404

ART. XI.-The Ports, Arsenals, and Dockyards of France.

By A A SERIES of Letters which appeared in the Times, and were avowedly written for that newspaper, the first being dated September 9, 1840, and the last January 6, 1841. The author, if not belonging to the naval profession, is evidently extensively acquainted with naval affairs, and naval technicality; and speaks of many ports and various establishments in Europe connected with sea-faring life, as if he had with more than an ordinary traveller's care examined them. It would appear too, from the way in which he interlards his pages with French, and speaks of his passing for a Frenchman, that he has been much amongst them; and hence his information is extensive and minute with regard to their warlike resources, military as well as maritime. Indeed, he intimates that, if the present volume meets with encouragement, that a larger work, to be entitled The Garrisons and Army of France, will shortly appear. The author, in highly flattering terms, dedicates his book to the editor of the Times, whose paid Missionary, no doubt, he was; and, although he professes candour, ardent patriotism, and the absence of all party bitterness, his style is that of the journal for which he was writing; at the same time, that his matter is not unworthy of the repute of the Thunderer. Certainly he is too fond of taunts, of reviling assertion, and of applying to individuals abusive epithets. To be sure, such things may tell in a newspaper; but we think in a republication of this kind, his avowed purpose would have been fully as well served if the contributions had been pruned of these acerbities. It would have been more satisfactory to us too, had he been careful to avoid repetitions in this aggregate shape. To save labour, however, and also to let his descriptions and predictions, his opinions and suggestions, stand as they were originally given, may be regarded as a reason for a verbatim reprint. He is, also, on the 30th of January, we are told by him, while penning the Introduction, "again on the bosom of the blue waters;" but he would rather "pay the penalty of rushing into print hastily, than that the advocates of the British navy in the Imperial Parliament should be deprived of a work which may afford them an insight into the progress made and now making by our nearest neighbour, and most formidable as well as most implacable rival."

TRAVELLER. London: James Fraser, 1841.

The republication of Letters which have already appeared in a journal so widely circulated as the Times, would, in most cases, claim from us only the briefest notice. Considering, however, the excitement which the recent warlike preparations of France have produced, and the important nature of many of the particulars detailed by our author; and persuaded that extremely vague as well as imperfect ideas prevail in this country relative to the naval force

and prospects of our gallic neighbours, a summary of some of the more striking facts adduced in the present pages, together with a few uncurtailed extracts, may not be unacceptable to our readers; at the same time, that we shall endeavour to avoid much that is stale, both as to the "traveller's" reasoning and anticipations, or hitherto unfulfilled and apparently more remote than when he sounded his alarms, and was prophesying.

Havre is the port that first engages our author's pen, which, down to 1837, and ever since the independence of America, had rapidly advanced in commerce and prosperity, in consequence of its trade with our Transatlantic brethren. The ruinous condition, however, of the pecuniary affairs of the United States in 1837 and 1838, had operated prejudicially to the port in question; so that it needed nothing but the recent rumours of inevitable and impending war with England to paralyze and almost to destroy its trade and speculation.

Our author very distinctly notes the difference which such a panic produces in France and in England,-in such a port as that of Havre as compared with those of London, Liverpool, or Bristol. First of all, there are not amongst our neighbours those large masses of capital that float in England; so that immediate returns are not looked for. Then, think of the mercurial nature, the excitable temperament of the French, who have not the reservedness of our countrymen; but are prone to the indiscreet exhibition of any priva tecalamity, and whose active fancies too, as to the future,"Travel beyond sense, and picture things unseen."

In the meanwhile the workmen of Havre were thrown out of employ, had become impatient. and loudly complained that they were to be sacrificed on account of a needless and disastrous quarrel. War, therefore, was not popular at Havre in September. Very different, however, was the feeling at Cherbourg, one of the Ports Militaires, there being five only of French ports so designated, -namely, Cherbourg, Brest, L'Orient, Rochefort, and Toulon; at all of which, the martial genius of the French is as it were heated and propelled by a high-pressure engine. By ports militaires are meant such harbours as are equivalent to Portsmouth, Plymouth, Sheerness, and Woolwich, in England; that is, where dockyards and arsenals are established in the Government service.

The Traveller" enters at some length into the history of the various ports, as well as into their present condition and prospects. Cherbourg was full of bustle when he was there, the Establishment, as well as all the other naval ones, having been greatly renovated and improved since the July revolution. He warns England that the demonstrations which he witnessed were other than merely "full of sound and fury, and signifying nothing," that it would be right for his countrymen "to inquire what the Eliott and Minto

clique are doing about our navy?" And asks, if our flag "that's braved," and so on," is to be trailed in the dust by hungry Scotch adventurers?" This is written on the 15th of September.

Now we might safely leave these and many recurring queries, accusations, and insinuations to be replied to by Commodore Napier, Lord Palmerston, and others,-say the voice of Tories as well as of Whigs in and out of Parliament. But it may be more satisfactory to quote an authority which the contributor to the Times will not gainsay, viz. himself, by the time that he arrives near to the end of his volume; and when events become the unanswerable interpreters. For example, after having to the effect repeatedly stated that, owing to such "shallow-pated, mean-minded block-heads, as Joseph Hume," "the scrape-penny Scotch dunce;" and the "periwig-pated, pence-filching, pinch-penny patriots, like Mr. Daniel O'Connell," the French navy has made greater advances in number and construction of vessels, manning, efficiency, &c., " than any nation in Europe, or than all the nations of Europe put together," an assertion which occurs in one letter, we are consoled with such assurances as these, that "the Cochrane or Napier of the day, will, in the event of war, prove that though at the end of 1840 our vessels had been inferior to the French in sailing, and in weight of metal, yet, that in a given time, without building or buying, the English ships, nevertheless, bear off the bell." At one time he urges the necessity of putting "spurs into the sluggish sides of our Admiralty;" at another, he admits that "the most brilliant feats of arms" have crowned the British in Syria, and glories at "these manifestations of the surpassing promptitude and power of Great Britain." Again, "The people of England may be well assured, that so long as this eloquent, enlightened, and truly competent secretary, (Mr. More O'Farrall) presides under a Minto at the Admiralty, the wooden walls of Old England' are in no danger of any single naval power, or even the whole of Europe, in battalion against us. Thrice happy England!" In short, we find in the pages before us that heat and cold are blown alternately, and sometimes at the same breath; the comfort, however, increasing as months elapse and events develope themselves. But, now to return for a moment to Cherbourg:

"The forges and foundries of Cherbourg are the children of the July revolution. They were commenced in 1831, and finished in 1832 and 1833; and here it was, as well as in the rope-walk, that I traced, certainly with surprise, though without dread, the astonishing progress which this persevering, ingenious, industrious, excitable, and most valiant people, have made since 1830. If the English nation needed any stimulus to exertion, here it lies in the fiery bosom of these forges. If they are to maintain, as they ever have maintained, and as I pray to God they ever may maintain, the dominion of the seas-if they are to ride on the whirlwind,' and to

'direct the storm' of the ocean-if they are to protect the weak and chastise the strong-if they are to guard their own firesides, their 'lares et penates,' as they have hitherto guarded them, against foreign foes-if they are to maintain, as they ought, the right of search,' for which they fought and bled bravely and profusely-if they are to sustain, as they ought and must, the mare clausum of the great and learned John Selden, they will take heed in time, and not 'sleep the slumber of the sluggard.' Above all things, they will cast away from them those men who sacrifice the 'wooden walls of old England' to miserable savings of cheese-parings and candle-ends; for this is a time and season when the French marine strides on rapidly-ay, à pas de géant—and if we stand still, most assuredly we are undone. Here in these ateliers are twelve double fires, and what is called * un grand feu avec martinet,' which signifies an immense hammer and anvil, moved by steam-machinery, as perfect and as regular as anything one could see in the manufactories of Leeds, Birmingham, or Manchester.'

About a fortnight after the sight of the forges and foundries of Cherbourg, the author, apparently still more alarmed at the thoughts of a "newly-invented bullet," by an old naval officer en retraite, the property of which is, "when it meets with an opposing force, such as the hull of a seventy-four, to explode with terrific effect, shivering vessels to pieces, and thus destroying at one fell swoop' lives and property to an immense amount,"-inquires and counsels in the following strain:

"While these things are going on in France, what are you doing in England? Are you wide awake as to the preparations of this great nation; and are you determined to be prepared also, or, like children, to close your eyes against the danger, and thus hope to avert it? These are questions which ought to be asked, and which must be answered. The time for a good-natured wriggle, a loud horse-laugh, or a shrewd, sharp truism, enforced with a knowing jerk of the finger and thumb, is gone for ever. These small expedients have stood the most careless, heartless, and insouciant man in Europe in good stead for many a long day; but they will answer no longer; and Lord Melbourne must now soon answer to his country, in the face of Europe, for his deeds of commission and omission. As to Lord Minto, his management of the Admiralty must be openly arraigned at once. The Conservatives must no longer stand stock-still, looking on in apathy or despair, while the city is beleaguered and the enemy is at the gates. A noble field of honour, in which he may win unfading honours, is opened to Sir James Graham. He must commence the attack on behalf of the wooden walls of Old England. His country, the service, the peace, the stability, the equilibrium of Europe, demand it.'

We think that Sir James had better take China under his charge; and as it is not probable that Commodore Napier will serve him, let him see if he can obtain the Duke of Wellington's support in that quarter. By the by, when hearing of the new and fell enginery of the "old naval officer," we may remind our readers

of a similarly novel and destructive species of missile with which the artillerymen at Woolwich were said, some months ago, to be making experiments of dreadful promise.

But we must no longer delay furnishing some connected account of the French naval establishments, system, and preparations; and as in all the arsenals and dockyards there is more or less resemblance, each to the others, we shall confine ourselves to one of the ports, viz. that of Brest; between which place and Cherbourg our author, towards the end of September, found the whole country in a state of the greatest anxiety, the hot-headed young men and the old Moustaches eager for a European conflagration, while those immediately interested in commerce, great as well as small, were averse to war, and unable to discover any necessity for it. At the same time, however, there was extreme activity on the part of the naval as well as military department; and even the gendarmes were so much on the alert, as to cause John Bull's blood to mantle and tingle at the strictness of examination, and the new or vexatious obstacles thrown in the way of his natural curiosity. Here are some illustrations of the vigilance exercised, especially towards British travellers, and also of some of the special reasons; little mischievous, and mendacious Thiers being roundly blamed by our author, for the paltry and irritating restrictions. He thus writes

"There are three reasons assigned for this strictness, which extends even to native-born Frenchmen, and each of them is, in my mind, sufficient to justify the authorities and the government in a peremptory refusal to all the world. In the first place, some one of the mischievous press of Paris visited the port on the 14th, and two days afterwards published in his paper that the convicts engaged in the dockyards had conspired to set fire to the buildings, and that the workmen had struck for wages. This was a pure invention of this blundering Badaud, who had possibly never seen the sea in his life, and knew not a corvette from a ship of 120 guns; for to suppose him otherwise than ignorant and imbecile would be to suppose him not only a traitor to his country, playing into the hands of her enemies, but also desirous of fostering a civil, perhaps a servile war. The second reason is not less cogent in my opinion. An English post-captain of mature age, a cool and calculating Scot (the thrifty and prudent genius of the Tweed had for once abandoned him), penetrated, unperceived, and without permission, into the dockyard. He had seen a great deal, and was comfortably hugging himself in the idea of how vastly clever he was, when all of a sudden it was discovered he had no permission, and had entered without a gendarme. The matter then became serious. He was asked to declare who he was, which he did frankly. It was for a moment doubted that an English captain would so commit himself at such a juncture, but it was put beyond the possibility of doubt before the evening sun had set. This officer had commanded off Senegal, and it so happened there was a French naval officer in Brest at the moment who had known him there. Explanations then took place, and I learn that the statement of the English officer, that he had entered inad