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so with this reservation-for without this it would be better even that the system should remain as at present. But if these training-vessels are merely to cruise about the Isle of Wight, like those in which the second-class boys are exercised, they will certainly not answer the purposes required. The trainingship should be a frigate-the old six-and-twenties, like the Eurydice, would do capitally-and the cadets should go each summer for a cruise of three or four months at least to the Mediterranean. They would by this arrangement derive a portion of the advantages which we have shown would result from the training taking place wholly in sea-going ships. It would not be advisable to carry on the studies to a great extent during this summer cruise; but at the same time there are some subjects, such as navigation and marine surveying, which seem to suggest themselves as being studied with greater facility in the course of a sea voyage to different places. It would be better, according to this scheme, that the training-vessel should be a sailing-ship, as it would be more roomy, and steam could be studied better at the College, and on board the steamer attached to it. The number of cadets admitted into the service annually being about 170, it would of course be impossible to accommodate all that would be at the College-three times that number on board one ship. It would be necessary, therefore, to have several vessels; and perhaps the most advisable plan would be to have one for the cadets of each year, and for each vessel to make two voyages, taking half the annual number each time, which would be as many as a small frigate could properly accommodate in addition to her

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pected that parents should pay a fair sum for their sons during the period of training. The sum required during the latter years of the existence of the old College was £100 per annum for all but the sons of naval and military officers; but this would be too high an amount to fix for the future, for it must be remembered that in former days going through the College was optional, so that those who could not afford to pay so much for their sons and the majority of the parents of naval officers could not-sent them straight to sea as volunteers. It has been said by some that the College ought to be made selt-supporting, and no doubt it would be quite practicable to devise a scheme whereby it would be so; but to make a fundamental principle of this would, we think, be a fatal mistake. To start upon this assumption would be to cripple the whole plan; for the result would probably be, either that the sum required to be paid by the parents would be too large, or that the establishment would be upon a scale unworthy of the country. The popularity of the naval service is such, that there would no doubt always be found plenty of candidates, were the expense of the education at the College as great even as at Eton or Harrow; but in this case those classes from whom some of our very best officers have been drawn would be entirely denied access to the Navy. It must not be forgotten that Nelson was the son of a country clergyman, and that many other officers of the highest distinction have been, and are, sons of naval and military men, whose means are seldom such as to permit them to pay a high sun for their children's education. That very numerous body from whose ranks the Navy is largely recruitedcountry gentlemen of small fortune, who have places to keep up and many other calls upon their income

would also be unable to send their sons to sea, unless the expense of the College were moderate; while

the great body of the clergy would be still less able to pay a high sum. The course which it would be most worthy for this country to adopt would be, to devise a comprehensive scheme for a Naval College fully equal to the wants of the service, and upon a liberal footing to fix upon such an annual sum for each cadet as should place it within reach of all those who now send their sons to the Navy; and then, if it were found that this was insufficient to cover the expenses of the establishment, to charge the balance to the State. Supposing that the Naval College and trainingships were to cost the country even £100,000 a-year, that would be but a hundredth part of the ten millions which the Navy swallows up annually, and only one-third of the cost of a single iron-cased ship like the Minotaur. The regulations of the Britannia require the parents of each cadet to pay £40 for his maintenance during the year he is on board, and this annual sum is necessary all the time the lad is a midshipman; so that for five or six years £40 a-year has to be paid, besides the cost of uniform, clothes, &c. But under the proposed system, the midshipman, on joining the Navy from the College, being a thoroughly trained and competent officer, should at once receive an amount of pay sufficient to maintain him in respectability, without further assistance from his parents being necessary. There would, therefore, be only the three years in the College or training-ship during which the parents would be called upon to pay for their sons, and for this shorter period £60 or £70 a-year would not be too high a rate to establish. But there should be a certain number of cadetships upon a reduced scale open to the sons of deserving naval and military officers of small means; and a few, sons of deceased officers, should be admitted annually free of all expense.

The present system costs the country as follows, according to the Navy Estimates:

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Total, £18,593 9 0

According to either of the foregoing schemes, naval instructors would be no more required on board ship, as the cadets would have received a thoroughly good education before joining the Navy, and would then be of an age to keep up their knowledge without such assistance; therefore the whole of the above sum would at once go towards the expense of the college. Supposing, also, that 100 cadets paid the full amount of £70 a-year each, and 50 paid at the rate of £40, leaving the remaining 20 free, this would amount to—

100 Cadets at £70, at £40, free,

50 20

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£7000 0 0 2000 0 0

Total, £9000 0 0

which added to the former sum, makes £27,593- an amount that would go a considerable way towards covering the expenses of the College. But the matter is one of such vital importance to the Navy that questions of economy ought not to be permitted to stand in the way of a thoroughly satisfactory scheme, upon whatever footing it may be based.

It has been proposed that the Naval College should also be open to boys intended for the merchant service; and no doubt this would be highly beneficial to the latter if it could be carried out, and would tend to draw the two services closer together, which is much to be desired. But the College would be quite large enough without this addition to its numbers; and surely in this great maritime country our mercantile navy is able to support an educational establishment of its own. We question very much, also, whether the parents of boys intended for the merchant service would care to go to the expense of an education such as is required for the Navy.

Since, according to the proposed plan, there would be no naval cadets on board the ships of the fleet, and an officer would be only three years in the rating of midshipman, it follows that the number of junior officers would be much smaller than at present; and it may be asked, therefore, Who is to do the various duties that are now perforined by the youngsters? We will try, then, to give a satisfactory answer to this question. In the first place, it is considered by many experienced officers that the number of warrant-officers might be greatly increased, with advantage to the service, and that the duties of mates of decks could be advantageously performed by them. In the next place, every one who has been acquainted with the Navy for the last five-and-twenty years, must be aware that a great change has taken place in the habits and nature of the seamen. They are no longer that careless, childlike, thoughtless set they were, whom it was impossible to trust out of sight; and who never expected, or wished, to be so trusted. The majority of the ships' companies now-or soon will-consist of men who have grown up from their boyhood in the service, who have been carefully trained and educated; and the numerous measures which have been adopted of late years to improve the condition of the sailorshowing him that the country takes an interest in his welfare, and that he is looked upon as a valuable public servant - have not been without their fruits in a very marked and decided improvement in the eonduct and disposition of the men, The consequence is, that officers in command find that they can now place their men in positions of trust and responsibility, which a few years back they would not have dreamt of; and the very fact of finding himself in such a position, and being confiled in, develops a man's good qualities, and raises his tone of mind to a much higher level. There can be no reason whatever why the petty officers in the Navy

should not be considered in the same light as the non-commissioned officers of the Army, with whom they rank, and who have come from the same class of society. These men, in the Army, are frequently sent in charge of detachments of soldiers,

to reside miles away from any of their officers. The ordinary duties of boat-service, therefore, such as landing officers and answering signals, might be performed by the coxswains of the boats, as is done in the French navy; and it would only be requisite to send an officer upon special occasions, such as copying orders of importance, and going on board foreign men-of-war. No doubt, just at first, some inconvenience would be experienced by the change of system; but this necessarily attends any alteration of long-established custom whatever; and we confidently believe that in a very short time this arrangement would prove of great benefit to the service, in raising the position of the petty officers, and making it of greater value in the eyes of the seamen And it must not be forgotten that there are great disadvantages in the present system of schoolboy officers, by which the discipline of the fleet suffers no slight injury, as we have before pointed out.

Turn we now to another branch of our subject. Whether such a project as either of the above be adopted, or whether the Admiralty may decide only to carry out at the College a partial system, such as that now in practice in the Britannia, and keep up the plan of naval instructors to continue the education on board ship afterwards, it is certain that provision must be made, as at present, for a higher course of study, at an after period, for commissioned officers. As we have before stated, it is difficult to overestimate the benefit which has resulted to the naval service, from the studies pursued by officers of all ranks at the College in Portsmouth Dockyard, during their intervals on shore; although the benefit might

have been even greater had the establishment been placed upon a different footing, as we shall see presently. Although it is advisable that the Cadet College should not be situated too near the seaport town, yet in every respect it is to be desired that the senior College should be in the dockyard, and the old building is quite well suited to the purpose. It is not too much to say that the advantages gained by officers studying there are multiplied tenfold by the circumstance of their residing in the principal dockyard of the kingdom. Not a day passes without there being something novel and instructive to be seen in this immense establishment; every class and description of vessel may there be compared together; the latest improvements in steam machinery, the newest inventions in artillery, the art of shipbuilding, and every method of rigging all may be seen and studied there during the daily stroll round the yard, which is the constant practice of the student officers. We therefore trust, that wherever it may be determined to fix the situation of the junior College, the senior establishment may remain where it is.

We have seen how that the course of study at the College for the lieutenant's commission has of late years fallen to the ground. This is much to be regretted, for, as we before showed, the system was an excellent one for the service. It is, however, a question whether it is altogether desirable that an officer at the sub-lieutenant's age should remain for such a long period on shore, for it is just at that time of life that the most valuable experience at sea is gained. We would rather suggest a different plan, which we think would benefit the profession still more. It is a very general opinion in the service that officers should remain for three years on the sub-lieutenants' list, and then be promoted as a matter of course, when they would have been, according to the scheme we have proposed, at least six years at sea,

and not less than twenty-two years of age. Now it is in the rank of lieutenant that officers at the present day remain longest, the commander's commission being most difficult of attainment. We would propose, therefore, that after three years' sea-service in the rank of lieutenant, officers should be permitted to join the College for a course of study similar to that which the mates formerly went through; and that a commander's commission should be given balfyearly to the individual passing the highest examination. By this plan all the benefits of the former system would be restored, and, as we think, with increased advantage both to the service and to the officers.

The College should likewise be open, as at present, to half-pay officers who may wish to go there to study scientific subjects; and every encouragement ought to be given to induce men of ability so to employ their intervals of forced idleness. According to the present system, there is no regular course of study prescribed, but each officer is, as we have mentioned, allowed to follow the bent of his own inclination, and to take up whatever subject he has a taste for. So far this is a wise arrangement, for the naval profession embraces such a diversity of matters-standing as it does in close relationship with nearly every department of science-that it would be impossible for any person, except he were endowed with an extraordinary intellect, to gain more than a slight acquaintance with the higher branches of all the subjects bearing upon his calling. He might, indeed, be "Jack-of-alltrades," but he certainly would be "master of none." It is therefore more desirable that an officer should confine himself to one or two subjects, and follow them up as far as he is able; and since the various ramifications of science are interwoven with, and to a great extent depend upon, each other, he could not fail, in gaining a thorough know

ledge of one, to acquire a certain insight into others.

There is an observatory belonging to the College, which, if it were kept for the use of the students, would be of the greatest value to those who might be disposed to study astronomy; but this observatory is used as a depôt for the Government chronometers and meteorological instruments; and since the rating of these chronometers— upon whose accuracy the safe navigation of our ships depends-is performed solely by means of the transit instrument in this observatory, it would never do to let it be used as a back instrument for the purpose of instruction. At present, it is quite impossible for any naval officer to become an astronomer, unless he has access to some private observatory, or unless he obtained permission to study at Greenwich, which might probably not be considered convenient or advisable to grant. But if the College observatory were set apart exclusively, and properly fitted up, for the use of officers studying astronomy, this very important science would be at once placed within the reach of all. Every astronomer would testify to the great benefit which would accrue to science, were a certain number of intelligent naval officers, scattered over different parts of the world, in a position to take reliable observations of the various celestial phenomena, and to furnish intelligible and trustworthy records of them.

To this end there should be every facility afforded to enable the officers to carry out their studies properly; but, unfortunately, this is not the case at present; and no one is more painfully aware of this than are the excellent Professor and his colleagues, who have striven continually, but without effect, to induce the Admiralty to supply the necessary means for that purpose, such as instruments, apparatus, and other appliances. The only subject which has been brought under a regular system is Steam, for which there is an established course to go through, and an examination at the close of it with classed certificates of proficiency. And, fully alive to the unsatisfactoriness of the state of matters, the Professor, in framing the steam course, did all in his power to remedy it, by including as well as practical instructionsuch theoretical requirements as rendered a certain amount of mathematical knowledge necessary; while the highest class of certificate requires, in addition, a considerable knowledge of mechanics and hydrostatics. But it is not compulsory to go through even the steam coursealthough practically every one does 30-and that finished, which is generally in six months at most, there is no longer any regular system to follow, nor any further certificate of study to be obtained. Therefore those officers who may have Another subject which is of the studied for three or four years at greatest value to a naval officer, the College, and acquired a high and for acquiring a knowledge amount of scientific knowledge, of which there are at present no have nothing to distinguish them facilities, is marine surveying. from such as may have merely pass. There is not one officer in fitty, we ed through the steam course with a will venture to say, who has any third-class certificate. They have practical acquaintance with this neither experienced any encourage- duty-except those who have served ment to persevere in their studies, nor in surveying-ships-although there have they any other reward to look is not a station in the world where to for the labour they have bestowed such a knowledge would not upon them, except that which is con- useful; for we are constantly opentained in every well-regulated mind ing up fresh regions to commerce, -a consciousness of having em- and our surveying expeditions canployed one's time in a profitable man- not keep pace with the demands upon their services. It will be in

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