be nothing but a parcel of arbitrary marks, appropriated to particular pieces of naval fervice, fuch as attacking the enemy, landing the foldiers, &c. and that they would be confidered merely as referring to the final result, but by no means pointing out the mode of execution, or directing the movements which were neceffary for performing it. It was James II, when duke of York, who first confidered this practice as capable of being reduced into a fyftem, and who faw the importance of fuch a compofition. He, as well as the king his brother, had always fhowed a great predilection for the fea fervice; and, when appointed admiral of England, he turned his whole attention to its improvement. He had ftudied the art of war under Turenne, not as a paftime, but as a fcience, and was a favourite pupil of that most accomplished general. Turenne one day pointed him out, faying, Behold one who will be one of the firft princes and greatest generals of Europe.' When admiral of England, he endeavoured to introduce into the maritime fervice all thofe principles of concert and arrangement which made a number of individual regiments and fquadrons compofe a great army. When he commanded in the Dutch war, he found a fleet to be little bet In the Memoirs of James II, written by himself, we have the following paffage: 1665. On the 15th of March, the duke of York went to Gunfleet, the general rendezvous of the fleet, and haftened their equipment. He ordered all the flag officers on board with him every morning, to agree on the order of battle and rank. In former battles, no order was kept, and this under the duke of York was the first in which fighting in a line and regular form of battle was obferved.' This must be confidered as full authority for giving the duke of York the honour of the invention. For whatever faults may be laid to the charge of this unfortunate prince, his word and honour stand unimpeached. And we are anxious to vindicate his claim to it, because our neighbours, the French, as ufual, would take the merit of this invention, and of the whole of naval tactics, to themselves. True it is, that Colbert, the great and juftly celebrated inifter of Louis XIV, created a navy for his ambitious and vain-glorious mafter, and gave it a conftitution which may be a model for other nations to copy. By his encouragement, men of the greatest fcientific eminence were engaged to contribute to its improvement: and they gave us the firft treatises of naval evolutions. But it must ever be remembered, that our accomplished, though mifguided fovereign, was then refiding at the court of Louis; that he had formerly acted in concert with the French as a commander and flag officer, and was at this very time aiding them with his knowledge of fea affairs. In the memorable day at La Hogue, the gallant Ruffel, obferving one of Tourville's movements, exclaimed, There! they have got Pepys among them.' This anecdote is given on the authority of a friend, who heard an old and refpectable officer (admiral Clinton) fay, that he had it from a gentleman who was in the action, and heard the words spoken; so that what has long been a matter of general opinion, may now be confidered as fully authenticated. It was on this occafion, then, that the duke of York made the move. ments and evolutions of a fleet the object of his particular ftudy, reduced them to a fyftem, and compofed that Sylem of failing and fighting inftructions,' which has ever fince been confidered as the code of difcipline for the British navy, and which has been adopted by our rivals and neighbours as the foundation of their naval tactics. It does great honour to its author, although its merit will not appear very eminent to a careless furveyor, on account of that very fimplicity which conftitutes its chief excellence. It is unquestionably the refult of much fagacious reflection and painful combination of innumerable circumstances, all of which have their influence; and it is remarkable, that although fucceeding commanders have improved the fubject by feveral fubordinate additions, no change has, to this day, been made in its general principles or maxims of evolution. Till fome fuch code be established, it is evident that fignals can be nothing but arbitrary and unconnected hieroglyphics, to be learned by rote, and retained by memory, without any exercife of the judgment; and the acquifition of this branch of nautical skill must be a more irksome task than that of learning the Chinese writing. But fuch a code being once fettled, the character in which it may be expreffed becomes a matter of rational difcuffion. Accordingly, the failing and fighting inftructions of the duke of York were accompanied by a fet of fignals for directing the chief or moft frequent movements of the fleet. These alfo were contrived with fo much judgment, and fuch attention to distinctnefs, fimplicity, and propriety, that there has hardly been any change found neceffary; and they are still retained in the British navy as the ufual fignals in all cafes when we are not anxious to conceal our movements from an enemy. Notwithstanding this acknowledged merit of the duke of York's fignals, it must be admitted that great improvements have been made on this fubject, confidered as an art. The art military has, in the course of a century paft, become almoft an appropriate calling, and has therefore been made the peculiar ftudy of its profeffors. Our rivals the French were fooner, and more formally, placed in this fituation, and the minifters of Louis, XIV, took infinite and moft judicious pains to make their military men fuperior to all others by their academical education. A more fcientific turn was given to their education, and the affiftance of scientific men was liberally given them; and all the nations of Europe must acknowledge fome obligations to them for information on every thing connected with the art of war. They have attended very much to this fubject, have greatly improved it, and have even introduced a new principle into the art; and by this means have reduced it to the most fimple form of reference to the code of failing and fighting inftructions, by making the fignals immediately expreffive, not of orders, but of fimple numbers. Thefe numbers being prefixed to the various articles of the code of inftructions, the officer who fees a Pepys was fecretary to the duke of York. WHEREFORE rejoice? What conqueft rival as odious as poffible, he very brings he home? judiciously makes one of the tribunes addrefs himself to the populace as above. And it is, indeed, an admirable piece of popular eloquence. Refentment excited by fuccesful Am bition. Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well; Weigh them, it is as heavy; conjure with them, Brutus will start a fpirit as foon as Cæfar. Now in the names of all the gods at once, Upon what meat doth this our Cæfar feed, That he is grown so great ? Caffius, in the above words in Italics, delivers a notion, which may be productive of good or bad effects, according to the characters of the perfons who embrace it. In rational and virtuous minds, it may excite an active purfuit of fortune, in whatever profeffion or fcene of life they are en When Cæfar gaged; but, in weak or wicked na- upon human nature. tures, may betray to hazardous fays that Caffius hears no mufic,' it is no trifling obfervation; nor does our poet barely mean by it, that Caffius was not a merry sprightly man, but that he had not a due temperament of harmony in his compofition; and, therefore, that natures fo uncorrected, are dangerous. On this fentiment he has finely dilated in his Merchant of Venice: fchemes, or tempt to vicious courfes. The fame principle, on the one part, has made generals and admirals of common foldiers and failors; or chancellors and bishops of attorney's clerks, fervitors and fizers +; on the other hand, it has produced projectors, fpeculators, and forgers, and even confpirators, affaffins, and ufurpers.. Diflike excited by perfonal Appearance. Yond' Caffius has a lean and hungry look; gerous. The man that hath no mufic in himself, Is fit for treasons, ftratagems, and fpoils; And his affections dark as Erebus: On this scene between Cæfar and Antony. Fear him not, Cæfar, he's not Antony, Mrs. Montague has the fol lowing judicious obfervation: In the tragedy of Julius Cæfar all the characters appear in due degrees of fubordination to the hero of the piece. Our poet, to intereft us the more for Caffius a foil for him. In this scene Brutus, takes every occafion to make he is reprefented by Cæfar in an unamiable light: the opportunity of fo fit an occafion is taken, to make fome fine reflections on the malignant and envious nature of men, not foftened. by the joys of mirth and the intercourfe of focial pleasures.' Bluntnefs. Brutus fpeaking of Cafca. What a blunt Caffius. So is he now, in execution words In this speech, a truly philofophi- With better appetite. cal reflection is made on the feveral characters of men, taken both from their persons and manners; and it is one of the many inftances of our author's knowledge and obfervation This is a fort of character which we often meet with in life, and which has generally the effect here attributed to it. * The lowest order of ftudents in the university of Cambridge. ↑ The fame in the university of Oxford. 1 For who fo firm that cannot be feduc'd? In this speech is a juft and prudent maxim, respecting the perfons and characters with which thofe fhould af fociate, who would preferve, uncontaminated, their understanding, their virtue and integrity. If men of fenfe, taste, and virtue, have not any opportunity of converfing with their equals, they had much better live alone. They will be able to preferve thefe rare qualities much better in folitude than in unequal fociety. There is a contagion in mind and manners, as well as in bodies, when corrupt. Brutus' Soliloquy on the intended Affaf fination of Cajar. By which he did afcend. So Cæfar may : Then, left he may, prevent. And, fince the quarrel Will bear no colour for the thing he is, Fashion it thus; that what he is, augmented, Would run to thefe and these extremities: And, therefore, think him as a ferpent's egg, Which, hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous; And kill him in the fhell. Our poet seems to have intended, by a fort of hiftorical procefs, to fhew how Brutus was led on, by degrees, to that act to which his nature was averfe. He is here reprefented debating with himself on the point to which Caffius had been urging him. Caffius, in his foliloquy (act I. fc. 2.) feemed to intimate, that refentment had a fhare in his defire to take off Cæfar. Brutus, on the contrary, informs us, that no perfonal motives fway him, but fuch as are derived from an hereditary averfion to tyranny, and the pledge which the virtue of his that a Brutus would not fuffer a king ancestors had given the commonwealth, in Rome. In this foliloquy, moreover, the too common frailty of man, in the circumftances of fuccefsful ambition, is strongly described, under two very just drawn from it, in the conclufion, is and poetical images; but the inference certainly carried too far. It might not have mifbecome a heathen, perhaps, to prevent an evil, without any hefitation about the means; but Chriftianity forbids us to do evil, even though good should be the refult of it. Anxiety infeparable from premeditated Confpiracy. Brutus. Since Caffius firft did whet me against Cæfar, I have not flept. Between the acting of a dreadful thing And the first motion, all the interim is Like a phantafma, or a hideous dream : The genius, and the mortal inftruments, The best metal or temper may be worked into qualities contrary to its original conftitution. It is proved by common experience. |