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diff --git a/old/53796-0.txt b/old/53796-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 304f6fc..0000000 --- a/old/53796-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5679 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Life of Frederick Marryat, by David Hannay - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Life of Frederick Marryat - -Author: David Hannay - -Editor: Eric S. Robertson - -Release Date: December 23, 2016 [EBook #53796] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF FREDERICK MARRYAT *** - - - - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/Canadian Libraries) - - - - - - - - - - - “Great Writers.” - - EDITED BY - PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A. - - _LIFE OF MARRYAT._ - - - - - LIFE - OF - FREDERICK MARRYAT - - BY - DAVID HANNAY - - LONDON - WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE - NEW YORK AND TORONTO: W. J. GAGE & CO. - 1889 - - (_All rights reserved._) - - 🖛 FOR FULL LIST of the Volumes in this series, - see Catalogue at end of book. - - - - -NOTE. - - -The materials for a life of Marryat are scanty, and I have acknowledged -my obligation to them in the text. Mrs. Ross Church collected, in 1872, -all the surviving knowledge about her father’s life--all of it, that is, -which the family thought it right to publish to the world. The present -little book has no pretensions to be founded on new materials. My -object has only been to make the best use I could of already published -matter--to tell what story there is to tell in the clearest possible -manner, and to add the best estimate of Marryat’s work and position in -letters that I could supply. - - D. H. - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - - PAGE - CHAPTER I. - - Frederick Marryat born 10th July, 1792; his parentage; his - ancestry; home training; schooling at Enfield; runs away to sea; - is sent into the navy and joins the _Impérieuse_ under Captain - Lord Cochrane, in September, 1806 11 - - CHAPTER II. - - The naval war in 1806: the frigates of the Great War; Lord - Cochrane, afterwards Lord Dundonald, Captain of the _Impérieuse_; - his character; his influence on Marryat; the cruises of the - frigate as described by Marryat in his private log; a narrow - escape; Cochrane in the House of Commons; an affair in the boats; - the Maltese privateer, Pasquil Giliano; movements of _Impérieuse_ 17 - - CHAPTER III. - - _Impérieuse_ on coast of Spain; cutting out privateer from - Almeria Bay; alliance with Spain; Rosas; the Basque Roads; - naval service of Marryat after parting with Cochrane till the - end of the Great War; saves several men from drowning; various - adventures; summary of his services from 1806 to 1815 31 - - CHAPTER IV. - - Marryat’s position in 1815; goes abroad; marriage; appointed to - _Beaver_; at St. Helena changes to _Rosario_; in Channel; pays - off _Rosario_; the Channel smugglers; appointed to _Larne_; - Burmese War; promotion and made a C.B.; transferred to _Tees_ in - July, 1824; short command of _Ariadne_; the _Ariadne_ his last - ship; resigns command November, 1830; begins writing; equerry to - Duke of Sussex; story of William IV. 46 - - CHAPTER V. - - From 1830 to 1848 a writer; his literary life; expensive habits; - early success in novel writing; editorial ventures; _The - Metropolitan Magazine_; hard work in 1833-34; in 1833 he stands - for Tower Hamlets, and fails; at Brighton in 1834; quotation from - letter on lawsuit; goes abroad; life abroad; leaves for America 58 - - CHAPTER VI. - - Marryat’s literary work up to 1837; his early success, and - determination to make money; quarrels with publisher; prices paid - him; “Frank Mildmay”; quotation from _Metropolitan Magazine_ - on “Frank Mildmay”; other books from “King’s Own” to “Pirate” - and “Three Cutters”; quality of Marryat’s style; quotation from - “Peter Simple”; his plots; his fun; quotation from “Midshipman - Easy” 73 - - CHAPTER VII. - - Visit to America in 1837; his object in going there; in New - York; letter to his mother describing where he has been; visit to - Canada; affair of the _Caroline_; unpopularity in United States; - Marryat stands his ground; return to England 98 - - CHAPTER VIII. - - Movements in London; ruin of West Indian property; life and - friendships in London; Duke Street, Wimbledon, Piccadilly, - Spanish Place; first signs of breaking health; goes to Langham; - books of these years; “Phantom Ship”; children’s stories; - “Masterman Ready”; skirmish with _Fraser’s Magazine_; Marryat - defends publication of his stories in the _Era_ 114 - - CHAPTER IX. - - Marryat goes to Langham for good in 1843; life there; Marryat - and his children; kindness to his men; his scientific farming, - and its financial results; his literary work; asked to write - life of Collingwood; declines; last stories: “The Mission,” “The - Settlers,” “The Children of the New Forest,” “The Little Savage” 132 - - CHAPTER X. - - His fatal illness; his _physique_ and personal appearance; letter - to Lord Auckland on supposed slight; Hastings; loss of H.M.S. - _Avenger_, and death of Marryat’s son, Lieutenant Frederick - Marryat; returns to Langham; last months, and death on 9th - August, 1848; estimate of his character and work 149 - - INDEX. 161 - - - - -LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARRYAT. - - - - -CHAPTER I. - - -Frederick Marryat, one of the most brilliant, and the least fairly -recognized, of English novelists, was born in Westminster, on the 10th -July, 1792, some seven months before the outbreak of the Great War. -He was the second son of Joseph Marryat, M.P. for Sandwich, chairman -of the committee of Lloyds, and Colonial Agent for the island of -Grenada. His mother was a Bostonian, of a loyalist family. Her maiden -name was Geyer--or according to Mrs. Ross Church’s life of her father, -Von Geyer--and the family is said to have been of Hessian origin. -The Marryats themselves were a Suffolk stock. In Marshall’s “Naval -Biography,” which appeared during Marryat’s own life, the novelist is -said to have descended from one of the numerous Huguenot refugees who -settled in the Eastern Counties during the persecutions of the sixteenth -century. The family version of its history, as given by Mrs. Ross -Church, contains a longer and more splendid pedigree, going back even -to knights who came over with “Richard Conqueror.” These things, though -set forth with faith no doubt, are to be received with polite reserve -by the judicious reader. For the rest, whatever the remote origin of the -Marryats may have been, they were during the seventeenth and eighteenth -centuries very distinctly middle-class people--dissenting ministers, -doctors, or business men--manifestly of good parts and industry. Some -of them wrote sermons and printed them. Thomas Marryat, the novelist’s -grandfather, was a doctor and the author of a medical book. His father -was, as the places he held show, a prosperous man; and the future -novelist entered the world under fairly favourable circumstances. There -was, it is clear, no want of money, and the family were active people -with a marked tendency to use their pens. - -As no detailed life of Marryat was written until long after his death, -when no witnesses were left who could speak with knowledge, there is -an almost absolute want of evidence as to the character and probable -influence of his family life. If we are to argue from his stories, it was -hardly to be called happy. These guides may not be entirely safe, and -yet they afford evidence of a kind not to be lightly dismissed. A writer -whose pictures of home and school life are habitually disagreeable, -cannot have had many pleasant memories of his own to look back on. -With Marryat this was the case. In all his earlier stories, and until -he became decidedly didactic, and religious, in his later years, he -described the relations of parents and children, of schoolboy and -schoolmaster, as either indifferent or hostile, or as contemptuous -even when affection is not absent. Peter Simple, Mr. Midshipman Easy, -and Newton Foster are the sons of men whom they may like, but cannot -respect, of whom two are maniacs, and one is a harmless imbecile. Their -mothers are either utterly shadowy or repulsive. “Frank Mildmay,” the -first and the most autobiographical of his stories, is also the most -destitute of kindliness. Something may be allowed for rawness in the -author, and something for direct imitation of the earlier Smollettian -model. Marryat, too, publicly protested that he was not the “Naval -Officer” of this first story. But, by his own confession, he put many -of the incidents of his own life into it, and we may safely conclude -that what is wholly wanting in the story was not prominent in his own -experience. Now what is wanting is any trace that Frank Mildmay had the -smallest filial regard for his father, or was conscious of any maternal -influence, or thought of his home life with affection, or of his school -as other than a place of torment. That is not how men write when they -look back kindly on their first years. If Thackeray and Dickens drew -such different pictures of boy and school life, we know why. It is not -necessary to rack the scanty evidence about Marryat’s early years, to -find reason for believing that his father was probably a hard and dry man -of business, whose prosperity never melted the provincial dissenter quite -out of him. Of his mother there is nothing to be supposed at all. - -It is to be noted that although Mr. Joseph Marryat was a prosperous man, -he did not send his sons to a public school. Frederick and his elder -brother (Joseph also, and not unknown as a collector of, and writer on, -porcelain) were sent to some sort of academy kept by a Mr. Freeman, at -Ponders End. It is an almost universal experience that the boy who has -been at a private school may remember an individual master with kindness, -but never has any degree of respect or affection for the place itself. -He is not one of an ancient body like the public-school man, and has -nothing in his memory to set off against the restraint--or in the old -hard days the floggings and hardships of school life. The Wykamite might -laugh at the wash pot of Moab, but what private-school boy would forgive -his master for turning him out to wash in a back yard? What is inflicted -by a public school is inflicted by the school itself; in a private -establishment it is inflicted by the master, and is a personal wrong. -Marryat was no exception to the rule. His memories of Ponders End were -not of a kind to make him draw cheerful pictures of school life. That he -was far from a model pupil, and had his share of the cane, has nothing -to do with it. He scamped his work, and forgot it, as many other boys -have done and will do. Not only that, but he was the cause of scamping -in others. Mr. Babbage, who was for a time his schoolfellow, is the -authority for a story which shows that Marryat was indeed a model young -scamp. Babbage wished to work (it does not appear whether they called it -“sweating” or “greasing” at Ponders End), and to get up for that purpose -with another “swot” at the absurd hour of three. With intentions which -were only too obvious, Marryat, who was his room fellow, proposed to join -the party. Babbage objected, and thought to escape the intrusion by the -easy method of not waking Marryat. This answered until the creator of -Mr. Midshipman Easy first bethought himself of drawing his bed across -the door, and then when even the moving of his bed did not rouse him, -of tying his hand to the handle. For some nights Babbage got over the -difficulty by cutting the fastening, until Marryat found a chain which -could not be cut. Babbage had his revenge. He invented an ingenious -machine for jerking the chain, and went on waking his chum repeatedly for -no purpose. At last a compromise was made. Marryat joined the good boys -for early study, and of course it was not long before others joined too, -and then the letting off of fireworks and various noises betrayed the -secret. How many of the party were flogged does not appear. Before long -Marryat had to be up at six bells in the middle watch on duty too often -to leave him much inclination to turn out voluntarily, even for mischief, -when he could by any chance get a night in. - -It is also recorded of Marryat that he ran away to sea three times, that -is, he ran away with the intention of getting to sea, but the end of the -adventure was always capture, return to school, and more cane. His great -grievance is reported to have been the obligation to wear the clothes -which his elder brother had outgrown. The detail seems to indicate a -certain narrowness, not to say sordidness, in so prosperous a household -as the Marryats’, and the aggravation was certainly gross enough to -justify the protest. On one of these occasions Mr. J. Marryat showed a -remarkable weakness. He gave the truant money and sent him in a carriage -back to school. This error of judgment had a very natural consequence. -Marryat slipped out of the carriage, found his way quietly home, and took -his younger brothers to the theatre. At last his father came to the -very sensible conclusion that the sea was the best place for such a boy. -Being a man of some influence and position, he was able to start his son -well, on board a crack frigate, and under a distinguished captain. In -September, 1806, Marryat entered the _Impérieuse_, captain Lord Cochrane, -and sailed for the Mediterranean. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - - -Fortune could not have done Marryat a greater kindness than to send -him to sea on the quarter-deck of the _Impérieuse_. She enabled him -to share in the most stirring work to be done at the date at which he -joined the service, and under the command of one the most brilliant of -naval officers. In 1806 the war of fleets was over. Trafalgar had broken -the heart of our enemies, and from that time forward their squadrons -never even attempted to keep the sea. Napoleon built line-of-battle -ships in batches, but only to keep them manned and armed, lying idle in -port. The English fleets had so completely established their supremacy, -that they used the French roadsteads as familiarly as their own. The -blockading squadron off Brest anchored in Douarnenez Bay, in sight of -the French lookout, and there repaired their rigging or caulked their -seams as coolly as if no enemy’s fleet were in existence, and they -did it with perfect impunity. Admiral Smyth has told how audaciously -the Mediterranean fleet was wont to anchor off Hyères in the absolute -confidence that the French would never come out of Toulon. Their only -chance of service was when the French would be decoyed out by some -particularly audacious frigate, which was sent in to insult them at the -very mouth of their harbour. Then there was a chance that they might be -drawn further than they could go back before the in-shore squadron was -upon them. But such breaks in the monotony of blockade were rare. For the -most part our line-of-battle ships were employed in cruising to and fro, -with intervals of harbour--their officers and crews spent their lives -in drilling aloft or at the guns, and in keeping decks and metal-work -in a condition of faultless cleanliness. That passion for neatness and -smartness which has never left the British navy rose to its height in the -last years of the Great War, and did indeed sometimes attain to actual -mania in the minds of captains and first lieutenants in want of something -to employ themselves and their men upon. - -There was, however, one class of ship which had a fair chance of active -service. The frigates were never, even to the end, reduced to mere -patrolling. It was to them indeed that fell all the brilliant fighting in -the last ten years or so of the war. The French never altogether ceased -to send forth cruisers which had necessarily to be pursued and captured. -Moreover, there was work to be done upon the enemy’s coasts, convoys to -be taken, forts to be destroyed, privateers to be cut out. After 1808 -we were in alliance with the Spaniards, and there was then no want of -chances for enterprising officers to distinguish themselves against the -French invaders on the coasts, particularly in the Mediterranean. The -Mediterranean, including the Adriatic, and the East Indies, were the -great theatres of the war until the Americans struck in. - -It was a material addition to his good fortune in being appointed to -such a ship, and on such service, that he should have begun under the -captain who then commanded the _Impérieuse_. The novelist who was to -give the most living of all pictures of the navy at its greatest time -could not possibly have met with a better chief. Lord Cochrane, who is -better known as the Earl of Dundonald, was, next to Nelson (the master -of them all), that one of the naval officers of the Great War who was -most distinctly a man of genius. There were others who were brave, able, -honourable gentlemen. In pure seamanship many may have been his equals. -In a service which included such men as Blackwood, Hallowell, Willoughby, -the Captain Hamilton who cut out the _Hermione_, Broke of the _Shannon_, -and a hundred other valiant gentlemen, even Dundonald could not hope for -a pre-eminence in valour. It may even be allowed that he never, while -fighting for his own country, was able to achieve anything so complete, -so distinctly what Cortes called a “muy hermosa cosa,” a very pretty -piece of fighting with a squadron, as Sir William Hoste’s little gem of -a victory over the French frigates off Lissa. He was not allowed the -chance to handle a detachment of ships in independent command. But there -was in Dundonald the indefinable something--“those deliveries of a man’s -self which have no name,” that combination of passion and faculty--which -makes the man of genius. Whatever he did was done with a burning fire -of energy. The fire was not always pure. There was a self-assertion -about the man--never base, but always aggressive, a pragmatical Scotch -fierceness, a love of hate and scorn, a total inability to keep measure, -which can be seen on every page of his Autobiography, and explain why -it was that he was always, in our service or out of it, a free lance. -He was of the race of Peterborough not of Marlborough. To the highest -rank he did not belong, but he was divided in kind from the brave, able, -disciplined, but shadowy men, who do the regular drilled work of the -world. He was a magnificent, rugged individuality. Even in books he is -real as only such men as Nelson and Wellington are real. On those who -knew him his influence, even if it only produced repulsion, must have -been profound. One so open to impressions, and so able to retain them as -Marryat, must have been another man all his life for having known and -admired Dundonald. It must be remembered, too, that Marryat saw Dundonald -at his best--on the deck of his frigate, and not at the Admiralty or the -House of Commons, where he was apt to make himself intolerable by his -wrong-headed violence in right, and his inability to see that for the -work of the reformer, as for all work, there is a proper time, and a -fitting manner which must not be mistaken, under penalty of failure. - -The influence which Cochrane had upon Marryat might indeed be -demonstrated from his works. The captain of the _Impérieuse_ remained -his type of what a British officer ought to be. All his frigates’ -captains who are mentioned for honour have something--and several of -them have much--of his first commander in them. That this should be the -case in “Frank Mildmay,” the first of his books, and to some extent -an autobiography, was almost a matter of course. In this book the -cruise of the frigate on the coast of Spain is the very service of the -_Impérieuse_. But it is equally true of Captain Savage of the _Diomede_ -in “Peter Simple,” and of Captain M---- of the “King’s Own.” Both are -Scotchmen, penniless gentlemen of good descent, officers of boundless -skill, daring, and withal judgment. It is on this last quality that -Marryat dwells by preference, and it is this which he picks out for -special praise in Cochrane. “I must here remark,” he says in the private -log quoted in Mrs. Ross Church’s life, “that I never knew any one so -careful of the lives of his ship’s company as Lord Cochrane, or any one -who calculated so closely the risks attending any expedition. Many of -the (_sic_) most brilliant achievements were performed without loss of -a single life, so well did he calculate the chances; and one half the -merit which he deserves for what he did accomplish has never been awarded -him, merely because in the official despatches there has not been a long -list of killed and wounded to please the appetite of the English public.” -This fondness of the public for a long list of killed and wounded was -a favourite subject of half-serious jest with Marryat, and he learnt -from others, if not from Cochrane, how a despatch ought to be written -in a “concatenation accordingly.” It would seem that Marryat had little -admiration for the brainless, headlong courage which rushes madly at -whatever happens to be in front of its weapon. He would have condemned -even with contempt (and Hawke, Nelson, Cochrane, would have condemned -with him) such a piece of frantic swash-bucklery as the last fight of -the _Revenge_. The men who were daring with judgment, who risked for a -reason, who took care to cover themselves as they lunged, and who then -went all together, sword, hand, and foot, with the speed of lightning, -and with unerring accuracy of the eye which has brains behind it, were -his heroes. In any case Marryat would have arrived at these conclusions, -but he assuredly did so the sooner, and the more heartily, because for -three years he fought under a fighter of this stamp. - -Marryat was fortunate in his messmates as well as in his captain. A -crack frigate of those days had the pick of the lieutenants’ list, and -of the “young gentlemen” who were to be the captains of the future. The -_Impérieuse_ had a particularly good staff, some of them old officers -of Cochrane’s, and in the midshipman’s mess Marryat met comrades who -were good fellows, and gentlemen too. He formed friendships which lasted -through life, particularly with Lord Napier, and with Houston Stewart. - -I have thought it well to dwell at some length on Marryat’s entry into -the service, because its conditions are of vital importance in his life. -Whatever his training had been he would have been a writer. His private -log shows that from the beginning he found pleasure in the use of his -pen; but had he not been a naval officer he would have been a very -different writer, and, more, had he gone to sea in a less happy way, the -misfortune would not have failed to have its effects on him. The tamer -life of a line-of-battle ship, the tedium of a small craft engaged on -convoy, might have driven him back on shore by mere boredom. On board -the _Impérieuse_ he was able to live his life to the full. There he had -three years of active and daring fighting. The impression they made on -him was never effaced, and has been recorded by himself. In the private -log, quoted by his daughter, he sums up his memories in words which it -would be a dereliction of duty not to quote: - - “The cruises of the _Impérieuse_ were periods of continued - excitement, from the hour in which she hove up her anchor till she - dropped it again in port: the day that passed without a shot being - fired in anger, was with us a blank day: the boats were hardly - secured on the booms than they were cast loose and out again; the - yard and stay tackles were for ever hoisting up and lowering down. - The expedition with which parties were formed for service; the - rapidity of the frigate’s movements night and day; the hasty sleep - snatched at all hours; the waking up at the report of the guns, - which seemed the very keynote to the hearts of those on board, the - beautiful precision of our fire, obtained by constant practice; the - coolness and courage of our captain, inoculating the whole of the - ship’s company; the suddenness of our attacks, the gathering after - the combat, the killed lamented, the wounded almost envied; the - powder so burnt into our faces that years could not remove it; the - proved character of every man and officer on board, the implicit - trust and adoration we felt for our commander; the ludicrous - situations which would occur in the extremest danger and create - mirth when death was staring you in the face, the hair-breadth - escapes, and the indifference to life shown by all--when memory - sweeps along these years of excitement even now, my pulse beats - more quickly with the reminiscence.” - -The years of service which thus impressed themselves on Marryat’s memory -may be divided into three periods. First, a cruise on the coast of -France from Ushant to the mouth of the Gironde; then a longer period of -active work in the Mediterranean; and finally, a return to the ocean, -and the action in the Basque Roads. The young midshipman’s first actual -experience of cruising was one which was doubtless present in his mind -when he wrote the song whereof the chorus tells how “Poll put her arms -akimbo,” and said, “Port Admiral, you be----.” When the corporal reported -to Mr. Vanslyperken that the crew of the revenue cutter were singing -this ditty, the outraged commander asked whether it was the Port Admiral -at Portsmouth or Plymouth. The officer who was, we may be sure, spoken -of by the crew of the _Impérieuse_ on the 17th and succeeding few days -of November, 1806, in an equally mutinous fashion, was the Port Admiral -at Plymouth. According to the custom of Admirals who did not have to go -to sea themselves, this officer was exceeding zealous in enforcing the -Admiralty’s orders to despatch ships to sea smartly. The orders came -down for the _Impérieuse_ to go to sea, and the Admiral would have them -obeyed. Go she must--“The moment the rudder--which was being hung--would -steer the ship,” as Dundonald says in his Autobiography, and while she -had “a lighter full of provisions on one side, a second with ordnance -stores on the other, and a third filled with gunpowder towing astern.” -But the tale should be told in Marryat’s words, and not in his captain’s: - - “The _Impérieuse_ sailed; the Admiral of the port was one who - _would_ be obeyed, but _would not_ listen always to reason or - common sense. The signal for sailing was enforced by gun after gun; - the anchor was hove up, and, with all her stores on deck, her guns - not even mounted, in a state of confusion unparalleled from her - being obliged to hoist in faster than it was possible she could - stow away, she was driven out of harbour to encounter a heavy gale. - A few hours more would have enabled her to proceed to sea with - security, but they were denied; the consequences were appalling, - they might have been fatal. In the general confusion some iron too - near the binnacles had attracted the needle of the compasses; the - ship was steered out of her course. At midnight, in a heavy gale - at the close of November, so dark that you could not distinguish - any object, however close, the _Impérieuse_ dashed upon the rocks - between Ushant and the Main. The cry of terror which ran through - the lower decks; the grating of the keel as she was forced in; the - violence of the shocks which convulsed the frame of the vessel; the - hurrying up of the ship’s company without their clothes; and then - the enormous waves which again bore her up, and carried her clean - over the reef, will never be effaced from my memory.” - -The frigate had been carried into a deep pool, and rode the gale out at -anchor. When daylight came she was found to be inside instead of outside -of Ushant--and was got off with no greater damage than the loss of her -false keel. But the escape was a narrow one--the adventure must have -shaken Marryat rudely into the life of the sea--and have impressed him -deeply with the possible consequence of pig-headedness in pig-headed Port -Admirals. - -The cruise of the frigate on the French coast was not very fruitful in -incident, and early in 1807 she was back in port. There she remained for -the greater part of the year, while her captain was fighting the battles -of the navy in the House of Commons. A general election took place in the -spring, and Cochrane, who had sat already for Honiton, stood with Sir -Francis Burdett for Westminster. They were elected, and the captain of -the _Impérieuse_ at once began, or rather returned to, those attacks on -abuses in the Admiralty and dockyards which were so uniformly right in -substance and wrong in form. It is a pleasing instance of the inability -of man to hold the balance even when his own interest is in the scale, -that Cochrane never seems to have seen anything wrong in the retention -of a fine frigate in port during war in order that her captain (who was -drawing full pay all the time) might attend to parliamentary duties in -London. Conscious of rectitude, he would have treated the suggestion that -he also was an abuse with scorn. According to his own version of the -story, told in profound good faith, he did his higher duties as member of -the House with such efficiency that the Admiralty decided to confine him -to the exercise of his profession in future. At the close of the session -the _Impérieuse_ was ordered to join Lord Collingwood’s fleet in the -Mediterranean, and sailed from Portsmouth on the 12th of September, 1807. - -In October, Marryat made his first acquaintance with Malta, and the -scenes associated with the immortal memory of Mr. Midshipman Easy. He -was not to stay there long, for the _Impérieuse_ left almost immediately -to join Lord Collingwood, who was cruising off Palermo. Soon after, the -future describer of so many dashing affairs with boats had an opportunity -of seeing one. On the 14th of November (Marryat himself says the 15th), -the _Impérieuse_ sighted two vessels under the land of Corsica, and, -as it was calm, the boats were ordered out to examine them, under the -command of Napier and Fayrer. - -“As soon,” it is Marryat who speaks, “as they were within half a mile, -the ship hoisted English colours. The sight of these colours, of course, -checked the attack; the boats pulled slowly up toward her, and, when -within hail, demanded what she was, for, if an English vessel, she could -have no objection to be boarded by the boats of an English frigate. Now, -as it afterwards was proved, the ship was a Maltese privateer of great -celebrity, commanded by the well-known Pasquil Giliano, who had been very -successful in his cruises, and, if report spoke truly, for the best of -reasons, as he paid very little respect to any colours; in fact, he was a -well-known pirate, and, when he returned to Malta, his hold was full of -goods taken out of vessels, which he had burnt that he might not weaken -his crew by sending them away; and in an Admiralty Court so notoriously -corrupt as that of Malta, inquiries were easily hushed up. Although such -was the fact, still it had nothing to do with the present affair. - -“When the boats pulled up astern, the captain of the polacre answered -that he was a Maltese privateer, but that he would not allow them to come -on board; for, although Napier had hailed him in English, and he could -perceive the red jackets of the Marines in the boats, Giliano had an -idea from the boats being fitted out with iron tholes and grummets, like -the French, that they belonged to a ship of that nation. A short parley -ensued, at the end of which the captain of the privateer pointed to his -boarding nettings triced up, and told them that he was prepared, and if -they attempted to board he should defend himself to the last. Napier -replied that he must board, and Giliano leaped from the poop telling -him that he must take the consequences. The answer was a cheer and a -simultaneous dash of the boats to the vessel’s side. - -“A most desperate conflict ensued, perhaps the best contested and the -most equally matched on record. In about ten minutes, the captain having -fallen, a portion of the crew of the privateer gave way, the remainder -fought until they were cut to pieces, and the vessel remained in our -possession. And then, when the decks were strewn with the dying and the -dead, was discovered the unfortunate mistake which had been committed. -The privateer was a large vessel, pierced for fourteen guns and mounting -ten, and the equality of the combatants, as well as the equality of the -loss on both sides, was remarkable. On board of the vessel there had -been fifty-two men; with [the] boats fifty-four. The privateer lost -Giliano, her captain, and fifteen men; on our side we had fifteen men -killed and wounded. Fayrer lost for ever the use of his right arm by a -musket bullet, and Napier received a very painful wound, and had a very -narrow escape--the bullet of Giliano’s pistol grazing his left cheek and -passing through his ear, slightly splintering a portion of the bone.” - -Marryat’s version of the story does not agree in every detail with -Cochrane’s, but in essentials they are at one. Particularly there is no -difference of opinion between them as to the character of the Maltese -Admiralty Court. In this case it not only refused to allow that the -_King George_ (Giliano’s vessel) was a lawful prize, but it fined the -_Impérieuse_ five hundred double sequins. That iniquitous court was one -of the many abuses Cochrane had to fight in his life. - -Here certainly was an experience likely to be useful to the midshipman -who was to record it. The fight was a dashing one--a thing well worth -seeing in itself, and besides the _King George_ privateer so-called, -but in fact pirate or little better, with her motley crew of Russians, -Italians, Sclavonians (“a set of desperate savages” Cochrane styled -them in his despatch), must have introduced him to the lawless, and -scoundrelly fringe of the great naval war. From privateer to pirate was -at all times but a step, and amid the confusion of the great wars, with -the connivance of dishonest Colonial Admiralty Courts, and the tacit -consent of some neutrals of little scruple, not a few ruffians were able -to flourish,--the plundering, murdering, cowardly camp followers, so to -speak, of the great regular naval armaments. - -From Corsica the _Impérieuse_ went on to Toulon, to report to Lord -Collingwood, who was back at his regular blockading station. Thence -Cochrane was sent to Malta, and on to the Ionian Islands to command a -squadron then engaged in blockading some French frigates in Corfu. Here -Cochrane, true to his character, fell out with another abuse. When he -arrived on the station, he found that neutral vessels, or even vessels -belonging to our enemies, were allowed to trade with the island under -cover of passes supplied by the officer commanding the English blockading -force. Of course Cochrane seized them, to the wrath of the officer in -question, who consistently enough intrigued against him at headquarters. -The captain of the _Impérieuse_ was recalled as being too indiscreet, by -Lord Collingwood, apparently on the mere complaint of the officer whose -passes had been treated with such scant respect, and so lost his one -chance of commanding a squadron on work which he was eminently fitted -to do well. The story of the passes (which of course were not given for -nothing) must have been known to every man on board the _Impérieuse_, -and, doubtless, the officer who had such a remarkable idea of his duties, -went, in the course of time, to the making of Captain Capperbar. Having -made one more place too hot to hold him, by hasty action, where a little -tact and patience would have enabled him to have his way and to bring the -trading naval officer to book, Cochrane was employed cruising to and fro -till January, 1808, when he was despatched by Lord Collingwood to the -coast of Spain, where he was to have a longer period of active brilliant -work. - - - - -CHAPTER III. - - -When the _Impérieuse_ reached the coast of Spain early in 1808, we -were still at war with that country. Napoleon had not yet turned his -submissive ally into an enemy by that act of brigandage which was the -capital error of his life. The war was for us still a “rich war,” as -Nelson put it--there were still Spanish prizes to be picked up. Cochrane -was master of the work to be done. His previous cruise in the _Speedy_ -had made him perfectly familiar with the Spanish coast. It had also -given him an absolute confidence in his power to beat the Spaniards -at any odds. On this occasion he had no opportunity to equal the most -marvellous of all his feats--the capture of the frigate _Gamo_ with his -tiny gun-brig the _Speedy_, but he was incessantly active and uniformly -successful. The _Impérieuse_ hugged the Spanish coast, destroyed isolated -forts, sailed into the very ports and marked her prey down coolly, before -sending her boats in to cut out the more tempting prizes. In all this -stirring fighting Marryat had such share as a midshipman might. The -history of it is recorded in “Frank Mildmay,” in “Mr. Midshipman Easy,” -in “Peter Simple.” One incident may be recorded as a type of the rest. -Lord Cochrane learnt that a certain vessel which he was resolute to -take was lying at anchor in Almeria. He himself, in his “Autobiography -of a Seaman,” calls her “a large French vessel, laden with lead and -other munitions of war.” Marryat, as quoted by his daughter, calls her -a polacre privateer, and says nothing of her nationality, but in other -respects the stories agree. The story may now go on in Marryat’s words: - - “At daybreak we were well in with American colours at the peak. - [The place, as has been just said, was Almeria Bay, and this trick - of hoisting neutral colours was a common stratagem of war.] The - Spaniards had their suspicions, but, as we boldly ran into harbour, - anchored among the other vessels, and furled our sails, they did - not fire. They were puzzled, for they could not imagine that any - vessel would act with such temerity, as we were surrounded by - batteries. We had, however, anchored with springs upon our cables; - close to us within half musket shot, lay a large polacre privateer - of sixteen guns, the same vessel which had been attacked by, and - had beaten off the boats of the _Spartan_ with a loss of nearly - sixty men killed and wounded. On our other side were two large - brigs heavily laden and a zebecque; the small craft were in-shore - of us, the town and citadel about half a mile ahead of us at the - bottom of the bay, the batteries all around us, and evidently well - prepared. Our boats had long been hoisted out and lay alongside, - which circumstance added to the suspicions of the Spaniards; still, - as yet, not a gun was fired. - - “Lord Cochrane’s reasons for running in with the frigate was, - that he considered the loss of life would be much less by this - manœuvre than if he had despatched the boats, and this privateer - he had determined to capture. He did not suppose, nor indeed did - any one, that, lying as she was under the guns of the frigate, she - would dare to fire a shot, but in this he was mistaken. The boats - were manned, and the remaining crew of the _Impérieuse_ at their - quarters. The word was given and the boats shoved off; one pinnace, - commanded by Mr. Caulfield, the first lieutenant, pulling for the - polacre ship, while the others went to take possession of the brigs - and zebecque. - - “To our astonishment, as soon as the pinnace was alongside the - ship, she was received with a murderous fire, and half of our - boat’s crew were laid beneath the thwarts; the remainder boarded. - Caulfield was the first on the vessel’s decks--a volley of - musquetoons received him, and he fell dead with thirteen bullets - in his body. But he was amply avenged; out of the whole crew of - the privateer, but fifteen, who escaped below and hid themselves, - remained alive; no quarter was shown, they were cut to atoms on - the deck, and those who threw themselves into the sea to save - their lives were shot as they struggled in the water. The fire - of the privateer had been the signal for the batteries to open, - and now was presented the animated scene of the boats boarding - in every direction, with more or less resistance; the whole bay - reverberating with the roar of cannon, the smooth water ploughed - up in every quarter by the shot directed against the frigate and - boats, while the _Impérieuse_ returned the fire, warping round and - round with her springs to silence the most galling. This continued - for nearly an hour, by which time the captured vessels were under - all sail, and then the _Impérieuse_ hove up her anchor, and, with - the English colours waving at her gaff, and still keeping up an - undiminished fire, sailed slowly out the victor.” - -It was on such an occasion as this, if not in this very affair, that -Marryat is said to have had the adventure recorded by him in “Frank -Mildmay.” Like the hero of that story, he was knocked down by the body -of his leader, who was shot in front of him in a boarding affair, and -then almost trampled to death by the men who pressed on to carry the -prize. When the fight was over he was dragged out insensible, and laid -among the dead. The unfriendly remark of a comrade--that he had cheated -the gallows--revived him to give a vigorous denial. Mrs. Ross Church -states that this happened in Arcassan Bay during the first cruise of -the _Impérieuse_, but Cochrane himself mentions no such fight there, -and no loss of any of his officers. Frank Mildmay’s adventure happened -in Arcassan Bay, but Marryat would have obvious reasons for not being -strictly accurate as to place. If the incident was taken from his own -life, it can only have happened at Almeria. It may be noted that both -Mr. Handstone in the novel, and Mr. Caulfield in history, were first -lieutenants, and that both died in the same way, riddled with bullets, at -the head of a boarding party. Was Caulfield oppressed with a presentiment -of his coming death like the lieutenant in “Frank Mildmay”--or was he -indeed the original of that officer who, be it observed, is a very -distinct character, and has much the air of being a portrait? Perhaps a -preliminary question ought to be asked, namely, whether this incident -did actually happen to Marryat as recorded in the novel? It is possible. -The fact that he does not mention it in the passage quoted above proves -nothing. It is apparently taken from his unfinished life of his friend -Napier, in which he would naturally not dwell on his own personal -adventures. On the other hand, it is very much the sort of story which -might be transferred from the hero of the novel to its author. - -In the course of 1808 a great change came over the war in the Western -Mediterranean. Napoleon made his famous (and infamous) grab at the -Spanish monarchy, and instantly, without hesitation, without concert -among themselves, in one great spontaneous burst of patriotic enthusiasm, -the Spanish people rose in arms. Their efforts were often unsuccessful, -and even disgraced by mismanagement or treason; but, on the whole, they -set Europe a magnificent example, which was well followed later on by -Russia, and they gave England what she had long wished for in vain--a -field of battle on land against Napoleon. The _Impérieuse_ had her share -in the Peninsular War. It was her duty not only to help the Spaniards in -the coast towns, but to harass the French troops which endeavoured to -enter Spain by the coast road. Cochrane was at his best in work of this -kind. For months he was engaged in incessant boat attacks on the French -transports, which endeavoured to reach Barcelona (then and throughout -the war in their possession), by hugging the shore. With this service -were mingled landing expeditions to blow up French telegraph stations or -batteries, or to help the Spaniards to defend forts which commanded the -road, and which the French for that very reason were particularly anxious -to capture. It was Cochrane’s belief to the end of his life that if he -had been supplied with a flotilla of light vessels and a regiment of -troops, he would have made it impossible for the French to enter Spain by -the Eastern Pyrenees at all. How far he was justified in this opinion, he -never was able to show. Indeed, when he was offered just such a command -on condition that he would abstain from attacking Admiral Gambier in the -House of Commons, he refused it. Even as it was, however, he did much. -His untiring vigilance made it impossible for the French to use the sea -for the transport of men or provisions, and difficult for them to use the -coast route which at many places was liable to be swept by the cannon of -the English frigate. They were driven to use the inland route through -a poor and rugged country swarming with guerrilleros. It is known that -all this part of the war proved enormously costly to the French, and -much of the credit due for imposing the loss upon them must go to the -_Impérieuse_. Marryat had his share of it all, and in “Frank Mildmay” he -has given a carefully finished sketch of one of the sharpest pieces of -service in it--the defence of Rosas, where he himself received a bayonet -wound. - -The desire to be back in his place in Parliament, in order that he -might expose the malpractices of the Maltese Admiralty Court (this -is the motive assigned by himself, and was doubtless that of which he -was most conscious), induced Cochrane to apply for leave to bring the -_Impérieuse_ home to England. It was granted with a facility which throws -some doubt on his theory that the Admiralty feared his presence; and -early in March, 1809, he dropped anchor in Plymouth Sound. Unhappily for -himself, Cochrane was selected for a special piece of service before -he could resume his Parliamentary work. In February of this year a -French squadron had slipped out of Brest, with orders to drive off the -British seventy-fours which were then watching L’Orient, to pick up -three more ships at anchor there under Commodore Troude, and then to -proceed to the West Indies to relieve Martinique. Admiral Willaumez, -the French commander, did not escape the vigilance of the Channel -squadron. His fleet was sighted at sea, followed till it entered the -Pertuis d’Antioche, between the islands of Ré and Oléron, and very soon -a blockading force collected under Admiral Gambier. The outcries of -the London and Liverpool merchants roused the Admiralty to make great -exertions for the destruction of an armament which was designed to -operate in the West Indies, and would, by its mere presence in those -waters, have greatly disturbed English trade. In an evil hour for -Cochrane, my Lords remembered that he was well acquainted with this -part of the French coast, and they resolved to send him to execute an -attack on the enemy’s ships. Very reluctantly, for he knew how ill -he was likely to be received by officers whom he would practically -supersede, he undertook the work. He prepared a flotilla of explosion -vessels and fire-ships. In April the _Impérieuse_ had joined Gambier’s -squadron. A detailed account of the action which followed would be out -of place here. Its rather melancholy history is to be read in Cochrane’s -“Autobiography,” and the Minutes of the court martial on Lord Gambier. -The squadron was in an indifferent moral condition, divided by sour -professional factions, and impatient of its Admiral, a brave but weak -officer, chiefly known as what was called in the navy a “blue light,” -that is a pious man of a somewhat Methodistical turn. Very little zeal -was shown in supporting Cochrane. The attack was made on the night of -April 11th, and whatever the _Impérieuse_ could do was magnificently -done. The French fleet of eight line-of-battle ships, and some smaller -vessels, had withdrawn to the Basque Roads, at the mouth of the Charente, -and had fortified itself with a heavy boom. Towards that boom the English -explosion and fire-ships were driven by wind and tide after dark on the -11th. It is doubtful whether more than one of them reached it--but that -one was commanded by Cochrane himself. She was brought up to the boom -at half a cable’s length off the French frigate _Indienne_, and there -exploded, scattering the boom all over the mouth of the Charente. Through -the opening thus made a few English vessels passed. They were a mere -handful, and might have been sunk by the fire of the French, but our -enemies were panic stricken. They cut their cables, and ran ashore. When -day broke the French ships were fast aground, and might every one have -been destroyed; but Lord Gambier was an officer of the stamp peculiarly -hateful to Nelson. He was prompt to conclude that enough had been done, -and was loth to risk ships and men in what he thought an unnecessary -way. In vain did Cochrane, who had now returned to the _Impérieuse_, -hoist signal after signal urging the Admiral to attack. He told him -that the enemy were ashore, and could be destroyed; that they would get -off if they were not stopped; that they were actually preparing to get -off. It skilled not, and Gambier remained stolidly at anchor miles off. -At last Cochrane, who by this time was nearly rabid with rage, work, -and want of sleep, flew into a Berserker fury. He deliberately drifted -the _Impérieuse_ stern first under the guns of the French liners, and -then signalled that he was overpowered and in need of assistance. This -desperate measure, worthy of Nelson in his most splendid moments, did -at last force Admiral Gambier’s hand. Some vessels were sent--when it -was well-nigh too late to do any service at all--and distinctly too late -to do all that ought to have been done. Three of the French liners were -destroyed, but the others by throwing their guns overboard and starting -their water, were able to grovel over the mud-bar of the Charente, and -escape into a pool out of reach up the river. They never appeared in -the West Indies certainly, but the work was half done. Cochrane went -back to England--with all that was best and worst in him fermenting with -fury--to make his unhappy motion of opposition in the House to the vote -of thanks to Admiral Gambier. From thence came his final quarrel with the -Admiralty, and the court martial on Lord Gambier, in which it is only -too probable that English officers and officials of rank winked at the -suppression of evidence, and something not unlike forgery. Cochrane’s -service in our navy was over for long years. - -With this scene of mingled heroism and stupidity, the more brilliant part -of Marryat’s naval life came to an end. He was engaged in the Basque -Roads on one of the fire-ships, and when they proved of little use, was -probably recalled to the _Impérieuse_. It is to be hoped at least that -he was on her deck when her captain, in an exaltation of fury, drifted -her among the French liners. In point of time, however, his service was -merely beginning, and he was to do good work yet, both as a subordinate -and as commander; but it wanted the heroic touch of the first three -years. When Cochrane was superseded from the _Impérieuse_, Marryat -remained with the new captain, and under him took part in the wholly -wretched Walcheren business, out of which he got--in common with some -thousands of others--all that it had to give--a distinct idea of how a -combined expedition ought _not_ to be conducted,--and an attack of marsh -fever. - -From this time until the close of the Great War, he was on such active -service as the overpowering supremacy we had attained at sea left to -be performed. From the Scheldt he returned invalided on board the -_Victorious_, 74. As soon as he was fit for service, he was appointed -to the _Centaur_, 74, the flag-ship of Sir Samuel Hood, with whom he -went back to the Mediterranean, but not to the stirring life of his -old frigate. After a year of the seventy-four he returned home, and -was appointed to the _Æolus_ frigate on the American station. He went -out as a passenger on the _Atlas_, 64, and joined his ship at Halifax. -In the _Æolus_, and then in another frigate, the _Spartan_, he became -familiar with the West Indies, which are, with the Mediterranean, the -scenes of so large a part of his stories. In 1812 he had served his time -as midshipman, and returned home to pass. His influence was good, as -the fact that he served so much in frigates proves, and he received his -lieutenant’s commission immediately after going through his examination -(December 26, 1812). Six months later he was appointed to _L’Espiègle_ -sloop, and cruised in her on the north coast of South America, till -he was invalided by the breaking of a blood-vessel, and sent home as -a passenger on board his old frigate, the _Spartan_, which had now -finished her commission. This accident, due in part to a constitutional -infirmity, which ultimately proved fatal to him, occurred at Barbadoes, -at a dance--perhaps a dignity ball. In 1814 he was back on the coast of -America in the _Newcastle_, 58, and was again invalided home, this time -from Madeira. In June, 1815, just as the Great War was closing, Marryat -was promoted commander, and the first period of his life came to an end. - -The years from 1809 to 1815 may be rapidly passed over, for though -they added to his experience, they were colourless as compared with -the cruises of the _Impérieuse_. He saw some service in them, but it -was either tame, or a mere repetition of what he had seen before. The -so-called “war of 1812” was in progress during part of his service in the -_Spartan_ and all his service in the _Newcastle_, but he saw little of -it. Some boat work--and sharp work too--he went through in Boston Bay, -but he saw nothing of those unlucky frigate actions with the Americans, -which gave us such a disagreeable shock, and it was not his good fortune -to be one of the crew of the famous _Shannon_. The capture of a small -privateer or two, by so powerful a vessel as the _Newcastle_, was no -important experience to a man who had seen the boarding of the _King -George_, the defence of the Trinidad fort at Rosas, and the affair in the -Basque Roads. An acquaintance he made with an American prisoner of war -while on board the _Newcastle_ was useful to him afterwards, but at the -time he probably thought little about it. - -His captains in these years doubtless served him as models when he began -his work as a novelist, but they were none of them men of the commanding -kind. The best remembered of them was Captain E. P. Brenton of the -_Spartan_, brother of the famous Sir Jahleel who fought a brilliant -frigate action off Naples, under the very eyes of Murat. Captain Brenton -had himself done good work, but his chief reputation was made in later -days, as the author of a life of St. Vincent, and a history of the -Great War, which is itself mainly remembered as the object of incessant -corrections, often pettifogging, commonly superfluous, and always -intensely wearisome, in James’s “Naval History.” - -Even in the most peaceful times, opportunities of facing danger come in -every seaman’s way. He may have his chance to save life, and he must -help to fight the storm. In both of these ways Marryat distinguished -himself. Few men have more frequently risked their own lives to save -others. As a midshipman in the _Impérieuse_ he went overboard to save a -fellow midshipman. He saved the life of a seaman while serving on the -_Æolus_, and narrowly escaped drowning on a similar occasion when serving -in _L’Espiègle_. On this occasion he was a mile and a half off before the -sloop could be brought to, and when a boat picked him up he was nearly -senseless. This also was a part of experience to Marryat, for it was -while overboard from _L’Espiègle_ that he discovered that drowning is not -an unpleasant death. It is recorded in his Life by his daughter that, -first and last, “during the time he served in the navy, he was presented -with twenty-seven certificates, recommendations, and votes of thanks, -for saving the lives of others at the risk of his own, beside receiving -a gold medal from the Humane Society.” This mark of distinction given in -1818 was assuredly well deserved. - -Not less pleasing to Marryat than the memory of his efforts to save -others, must have been his recollection of the honour he gained in -volunteering during a gale to cut away the main-yard of the _Æolus_. -The story appears, more or less coloured and adapted, with so many -other of his reminiscences in “Frank Mildmay.” In the sober pages of -Marshall, it is, however, a quite sufficiently gallant story. “On the -30th of September, 1811, in lat. 40° 50’ N., long. 65° W. (off the coast -of New England), a gale of wind commenced at S.E., and soon blew with -tremendous fury; the _Æolus_ was laid on her beam ends, her top-masts -and mizen-masts were literally blown away, and she continued in this -extremely perilous situation for at least half an hour. Directions were -given to cut away the main-yard, in order to save the main-mast and -right the ship, but so great was the danger attending such an operation -considered, that not a man could be induced to attempt it until Mr. -Marryat led the way. His courageous conduct in this emergency excited -general admiration, and was highly approved by Lord James Townshend, one -of whose ship’s company he also saved by jumping overboard at sea.” - -Up then to the age of three-and-twenty Marryat had prepared himself -to write sea stories by making his life a sea story. He had, in fact, -fulfiled the counsel of perfection given to the epic poet. He had seen -no great battle; the last of them had been fought before he entered the -service; he had not even shared in a single ship action. But what he did -not witness himself he saw through the eyes of messmates. The battles, -to judge from the little said of them in his stories, do not appear -to have greatly interested Marryat--perhaps he found a difficulty in -realizing what one would be like, perhaps he found them unmanageable. -With the single ship actions he had no such difficulty. He could tell -precisely what must happen, and he had no doubt heard tales of many such -pieces of fighting. Indeed, in the actual sea-life of the time, the great -battles did not play a much more considerable part than they do in the -novels. Of the 2,437 lieutenants on the navy list when Marryat entered -the service, the very great majority had never seen a general engagement. -It was thought a rather exceptional thing that Collingwood should have -been present in three battles. Nelson himself only took part in four, -or five, if Admiral Hotham’s feeble action in the Gulf of Lyons is to be -allowed the name. But most officers had seen service of some kind, and -had tales to tell. Marryat, too, had been fortunate in an eminent degree. -He had been wounded, but not severely--he had never been taken prisoner -or shipwrecked. His service had been varied. Between 1806 and 1815 he had -seen the North Sea, the Channel, the Mediterranean, and the Eastern Coast -of America, from Nova Scotia to Surinam. His promotion had been rapid. -Altogether he had had much to develop, and nothing to sour him, in this -first period of his life. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - - -When the great war came at last to an end in 1815, leaving Marryat a -commander at the age of three-and-twenty, his ambition was still to be -the successful naval officer, and not the portrait painter of the sea -life. Twelve years were to pass before he ceased to be employed. During -this period he held three commands, and once more saw the face of war. -It was a small and poor war after the heroic conflicts of his boyhood, -but still it had its own difficulties and trials. He began to use his pen -in these years, but at first it was for merely professional purposes. -His code of signals must have been prepared, and his pamphlet on the -best method of recruiting the navy, and his scheme for stopping Channel -smuggling, were certainly written, in this second period, while he was -still looking forward to the chance of hoisting his flag. - -Marryat was one of the great swarm of Englishmen who profited by the -peace to visit the Continent, which had been as nearly as might be -shut to the peaceful traveller for twenty-two years. He is credited -with having “occupied himself in acquiring a perfect knowledge of such -branches of science as might prove useful should the Lords of the -Admiralty think fit to employ him in a voyage of discovery or survey.” -Doubtless Marryat loved his profession, and worked at it, but when he was -recalled from Italy, in 1818, on some vague scheme of African exploration -he was probably engaged in amusing himself. The scheme came to nothing, -and in January, 1819, he married--a most convincing proof that his -intention of exploring Africa had not lasted long. Mrs. Marryat was a -Miss Shairp, daughter of a Scotch gentleman who had been Consul-General -in Russia. Marryat never agreed with St. Vincent that married men are -ruined for the service, and some eighteen months later he was at sea -again in command of the _Beaver_ sloop. - -In this commission he saw the end of the man who had kept Europe in -turmoil for the major part of a generation. The _Beaver_ was ordered on -an all-round cruise in the South Atlantic to show the flag at Madeira -and the Azores, at the solitary rock of Tristan d’Acunha, at our own -possessions at the Cape, and finally to do guard duty at St. Helena. When -the _Beaver_ arrived at her station Napoleon was just reaching the end -of his final years of imprisonment. We still maintained a naval guard -against the enterprises of any Buonapartist adventurer who might try to -take the Emperor off the rock where he sat, consumed with unavailing -regrets, and disgracing his fall by undignified squabbles with Sir -Hudson Lowe. An English man-of-war was always kept cruising to windward -of the island. The last officer who performed this duty was Captain -Marryat. The _Beaver_ was watching for the possible liberator, who never -came, when Napoleon died. Marryat, who was a clever draughtsman, took -a sketch of the Emperor on his death-bed. He was already apparently -suffering from dysentery or he fell ill immediately (and somewhat -conveniently) afterwards. As his health did not permit him to remain in -the South Atlantic station any longer, he was allowed to exchange into -the _Rosario_. In her he brought the despatches announcing the Emperor’s -death home to Spithead. From Spithead he was ordered round to Harwich -to form part of the squadron which escorted the body of Queen Caroline -to Cuxhaven. This piece of ceremonial duty was followed by work of a -very different kind. The _Rosario_ was told off for revenue duty in the -Channel, and continued cruising for smugglers till she was put out of -commission in February, 1822. This was service of a very sufficiently -serious kind. There was indeed no fighting to be done, but the cruising -was arduous and incessant. The smugglers were among the smartest seamen -in the Channel, and to catch them required on the part of the revenue -officers constant vigilance, great activity, and an intimate knowledge -of the coast--that is to say, if the work was to be properly done. As a -matter of fact it seems to have been scamped. Marryat, who had perhaps -been infected by Cochrane with an inability to let a comfortable old -abuse alone, forwarded to the Admiralty a long despatch showing that the -preventive service was inefficiently performed, and pointing out how -it could be improved. The despatch was written after the _Rosario_ had -been paid off, and was founded on his own experience. It gives a curious -glimpse into a phase of sea life which has entirely disappeared since the -establishment of free trade ruined the smugglers by making it not worth -any man’s while to smuggle. The industry which went on all round the -coast, from the mouth of the Clyde to the mouth of the Firth of Forth, -was conducted on varying principles in different districts. Marryat dealt -only with what he had seen himself:--the smuggling carried on in that -part of the English Channel which lies between Portsmouth and the Start. - -When he came to write as a novelist, Marryat displayed a certain sympathy -with the adventurous scamps who ran cargoes of brandy from Cherbourg -to the coast of Hampshire and Dorsetshire. But Captain Marryat the -revenue officer was a very different person. In this severe and official -capacity he did his best to suppress what he afterwards described with -a distinctly humorous sympathy. The smugglers, he pointed out, profited -by the system adopted by the English revenue boats. Cherbourg was the -centre of the trade--the free trade, as the smugglers called it, not -knowing, poor fellows, who their real enemy was. Their vessels were -almost exclusively manned by Portland or Weymouth men. When they were -going to run a cargo to a point of the coast with which they were not -familiar, they would take on a local hand, but as a rule they kept the -trade pretty exclusively to themselves. When one of their luggers was -sighted by the revenue boats and could not show a clean pair of heels, -the cargo was jettisoned. If this happened in mid-channel it was a clear -loss to everybody. The smuggler crews were only paid when they landed a -cargo. The revenue boats could get no prize money unless they seized the -tubs of spirits. If, however, the cargo was jettisoned in shallow water, -the case was different. The smugglers might return, or their confederates -on shore could fish up the sunken kegs, and then of course they earned -their money. On the other hand, if the landing was stopped, or the kegs -were dredged up by the revenue officers _they_ earned their prize money. -It is therefore perfectly obvious that it was the interest of the revenue -officers not to see the smuggling luggers in mid-channel. The more brandy -they picked up, the more prize money they earned, and the more credit -also. But by allowing the smugglers to approach the English coast they -gave them many opportunities of running cargoes. Partly because they -wished to secure the approval of their chiefs, who took no account of -any service which did not include the capture of kegs--partly also out -of a natural human desire for prize money, the revenue boats nursed the -illicit trade. They went very little to sea, and confined their exertions -to scouring the coasts in cutters and gigs. Marryat’s idea was that much -more effect would be produced by pursuing the luggers in mid-channel. If, -he argued with great force, the smugglers found that they were compelled -to make a dead loss, voyage after voyage, they would soon become tired. -As it was, the immense profits earned on any cargo successfully run, -paid them for the loss of two, or even three. Of course if his system -were adopted there would be no captures to show for the credit of the -coastguard, and no prize money to be earned. But the smuggling would -be put a stop to. The despatch in which he set forth his opinions is a -thoroughly able and business-like document, and shows that if Marryat -was allowed to fall out of the service it was not because he was wanting -in zeal or ability. - -Although Marryat, like every other naval officer who ever held His -Majesty’s commission, thought himself “no favourite” with the Admiralty, -he had no intelligible reason to complain--at least as yet. The -grumblings of naval officers are generally, indeed, unintelligible to -the landsman, who is apt, after hearing much of them, to arrive at the -conclusion that if every gentleman in the service were promoted to be -Lord High Admiral and made G.C.B. to morrow morning, they would all be as -discontented as ever by midday. Certainly Marryat, who was a commander at -twenty-three, and had received a command, on service which brought him -into notice, in time of profound peace and reduction of armaments, when -the great majority of his fellow officers were vegetating on half pay on -shore, had little cause to growl. He must, in truth, have had very good -influence at the Admiralty, for though he was only paid off the _Rosario_ -in February, 1822, he was re-appointed to the _Larne_, of twenty guns, -in March, 1823, so that he had barely a year on shore. The _Larne_ was -fitted out at Portsmouth for service in the East Indies. In July Marryat -sailed from Spithead for his station, this time taking out his wife and -family. An entry in his log briefly records an accident which might, if -the amplified form of the story given in his biography is to be taken -as literally true, have ended his career in a somewhat absurd manner. -His gig upset in Falmouth Harbour while he was in it. To an athletic man -and good swimmer a ducking in the month of July was no great disaster, -but the boat carried a bumboat woman and a midshipman. The woman swam -like a fish, and was delighted at the prospect of distinction and profit -apparently thrown in her way. She fastened on Marryat, intent on saving -a captain, and refused peremptorily to let him go when she was asked to -transfer her help from the superior officer, who did not need it, to the -obscure midshipman, who, not being able to swim, was in imminent danger -of drowning. In some way or another Marryat did contrive to get rid -of the incumbrance of her assistance, and the mid was not sacrificed. -Whether he did not invent the bumboat woman’s devotion to rank, is -perhaps doubtful. A bumboat woman was capable of acting in this way, no -doubt, but then Marryat was equally capable of seeing that she ought to -behave in this way, and of crediting her with fulfilling her duty. - -When the _Larne_ reached India, Marryat found that she was to form part -of the combined force ordered to invade Burmah. This war, which filled -1824 and 1825, was of a kind common with us before we learnt that in -war, as in building, it is more economical to employ a hundred men for -one day, than one man for a hundred days--before also the common use -of steam had made great rapidity of movement possible. Sir Archibald -Campbell’s force was not numerous enough, and was unable to move quick. -The operations dragged on for months, till fevers, cholera, and scurvy, -had almost annihilated our army, and had almost unmanned the squadron. -The duties of the navy, in the war, were to clear the Irrawaddy of -Burmese war-boats, to transport the troops, protect their landing, cover -their flank, and now and then to help storm a stockade, or beat down the -fire of native batteries mounted with guns which would not fire, handled -by gunners who could not shoot. The enemy fought fiercely, according to -his lights, but then he had neither good weapons, nor discipline, nor -experience. Except when attacked in a particularly strong position, by an -insufficient force, the poor Burmese were sent into action as cattle to -the slaughter. We naturally make the most of these wars, and politically -they are often of the utmost importance, but as far as fighting is -concerned, a wilderness of them is not equal to the action between the -_Shannon_ and the _Chesapeake_ or the _Blanche_ and the _Pique_. Yet -Marryat was well entitled to say, as he did in a letter to his brother -Samuel, that the crew of the _Larne_ had in the course of five months -“undergone a severity of service almost unequalled.” The climate was -deadly to unseasoned men exposed to it in an unhealthy season. Much toil -had to be gone through in moving the troops, in rowing guard against the -Burmese war-boats, and even in doing engineer work. It is a complaint -sometimes made by the navy that, in combined operations with the army, -a disproportionate amount of the toil falls to them, while the redcoats -get all the fun and the glory of the fighting. In this war the navy had -plenty of work, and suffered proportionately from the strain. It also -complained, in later days, that its exertions were hardly sufficiently -recognized by military historians. Yet their comparatively subordinate -position was a necessity of the case. The war was a land, and not a naval -war, and the sailors could hardly expect to be more than accessories in -it. - -Marryat’s share, both of the work and the credit, was as large as that -of any naval officer engaged. From the beginning of the campaign, in -May, 1824, he was employed until September; at first as subordinate, -and then, when Commodore Grant was invalided, as senior naval officer -at Rangoon. The five months almost destroyed the crew of the _Larne_, -and greatly damaged his own health. His men had been on salt provisions -since February, and when fatigue and exposure were added to unwholesome -diet, they naturally suffered grievously from scurvy. After a rest at -Pulo Penang, he was back at Rangoon in December, and then, after being -despatched on service to India, he was recalled to Burmah to take part -in an attack on Bassein. There were more river work, more attacks on -stockades, more exposure to fever. In July, 1824, on the death of -Commodore Grant, he was transferred into the _Tees_, 26, a post-ship, -which--as it was a death vacancy--should have given him post rank. The -nomination was not, however, confirmed by the Admiralty, and Marryat -was not actually posted till 1825, a loss of a year, which affected his -seniority. It was in the _Larne_ that he took part in the occupation of -Bassein, and the attack on the Burmese stockades at Negrais and Naputah, -but he brought the _Tees_ home and paid her off early in 1826. The thanks -of the general and the Indian Government, the Companionship of the Bath, -and the command of the _Ariadne_, 28, were his rewards for good service -in Burmah. This command he held for exactly two years, from November, -1828, to November, 1830, when “private affairs” induced him to resign. -The _Ariadne_ was his last ship. He was never employed again, nor does -he ever seem to have applied for a command. When there was a prospect -of war with the United States some years later, he spoke of going on -active service again, but he was in ordinary times quite reconciled -apparently to the termination of his career as a naval officer. The end -was rather sudden. Up to 1830 he had been in constant employment and very -successful. He could hardly have hoped for more than to be a post-captain -and a C.B. at thirty-four. The truth doubtless is that he had begun to -have other ambitions. - -As is not uncommonly the case, the end of the old life overlapped the -beginning of the new. Indeed, the old cannot have consciously come to an -end with Marryat for some years. The evidence as to his wishes and hopes -is scanty--extraordinarily scanty considering his prominence and that he -lived almost into this generation; but what has been made known about -him shows that he did not cease to think and work for “the service,” -or quite gave up for a long time expecting that he might again hold a -command. As an active naval officer, however, his career ended when he -resigned the command of the _Ariadne_. Before that date he had written -and published “Frank Mildmay,” and had written the “King’s Own.” What -the private affairs may have been which induced him to resign his ship -does not appear very clearly. Mrs. Ross Church supposes that he wished -to devote himself to his duties as equerry to the Duke of Sussex, which -hardly appears a sufficient explanation. Perhaps, like many other -sailors, he may have had a period of revolt against the routine work, -and long absence from friends and family imposed by naval life, and for -which there is little compensation in peace time. With a growing family -to look after he had a strong attraction to the shore. Then service -in peace time cannot have had many temptations to a man who enjoyed -excitement as Marryat did. To be sent on “diplomatic duties,” which in -practice would mean visits, in the company of His Majesty’s Consuls, -to foreign governors, or to be ordered off in winter to look for reefs -in the Atlantic, which never existed except in the bemused brains of -some merchant skipper, must have been very trying. An experience or -two of this kind, coinciding with the success of his first book and -the equerryship, would be enough to decide him to try his fortune on -shore--all the more as he had private means. Whatever the exact motives -may have been, in 1830 he was on shore for good, and established in -Sussex House, Hammersmith. - -His equerryship seems to have led him to no particular good. “The smiles -of princes,” says Mrs. Church, “are by nature evanescent.” The favour -of princes at least, like that of other men, requires to be cultivated -with due skill and attention. Possibly Marryat may have been wanting in -the will or the capacity to practise the art. Certain it is that neither -from the Duke of Sussex, nor from the duke’s royal brother, William IV., -did he ever obtain any visible good beyond invitations to festivities -which appear to have been of a somewhat dreary character. According to a -story given in the preface to Bone’s edition of the “Pirate and Three -Cutters,” and quoted on that authority by Mrs. Ross Church, the King, -who all through his life seems to have been moved to do something silly -whenever he remembered that he was a naval officer, was offended by -Marryat’s condemnation of the press-gang. He not only refused to consent -to the conferring of some mark of distinction on Marryat in addition to -the C.B. given for the Burmah campaign, but would not even allow him to -wear the Legion of Honour sent him by Louis Philippe as a reward for the -code of signals. The story is credible enough of William IV., who, saving -the reverence of the Crown, was very little better than a fool, and a -spiteful fool, too, at times. The Admiralty of its own motion, or the -Admiralty and the King together, seem to have decided that Marryat need -not be employed again. In the enjoyment of literary success and liberty, -he probably reconciled himself to the want of employment readily enough. -He must have been prepared to do without it when he threw up his command. -The Admiralty does not love captains who resign their ships. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - - -From 1830 to his death in 1848 Marryat was a working man of letters, -and a busy one. His books were many, and they do not represent all -his labours. There was a life of his old messmate, Lord Napier, -begun--and stopped--at the request of the widow, and much miscellaneous -journalism--if that is the correct description of contributions to -magazines. His pen was rapid, and he had no fear of tackling new -subjects, so that the length of the shelf which would hold his complete -works would be considerable, and the variety of the contents of the -edition not small. Sea stories and land stories, plays which never -reached the stage, diaries on the Continent and in America, letters of -Norfolk farmers, and didactic tales for children all went in. - -There is a difficulty in the way of the telling of Marryat’s own life -during these busy eighteen years--the not uncommon difficulty, want -of information. The biography published by his family leaves much -unexplained, for reasons into which it would be useless, even if one -had the right, to inquire. The causes of Marryat’s sudden changes of -residence, and of his hasty journey to the Continent in 1835, are only -to be guessed at. He did not live much in the literary world of his -time. Of the eighteen years of his writing activity, several in the -middle were spent on the Continent, and several at the end in Norfolk. -In a general way one gathers that the question of money was a very -important, sometimes a very pressing one, with Marryat. Money earned, -inherited, spent--money to be recovered from debtors, and, doubtless, -paid to creditors, had much of his attention. It is manifest that he -was what Carlyle would have called “a very expensive Herr.” He liked to -lead a large life, and to show a gentlemanly indifference to money. By -preference he lived in good houses, in good neighbourhoods, and it is not -overrash or uncharitable to guess that his income was not always adequate -to his expenses. Finally, he was addicted to some of the most effectual -of all methods of evacuation. If he did not promote, or have to face, -a petition, at least he went through a contested election; and he had -Balzac’s mania for ingenious speculations, which ought to have realized -wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, and did achieve a dead loss with the -most unfailing regularity. Like many another sailor before and since, he -was sure that he could show the trained farmer how to extract more than -he had yet done from the land. He undertook to do so on his small estate -at Langham, in Norfolk--with disastrous financial results. That farming -speculation was undoubtedly the type of much in his life. - -His movements, if not the causes of them, can be followed easily enough. -Between 1830 and his departure for America in 1837, he was successively -at Sussex House, Hammersmith; at Langham, in Norfolk; then back in -London; then in Brighton; then in sudden haste off to Brussels; and from -thence to Lausanne. “Frank Mildmay; or, The Naval Officer,” appeared -in 1829. Nine months later, when he was fixed on shore, came out the -“King’s Own.” In 1830 he acquired a thousand acres of land in Norfolk, -which remained in his possession till his death. He exchanged Sussex -House for it, but how Sussex House was got we are not told. It cannot -have been bought either out of prize money, or the proceeds of the two -books he had published already, although his prices were remarkably good -for a beginner. Four hundred pounds is the sum said to have been given -by Colburn for “Frank Mildmay”--a good deal more than the most sanguine -of novices would expect to receive from the most generous of publishers -for a first book in these days. Certainly, in 1830, Marryat was working -as a man works who has reasons for making all the money he can. He was -contributing to the _Metropolitan Magazine_, and receiving his sixteen -pounds a sheet--which, again, is good magazine pay. It did not take him -long to acquire a shrewd idea how to deal with publishers, and a distinct -understanding of the due privileges of an editor. His knowledge of these -important matters is shown conclusively in a letter to Bentley, setting -forth the terms on which he would be prepared to edit a new nautical -magazine, a proposed imitation of, or rather rival to, the _United -Service Journal_. - -“My terms,” he says, with the confidence of a man who knew the market, -and his own value in it, “would be as follows: The sole control of -the work, for when I do my best I must be despotic or I shall not -succeed; to be paid for all my writings at the price I received in the -_Metropolitan_, sixteen guineas per sheet. The editorship I would then -take at £400 per annum until the end of the first year, when, if the -work succeeded, I should expect an addition of £100, and if it continued -profitable, another £100, so as to raise the _final_ pay of the editor -to £600 per annum. The stipulations may be talked over afterwards. To -choose my sub-editor is indispensable. He must be a nautical man.” -Marryat had learnt plainly how necessary it is to be captain of your own -ship--and withal he quite understood how to launch the new kind of craft -he was about to sail. “The first number must be most carefully got up, to -insure success, and the papers ought now to be in preparation. You must, -therefore, take but few days to decide, as I tell you honestly I have -reason to expect the offer from another quarter, who are now talking the -matter over, and I must be allowed to consider myself as unpledged to you -after a short time.” - -As it is not recorded that Marryat had, like Arthur Pendennis, any George -Warrington to guide his literary beginnings, he deserves all the more -credit for his spontaneous appreciation of the advantage to be obtained -by playing Bacon off against Bungay. - -“The offer from another quarter,” which was thus quoted to hasten the -decision of Mr. Bentley, was the editorship of the _Metropolitan_, -which he took in 1832, and held until he left England for Brussels. He -either received as part payment, or purchased a proprietary right in the -magazine, which he afterwards sold to Saunders and Otley for £1,050. -For the next four or five years the _Metropolitan_ had the major part of -Marryat’s time and work. He had, according to his wish, a nautical sub -editor, the E. Howard, who wrote that strange book, “Rattlin the Reefer,” -which still continues to be catalogued with Marryat’s own stories. There -were contributors to be hunted up--kept up to the mark, more or less -successfully--and occasionally soothed down--Thomas Moore for one, who -wrote in agony to insist on the necessity there was that he should see -his proofs, and also to make monetary arrangements. Of course there were -quarrels to be fought out, for in those days no periodical was able to -exist without its regular battle. But in the midst of these forgetable -and forgotten things--Marryat contributed to the _Metropolitan_ five -of the best of his books. “Newton Forster” appeared in 1832, “Peter -Simple” in 1833; and in 1834 no less than three--“Jacob Faithful,” “Mr. -Midshipman Easy,” and “Japhet in Search of a Father.” Not a little of -what, to apply nautical language, may be called dunnage appeared with and -after these--a comedy, a tragedy (of neither of which does Marryat seem -to have thought highly), and a host of miscellaneous papers collected -under the title of “Olla Podrida”--these last being only what Marryat -frankly called his “Diary on the Continent”--namely, “very good magazine -stuff.” - -His extraordinary industry in 1834 can be confidently accounted for by -the need of money. In 1833 he had taken effectual means to lighten his -purse by standing for Parliament. The constituency chosen for the venture -was the Tower Hamlets, and Marryat stood as a Reformer. Although the -year immediately following the passing of the Reform Bill was as good a -one as he could well have found in which to try in that character, he was -not successful. His reforming zeal was possibly too purely naval for the -constituency, and he was wanting in the very necessary readiness to say -ditto to a popular fad. Marryat seems to have considered that his dislike -of the press-gang was claim enough to the character of Liberal Reformer. -But in the midst of profound peace the press-gang was not a burning -grievance, and on some other points he took a line not likely to prove -pleasing to the sentimental among the Liberals, for whose votes he was -asking. He could not be got to show a burning interest in the sorrows of -the slave. He took up the logically strong, but practically ineffective, -position of the man who declined to be troubled for the slave while -there was so much suffering unremedied at home. This might be a very -sensible decision, but unfortunately it was discredited by the fact that -it had been a favourite one with the slave-holders, whose tenderness -for sufferers at home was never heard of till their own property in the -West Indies seemed to be in danger. On another question, which proved a -trying one to candidates till very recently, Marryat took a disastrously -sensible course. He was called upon to give his opinion of the practice -of flogging in the navy--and committed himself to the side of discipline -most fatally. “Sir,” he said to a heckler, who wanted to know whether the -“gallant captain” would be capable of flogging him or his sons; “Sir, -you say the answer I gave you is not direct; I will answer you again. -If ever you, or one of your sons, should come under my command, and -deserve punishment, if there be no other effectual mode of conferring it, -I shall flog you.” After that it is not surprising to hear that “Captain -Marryat and the Chairman left the room together, amidst a tumult of -united applause and disapprobation”--in the midst, in fact, of an uproar, -in which the part of the meeting which admired his pluck was engaged in -shouting against the other part which detested his good sense. There was -something of Colonel Newcome in the politics of Captain Marryat, and -he had not the good fortune to contend against a Barnes Newcome. His -parliamentary ambition had to take its place with the other schemes of -his life which came to nothing. A plan for the establishment of brevet -rank in the navy, which he sent in about this time to Sir James Graham, -was part of his activity as a political naval officer. It also came to -nothing, and nobody can well regret that it was still-born. - -After the misspent energy of 1833, Marryat had to make up by hard -pen-work. He settled in Montpelier Villas, Western Road, Brighton, and -there, in 1834, wrote his three books. The effort was a severe one, and -he felt the effects later on, when fatigue, and possibly questions of -money, had induced him to go abroad. He had not yet altogether given up -thinking of Parliament--or, at least, if he had ceased hoping to sit -as member, he kept up his correspondence with ministers on those naval -affairs which he understood. He forwarded observations on the Merchant -Shipping Bill of that year--one of our portentous list of shipping -measures--to Sir James Graham. His volunteer help was well received, and -the First Lord, one of the ablest men who ever was at the head of the -department, invited him to come to Whitehall and talk the Bill over. -This invitation may be taken as a proof, among others, that if Marryat -remained unemployed, it was mainly by his own wish. He had already, by -his writing on the manning of the navy, and, in less public ways, shown -that in professional matters, at least, he was an excellent man of -business. Sir James Graham was not the man to have refused employment to -an officer of proved ability if he had wished for it, but it is tolerably -plain that Marryat had other irons of a more attractive kind, for the -moment, in the fire. - -The particular iron which he had heating in Norfolk--the estate at -Langham--was not likely to relieve him from the necessity of making -every penny he could by his pen. “No rent,” was his return in 1834, -and as a rule ever after--till he took it in hand himself, and then it -still realized him a steady yearly deficit. This year of “no rent” was -also a year of legal unpleasantness in connection with his father’s -memory--which he bore in a fashion to be recommended to the imitation -of all who suffer from similar misfortunes. “As for the Chancellor’s -judgment,” he wrote to his mother, who had plainly been hurt, “I cannot -say I thought anything about it; on the contrary, it appears to me that -he might have been much more severe if he had thought proper. It is easy -to impute motives, and difficult to disprove them. I thought, considering -his enmity, that he let us off cheap, as there is no _punishing a -Chancellor_, and he might say what he pleased with impunity. I did not, -therefore, _roar_, I only _smiled_. The effect will be nugatory. Not one -in a thousand will read it; those who do, know it refers to a person not -in this world, and of those, those who knew my father will not believe -it; those who did not will care little about it, and forget the name -in a week. Had he given the decision in our favour, I should have been -better pleased, but _it’s no use crying; what’s done can’t be helped_.” -With that piece of the philosophy of the elder Faithful, Marryat ends as -neat a statement of reasons for not making a fuss, and as admirable an -estimate of the relative unimportance of any man’s private affairs in a -busy world, as will be found by much searching. - -Next year Marryat was off in haste to the Continent. “Not one day was -our departure postponed; with post horses and postillions, we posted, -post haste, to Brussels.” As is too commonly the case, Mrs. Ross Church -has nothing to say as to the cause of this flight--and we are left to -conclude that it was due to that desire to economize with dignity which -has driven so many Englishmen to the same voluntary exile. At Brussels or -at Spa he went on working for the _Metropolitan_. He cannot have edited -it, but he sent in his “Diary on the Continent,” and he wrote, in this -year, “The Pirate” and “The Three Cutters,” in which, for the first time, -he had the advantage of being illustrated by Clarkson Stanfield. With the -_Metropolitan_ his connection was coming to an end. In 1836 he returned -to England, to get rid of his proprietary interest in it to Saunders and -Otley, and to part with those publishers in a friendly manner--but to -part decisively, on the ground that they would hear nothing of an advance -for fresh work. _The New Monthly_ was now his resource--at the increased -rate of twenty guineas a sheet. To 1836 belong “Snarley Yow” and “The -Pasha of Many Tales,”--and also the beginning of that “Life of Lord -Napier” which was never to be finished. In 1837 he had begun to feel the -need of a change, the desire to break fresh ground, and in April, leaving -his family at Lausanne, he started for the United States. - -His life during these two years of foreign residence may probably be -fairly well realized by the reader who will give himself the pleasure to -remember some parts of Thackeray and many parts of Lever. The Marryats -must have formed part of that English colony on the Continent at the -head of which marched the Marquess of Steyne, while Captain Rook and -the Honourable Mr. Deuceace brought up the rear. It was a society much -more merry than wise, and it is to be feared more easy than honest. Its -members lived abroad to escape something--perhaps it was only restraint, -perhaps it was the heavy bills of English tradesmen not yet reclaimed -from the evil ways of long credit and high prices, sometimes it was the -sheriff’s-officer. Now and then it was only the English winter. That was -the most wholesome reason; but it was the least commonly genuine, and the -most frequently assumed. In all that curious expatriated world there was -something of the Cave of Adullam. It was often only the more pleasant -on that account. Acquaintances matured quickly; among people who were -all more or less fugitives, few questions were asked; even Captain Rook -and Mr. Deuceace were received without too much inquiry by people who -neither imitated nor liked all their ways. Now we are less strict at -home, and by a natural reaction more circumspect abroad. Besides railways -keep people rolling, and have greatly broken up the old English colonies. -Still even now there is a continental English society, less Bohemian -than the old, but still somewhat free and easy, addicted as it were to -living in its shirt sleeves, very pleasant to see, and to go through, but -not at all good to be lived in for the moral man. During the thirties -this Cave of Adullam was in full swing, crowded with refugees--not for -political causes--with veterans of the old war intent on making pension -and half-pay go as far as possible, and with pleasure-seeking people -ready for any amusement (the cheaper the better), and not too exacting as -to the moral qualities or social position of those with whom they were -prepared to amuse themselves. - -Marryat with his abundant spirits, his faculty for story-telling, and -his sufficient command of money, would naturally fall on his feet in -this rather gypsy world. He spoke French fluently, and his wife, as the -daughter of an English consul in Russia, would be at home in continental -society. Once more it must be confessed that the details are wanting. -Mrs. Ross Church says, that “to this hour” (she wrote in 1872) “many -anecdotes are related of him by the older residents at Brussels.” Sadly -few of them seem to have been collected, for Mrs. Ross Church can only -muster two--neither, it must be confessed, very brilliant nor very -honourable. According to the first, Marryat was asked to dinner to meet -a company of celebrities and friends of his own, in hopes that he would -talk. He held his tongue, and when asked whether he had been silent -because he was bored, answered, “Why did you imagine I was going to let -out any of my jokes for those fellows to put in their next books? No, -that is not _my_ plan. When I find myself in such company as _that_, I -open my ears and hold my tongue, glean all I can, and give them nothing -in return.” The story needs a good deal of explaining before the point of -it becomes obvious; and unluckily the circumstances, which could alone -explain it, are wanting. The fun, if there was any, was supplied (we must -suppose) by the character of the person it was said to--and who was he? -The other story contains a repartee--an awful repartee--a thing to be put -in a collection of witticisms with the comment that “so and so smiled, -but never forgave the jest.” It is about the bridge of somebody’s nose, -and is not greatly inferior to the recorded jokes of Douglas Jerrold. - -There is little to be gleaned out of such reminiscences as these, which -hardly reach the dignity of “dead nettles”: neither do we gather much -from a surviving letter to Mr. Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx about a debt -of frs. 1250, owed to Marryat by R----, a hopeless debt. “I consider -that if I have no better chance of heaven than of R----’s 1250 francs, -I am in a bad way. Both he and Z---- are evidently a couple of rogues. -The only chance of obtaining the money from R---- is by telling him that -I am coming to Paris as soon as I can, and that I shall expose him by -publishing the whole affair, his letters, &c.; and, moreover that you -_strongly suspect_ that it is my intention, independent of exposure, to -_break every bone in his body_ on my arrival. He holds himself as a -gentleman, being the son of some post-captain, and will not like that -message, and may perhaps pay the money rather than incur the risk.” Here -obviously was a very pretty quarrel; but who was R----, and had he a -case, and who was Mr. Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx, and did any assault -follow? Who knows? and indeed who cares? The rest of the letter is full -of scandal about capital letters and dashes. The sight of it only make -one remember how much entirely unimportant trash contrives to survive in -this world. - -All the scraps of knowledge about Marryat which have escaped destruction -are not so unpleasant, though they are nearly as obscure, as that letter -to Mr. Osmond de Beauvoir Priaulx. It is recorded that he gave parties -and Christmas trees, that he looked after children well, and was a neat -hand at packing a portmanteau,--qualities which must have made him the -most tolerable of husbands and fathers on his travels. He was at all -times tender-hearted with children, as befitted an author who ended by -writing almost wholly for them; and would quiet his own by telling them -stories, when the rattling of carriages and diligences had made them -fractious. A letter to his mother survives from these years which is -worth quoting--not because it gives much information about his own life, -but because it is kindly, and gives a very different picture of Marryat -to that afforded by the threats against R----, and the vapid scandal -written to the gentleman with the handsome French name. - - “SPA, _June 9, 1835_. - - “MY DEAREST MOTHER,--It is dreadfully hot, and we are all - gasping for breath. Kate is very unwell. She cannot walk now, - and is obliged to go out in the carriage. Children thrive. As - for me, I am teaching myself German, and writing a little now - and then ‘The Diary of a Blasé:’ one part has appeared in the - _Metropolitan_--very good magazine stuff. I have a fractional part - of the gout in my middle right finger. Is it possible to make - V---- a member of the Horticultural? He is very anxious, and he - deserves it; the personal knowledge is the only difficulty; but I - know him, and I am part of you, and therefore you know him. Will - that syllogism do? We are as quiet here as if we were out of the - world, and I like it. I wanted quiet to recover me. Since I have - been here I have discovered what I fancy will be new in England--a - variety of carnation, with short stalks--the stalks are so short - that the flowers do not rise above the leaves of the plant, and - you have no idea how pretty they are; they are all in a bush (? - blush). There are two varieties here, belonging to a man, but he - will not part with them. He says they are very scarce, and only - to be had at Vervier, a town eight miles off. They are celebrated - for flowers at Liége, but a flower-woman from Liége, to whom I - showed them, said she had never seen them there; so I presume the - man was correct. Have you heard of them? By-the-by, you should ask - V---- to send for some Ghent roses--they are extremely beautiful. - I did give most positive orders that Fred should not go out unless - with Mr. B---- or one of the masters. He remained three days in - Paris, having escaped from the gentleman who had charge of him, - and cannot, or will not, account for where he was, or what he did. - He did not go to his school until his money was gone. He is at a - dangerous age now, and must be kept close. Write me or Kate a long - letter, telling us all the news. I intend to come home in October, - or thereabouts; but I must arrange according to Kate’s manœuvres. - If she goes her time of course I must be with her, and then she - will winter here, I have no doubt, as we cannot travel in winter - with babies, nor indeed do I wish to; as travelling costs a great - deal of money--and I have none to spare. - - “God bless you, mamma. This is a famous place for your complaint, - if it comes on again. The cures are miraculous. Love to Ellen. She - sha’n’t come German over me when we meet. I don’t think I ever - should have learnt it, only G---- gave himself such airs about it.” - -The letter is not a masterpiece, but it is good-natured and wholesome. -The “Fred,” who had been playing truant so enviably in Paris, was -afterwards the Lieutenant Frederick Marryat who perished in the wreck of -the _Avenger_. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - - -His departure for America is a convenient date at which to stop and -survey Marryat’s literary work. After 1837, he did some things as good as -anything he had done before, and some at once unlike what he had already -written, and yet excellent of their kind. “Poor Jack” and “Percival -Keene” have touches of the old sea life, and flashes of fun, not inferior -to his earlier writing. The “Phantom Ship” has a character of its own; -the children’s stories of his last years are excellent. All these are -later than 1837. Still, if he had ceased to write entirely in that year, -his place in literature would be as high as it is. We should have “The -King’s Own,” “Peter Simple,” “Mr. Midshipman Easy,” “Japhet,” “Jacob -Faithful,” and “Snarley Yow,” and with these we should possess the best -of him. In those eight busy years Marryat had poured out the harvest of -his experience profusely. His beginning in literature had been singularly -fortunate. The time was favourable to writers of any originality -certainly. A brilliant magazine article made a reputation. There was -a marked readiness to recognize ability and reward it. What amount of -praise and pudding would be given in these days for another essay on -Milton it would be useless to guess, but undoubtedly it could hardly -be greater than the share which fell to Macaulay for his early effort. -Carlyle made a place for himself by a few articles. The wind which blew -for them blew for others also. As has almost always been the case in -great literary periods, the readiness of the reader to recognize and -admire was as strong as the productive power of the writer. The audience -met the playwright half way. Sir Walter Scott had prepared the market -for the novelist. He had enormously increased the taste for novels, -and whoever could write at all was the surer of a hearing, because -“Waverley” had made stories a necessity to readers. There is among the -more atrabilious kind of men of letters a secret belief that the sum of -popularity is a fixed quantity, of which whatever is earned by one man is -necessarily lost by another. That one nation’s gain is another’s loss in -commerce, was an accepted axiom with economists of the days of darkness -before Adam Smith. It has been given up on maturer consideration, and is -assuredly no more true in literature than international trade. A great -writer who gains a great popularity increases the chance of the smaller -men. Sir Walter and Jane Austen helped the Mrs. Meeke in whom Macaulay -delighted. - -Marryat had profited amply by the opening. With great adaptability he -had thrown himself into the literary fight of his time. As has been -already said, he soon showed himself at home in the regular business -of literature--in writing for the press and in editing. To take the -satisfactory though vulgar test of money, he was able to make his market, -and put his price up. Nor was he at all reluctant to insist on the value -of his goods. “I do not,” he said in 1837, “write for sixteen guineas -a sheet now. I let them off for twenty guineas, as I do not wish to -run them hard; and I now have commenced with the _New Monthly_ at that -rate for one year certain, and the copyright secured to me. Times are -hard, and I do not wish to break the backs of the publishers, although -I ride over them roughshod. I have also made very much better terms for -my books. ‘Snarley Yow,’ comes out on the 1st of June. I have parted -very amicably with Saunders and Otley, who would not stand an advance. -I _will_ make hay when the sun shines; for every dog has his day, and -I presume my time will come as that of others.” Twenty guineas a sheet -was the exceptional price which Fraser was paying Carlyle in those very -years, and was five guineas above the usual rate. Obviously here was a -gentleman who knew that business was business. With this determination -to make the last penny there was to make, he naturally contributed his -chapter to the history of the quarrels of authors with their publishers. - -“Although Captain Marryat,” says his daughter, “and his publishers -mutually benefited by their transactions with each other, one would -have imagined from the letters exchanged between them that they had -been natural enemies.” It is a mistake which is not uncommon in these -transactions, and particularly likely to arise when, as in this case, a -publisher frankly tells the author that he thinks him “eccentric,” and -an “odd creature,” and adds that he is himself “somewhat warm-tempered.” -Who the particular publisher was who sent these pieces of criticism and -self-criticism to Marryat we are not told. The answer he received might -supply a clue to the Marryatist who was prepared to follow it up with the -proper devotion. - - “There was no occasion for you to make the admission that you - were somewhat warm-tempered. Your letter establishes the fact. - Considering your age, you are a little volcano, and if the - insurance were aware of your frequent visits to the Royal Exchange, - they would demand double premium for the building. Indeed, I have - my surmises _now_ as to the last conflagration. - - … - - “Your remark as to the money I have received may sound very well, - mentioned as an isolated fact; but how does it sound when it is put - into juxtaposition with the sums you have received? I, who have - found everything, receiving a pittance; while you, who have found - nothing but the shop to sell in, receiving such a lion’s share. I - assert again, it is slavery. I am Sinbad the Sailor, and you are - the Old Man of the Mountain (_sic_) clinging on my back, and you - must not be surprised at my wishing to throw you off the first - convenient opportunity. - - “The fact is, you have the vice of old age very strong upon you, - and you are blinded by it; but put the question to your sons, and - ask them if they consider the present agreement fair. Let them - arrange with me, and do you go and read your Bible. We all have our - own ideas of Paradise, and if other authors think like me, the more - pleasurable portion of anticipated bliss is that there will be no - publishers there. That idea often supports me after an interview - with one of your fraternity.” - -Author and publisher told one another “their fact” plainly enough in this -case, and one rather wonders what lies hid under the asterisks. In the -absence of information as to the proportion in which they respectively -shared the profits of the stories written before 1837, one cannot -undertake to say whether the unnamed publisher of fiery temper, advanced -age, and small stature, received a lion’s share or not. If so, it must -have represented a handsome sum, for Marryat was by no means one of the -worst treated of authors. Colburn gave him £400 for “Frank Mildmay.” For -“Mr. Midshipman Easy” he received £1,400, apparently in a lump sum. “The -Pirate” and “The Three Cutters,” published together, brought him in £750. -His other books were paid on the same scale, and he certainly did not -edit the _Metropolitan_ for nothing. His code of signals, which was not -literature (and perhaps on that account only the more lucrative), was -an appreciable income to him throughout his life. On the whole, Marryat -seems to have found the profession of author sufficiently remunerative. -His indignation with his publishers may be safely taken to be mainly a -proof that, in common with most writing-men of his generation, he was a -firm believer in the creed that authors are an ill-used body. This is -no longer quite so orthodox as it was. The wind is rather blowing the -other way, and it is becoming the right thing to say that authors have -themselves to thank for their ill-luck if they do not earn as much as -they ought, and must bear the burden like their fellow-men if they spend -more than they earn. This good sense may corrupt into a cant as others -have done, but it is good sense. Marryat--who would appear to have made -three thousand pounds or so in 1835, for taking “Mr. Midshipman Easy” -and the other two stories, with his copyrights and editorship, he can -hardly have made less--was in any case not an example of an ill-paid -author. If he had to complain of want of money it must have been because -he was a gentleman of extravagant habits, with a fatal weakness for -bad investments. To be sure, if an author were to be paid according -to the pleasure he has given others, and if “the shop” which makes a -profit on selling his work had to render some royalty on it for ever -and ever, then indeed was Marryat, together with all those whose work -is of the widely-read and lasting order, ill rewarded. But insuperable -difficulties bar the road to that ideal. Since paper, printing, and -advertisements must be provided, the provider of these necessary things -must share; since the novelist cannot hawk his own goods in a barrow, he -must pay somebody to do it for him; since the world’s copyright laws put -a limit on the duration of proprietary right in books, there must come -a time when they are at any man’s disposal to reprint. In the long run -the balance of profit must needs be in favour of the shop. To be sure, -the nation of authors may console itself by reflecting that it has its -revenge. There is much on which the shop makes no gain, first or last. - -The first of Marryat’s books is one which, for reasons very neatly stated -by himself, may stand apart from the others. When he had given it three -successors, he thought fit to publish a proclamation on the subject of -his work in the _Metropolitan_, and in that document he described “Frank -Mildmay” as fairly as any honest critic could do for him. - - “‘The Naval Officer’ was our first attempt, and it having been - our first attempt must be offered in extenuation of its many - imperfections; it was written hastily, and before it was complete - we were appointed to a ship. We cared much about our ship and - little about our book. The first was diligently taken charge of by - ourselves; the second was left in the hands of others, to get on - how it could. Like most bantlings put out to nurse, it did not get - on very well. As we happen to be in the communicative vein, it may - be as well to remark that being written in the autobiographical - style, it was asserted by good-natured friends, and believed in - general, that it was a history of the author’s own life. Now, - without pretending to have been better than we should have been in - our earlier days, we do most solemnly assure the public that, had - we run the career of vice of the hero of ‘The Naval Officer,’ at - all events, we should have had sufficient sense of shame not to - have avowed it. Except the hero and the heroine, and those parts - of the work which supply the slight plot of it as a novel, the - work in itself is materially true, especially in the narrative of - sea adventure, most of which did (to the best of our recollection) - occur to the author.… The ‘confounded licking’ we received for - our first attempt in the critical notices is probably well known - to the reader--at all events we have not forgotten it. Now, with - some, this severe castigation of their first offence would have - had the effect of their never offending again; but we felt that our - punishment was rather too severe; it produced indignation instead - of contrition, and we determined to write again in spite of all the - critics in the universe: and in the due course of nine months we - produced ‘The King’s Own.’ In ‘The Naval Officer’ we had sowed all - our wild oats, we had _paid off_ those who had ill-treated us, and - we had no further personality to indulge in.” - -From which, even if internal evidence were not enough to prove it, we -learn that, between the paying off of the _Tees_ and the commissioning -of the _Ariadne_, Marryat decided to have a general jail delivery of his -old naval enemies, and that the result was “Frank Mildmay; or, The Naval -Officer.” It cannot be said that the book is better than its origin. If -Marryat had kept the promise he made in this proclamation of his to the -readers of the _Metropolitan_--if he had re-written this so-called novel, -he might, had he taken the right course, have made it one of the best of -his works. He had only to make it an autobiography without disguise, to -put in the good as well as the evil of his experience, to take care to -explain everything to his readers, as he could well have done, and he -would have given English literature a thing altogether unique--a naval -memoir. We are not rich in memoirs, at least, not in good ones. The -English hand is unhappy at that work. A man has only to turn to Ludlow, -or Sir Philip Warwick, to see how lamentably little Englishmen of parts -who lived through the most wonderful things could contrive to bring away -with them--how little at least of the life, the colour, the dramatic -swing of it all. Of the few we can show, which are not unfit to stand -with the Frenchmen, Clarendon, Pepys, Colley Cibber, Evelyn (and four -or five others), none were of the sea. “Cochrane’s Autobiography” maybe -quoted against me, but even this, good as it is in places, is drowned in -angry denunciations of human wickedness, and demonstrations that this -or the other thing ought to have been done by official backsliders, so -that what Cochrane did himself is almost crowded out. Besides, it is only -a fragment, and then _reste à savoir s’il n’est pas mort_. It has not -lived. One may, and must, use it for the history of the man and the time, -but who reads it for its intrinsic literary merit? The French seamen have -the better of us there. The memoirs of Forbin, of Duguay-Trouin, and even -the recently published journal of a much less famous man, Jean Doublet, -are capital reading. Marryat might, if he had so pleased, have done a -book which would have been to the memoirs of Forbin what the memoirs of -Clarendon are to the memoirs of Sully, to adopt the formula dear to Lord -Macaulay. He might have done what Sir Walter Scott praised Basil Hall for -attempting--have given in autobiographical form a picture of sea life, -which would have been interesting, not only to those who already love -the subject, but to all who love good reading. He did not so choose. He -carried out his mission in another form, and “Frank Mildmay” remained as -it first appeared. - -That the book was so much of an autobiography was a misfortune for -Marryat. He might protest as much as he pleased that he was not Frank -Mildmay, and had not run a career of vice, but the impression left by -the book was and is disagreeable. Why should a man attribute his own -adventures to a tiger? Now, Frank Mildmay is a tiger--a very insolent, -callous, young cub. It shows Marryat to have been very inexperienced -indeed that he should have made such a mistake. He must have known that -the adventures would be recognized. The naval world is a small one, -and an exclusive. Naval officers live together by choice on shore as -they do by necessity at sea. Everything written about the profession -is talked over, and interpreted, when interpretation is needed. Every -incident in “Frank Mildmay” was no doubt recognized at once; and when -it was found that the things that had happened to the hero of the story -were the adventures of the author, it is not to be wondered at that the -two were thought to be also identical in character. Marryat, in fact, -committed with himself the very error of judgment into which Dickens was -led with Leigh Hunt, when he made Harold Skimpole a rascal, in order to -prove that he was not a caricature of his friend. But there is something -more than inexperience and error of judgment about “The Naval Officer.” -Marryat can hardly have seen what a bad fellow he had drawn. Frank -Mildmay has not only those “sins of the devil,” which may be worse, but -are more dignified, than the sins of men--he errs not only by “pride and -rebellion,” but he is a mean scamp; and I am afraid that Marryat did not -see it. He was as blind to the faults of his bantling as Smollett was -to the ruffianism of Roderick Random, or Fielding to the very vulgar -inferiority of Tom Jones. Criticism seems to have opened his eyes, and -little as he liked the lesson, he took the warning; but it was only for -a time. Unfortunately he fell back on it. Percival Keene is just such -another--a very low fellow, with a kind of wild boar courage. It would -appear that Marryat did not see some things as plainly as one could wish -he had done. It is unnecessary to insist on the faults of construction -in a book which belonged to an altogether bastard genre. What merits -it had--and they were sufficient to give promise of a brilliant -novelist--were to be repeated in other books much more pleasant, and much -more capable of repaying examination. - -The other nine books which Marryat published in these seven years were -“wholly fictitious in characters, in plot, and in events,” to quote -his own words. In fact, they were stories, and what truth there is in -them was not crudely taken from memory, but adapted and fitted into its -place. The essential accuracy of the picture they give of sea life has -never been questioned, at least it has never been challenged on serious -grounds. It is undoubtedly the case that critics of a certain well-known -stamp have been known to complain that no such series of adventures as -these stories contain were ever known to occur, and that the daily life -of a midshipman is not so amusing as Mr. Easy’s, nor so varied as Peter -Simple’s. A criticism which only amounts to this--that the stories are -stories, and not log-books, need hardly be seriously answered. Sailors -read them, and always have read them. They are as popular in the American -Naval School as they have been among English boys. To the skill with -which the stories were built, less justice has been done. It has always, -as it were, been taken for granted that Marryat owed everything to his -experience as a seaman, and that, except in so far as he had seen things -which other men had not seen, he was not of the race of novelists whose -work lives. Now this is heresy. In truth, the sea life owes more to -Marryat than he to the sea. No one meets Mr. Easy, or Terence O’Brien, -or Mr. Chucks, or Mr. Vanslyperken in this commonplace world. He meets -something out of which they may be made. Unquestionably his experience -was of inestimable value to Marryat--as all exceptional experience is to -all novelists. At the very beginning of his career he was complimented -by Washington Irving on his good luck. “You have a glorious field before -you, and one in which you cannot have many competitors, as so very few -unite the author to the sailor.” No doubt it was Marryat’s happiness -that he had so good a Sparta to cultivate--but, after all, the result -was primarily due to the skill of the cultivator. Speaking as one who -has a full share of the good English taste for reading about the things -of the sea, I am inclined to maintain that few kinds of books are more -tedious than sea stories which ask to be read and enjoyed simply because -they are sea stories. Battle, and storm, and shipwreck may be poured out -on you, and yet leave you cold. These things by themselves in fiction -are capable of being as tiresome as the once prevalent detective, or now -popular religious disputations. To compare the stock sea story with the -great books of travel--with Dampier, or with Anson’s Voyage, or with -Basil Ringrose--would be unfair. We do not need to compare the best of -one kind with the worst of another. But they will not stand reading even -with Captain Hacke’s dingy little compilation, or with the long winded -journal of Woodes Rogers. The reality of the latter is some compensation -for their undoubted dulness. At least in reading them one knows that one -is looking at a strange old life told by the men who lived it. When taken -by a workman and badly used, the adventures these actual adventurers -passed through and recorded become merely badly used material. A painter -was once shown the scrawlings of a youthful prodigy who had been covering -paper with pictures of ships and sailors. He was asked whether these -works did not show a genius for art. “No,” said the judicious artist, -“the boy has been reading sea stories, and his head is full of them. He -draws because he likes the things, not because he loves drawing.” The -verdict stated a great critical truth--and, however unpleasant it may be -to prodigies to learn that taste and faculty are not identical, and that -they must rely on their power of interpreting their subject, and not on -the subject itself, it is the case, nevertheless. - -Now with Marryat the faculty was always equal to the fusing and managing -of the materials. In “Japhet,” where he does not touch the sea at all, -he has yet contrived to impart life and interest to his puppets and -their doings. It may stand by “Con Cregan” in the long list of stories -which began with “Guzman de Alfarache,” and includes “Moll Flanders” -and “Peregrine Pickle.” In this case Marryat’s best knowledge was -not available and he had to rely on his power of re-using well-worn -materials. Where his experience and his ability combined, he attained to -a very considerable degree of narrative skill. Whether he had trained -himself by early reading or not (and indeed there is nothing to show that -he was a reader), he had early command of a very admirable narrative -style. It might be plausibly maintained that this was a heritage among -seamen. There is nothing in English literature at once more simple, -more manly, more perfectly adequate to its purpose than the language of -Dampier. In Marryat’s own time this power had not been lost by English -seamen. The navy may have been a rough school, but there was nothing -in its training which made men unable to use the pen, and use it well. -As an example of flowing, and also perfectly unaffected, description, -the account of the battle of the Nile, given by Captain Miller, of the -_Theseus_, is without fault. It deserves a place of honour in every -collection of English letters. The beauty of Collingwood’s letters is -acknowledged even by those who have thought fit to carp at his character. -Marryat brought this style to his literary work, and kept it unchanged -to the end. It is a style in which there is no straining. Marryat never -had recourse, as his contemporary, Michael Scott, was wont, to capital -letters, italics, and broken lines when he wished to impress his readers. -He never appears even to have been particularly anxious to impress. When -a wreck or a battle comes in his way, it is told as Captain Miller might -have told it. Therefore it has its effect, and convinces you, as the -narrative of the battle of the Nile does, that the thing described had -been seen, had been lived through. The most famous of his passages--the -club-hauling of the _Diomede_, the fight with the Russian frigate in “Mr. -Midshipman Easy”--the destruction of the French liner at the end of “The -King’s Own”--are too long for quotation; but in “Peter Simple” there is -one which is of not unmanageable length, and which shows the qualities of -his writing at their best. It is the account of the hurricane which threw -Peter on the coast of St. Pierre:-- - - “In half an hour I shoved off with the boats. It was now quite - dark, and I pulled towards the harbour of St. Pierre. The heat was - excessive and unaccountable; not the slightest breath of wind moved - in the heavens, or below; no clouds to be seen, and the stars were - obscured by a sort of mist: there appeared a total stagnation in - the elements. The men in the boats pulled off their jackets, for - after a few moments’ pulling, they could bear them no longer. As - we pulled in, the atmosphere became more opaque, and the darkness - more intense. We supposed ourselves to be at the mouth of the - harbour, but could see nothing, not three yards ahead of the boat. - Swinburne, who always went with me, was steering the boat, and I - observed to him the unusual appearance of the night. - - “‘I’ve been watching it, sir,’ replied Swinburne, ‘and I tell you, - Mr. Simple, that if we only knew how to find the brig, I would - advise you to get on board of her immediately. She’ll want all her - hands this night, or I’m much mistaken.’ - - “‘Why do you say so?’ replied I. - - “‘Because I think, nay, I may say that I’m sartain, we’ll have a - hurricane afore morning. It’s not the first time I’ve cruised in - these latitudes. I recollect in ’94----’ - - “But I interrupted him. ‘Swinburne, I believe that you are right. - At all events I’ll turn back; perhaps we may reach the brig before - it comes on. She carries a light, and we can find her out.’ I then - turned the boat round, and steered, as near as I could guess, for - where the brig was lying. But we had not pulled out more than two - minutes, before a low moaning was heard in the atmosphere--now - here, now there--and we appeared to be pulling through solid - darkness, if I may use the expression. Swinburne looked around him, - and pointed out on the starboard bow. - - “‘It’s a coming, Mr. Simple, sure enough; many’s the living being - that will not rise on its legs to-morrow. See, sir.’ - - “I looked, and dark as it was, it appeared as if a sort of black - wall was sweeping along the water right towards us. The moaning - gradually increased to a stunning roar, and then at once it broke - upon us with a noise to which no thunder can bear a comparison. - The sea was perfectly level, but boiling, and covered with a white - foam, so that we appeared in the night to be floating on milk. - The oars were caught by the wind with such force, that the men - were dashed forward under the thwarts, many of them severely hurt. - Fortunately, we pulled with tholes and pins; or the gunwales and - planks of the boat would have been wrenched off, and we should - have foundered. The wind soon caught the boat on her broadside, - and, had there been the least sea, would have inevitably thrown - her over; but Swinburne put the helm down, and she fell off before - the hurricane, darting through the boiling water at the rate of - ten miles an hour. All hands were aghast; they had recovered - their seats, but were obliged to relinquish them, and sit down at - the bottom, holding on by the thwarts. The terrific roaring of - the hurricane prevented any communication except by gesture. The - other boats had disappeared; lighter than ours, they had flown - away faster before the sweeping element; but we had not been a - minute before the wind, before the sea rose in a most unaccountable - manner--it appeared to be by magic. - - “Of all the horrors that ever I witnessed, nothing could be - compared to the scene of this night. We could see nothing, and - heard only the wind, before which we were darting like an arrow, - to where we knew not, unless it were to certain death. Swinburne - steered the boat, every now and then looking back as the waves - increased. In a few minutes we were in a heavy swell, that at one - minute bore us all aloft, and at the next almost sheltered us from - the hurricane; and now the atmosphere was charged with showers of - spray, the wind cutting off the summits of the waves, as if with a - knife, and carrying it along with it, as it were, in its arms. - - “The boat was filling with water, and appeared to settle down - fast. The men baled with their hats in silence, when a large wave - culminated over the stern, filling us up to our thwarts. The next - moment we all received a shock so violent, that we were jerked from - our seats. Swinburne was thrown over my head. Every timber of the - boat separated at once, and she appeared to crumble from under us, - leaving us floating on the raging waters. We all struck out for - our lives, but with little hope of preserving them; but the next - wave washed us on the rocks, against which the boat had already - been hurled. That wave gave life to some, and death to others. Me, - in Heaven’s mercy, it preserved: I was thrown so high up, that I - merely scraped against the top of the rock, breaking two of my - ribs. Swinburne, and eight more, escaped with me, but not unhurt; - two had their legs broken, three had broken arms, and the others - were more or less contused. Swinburne miraculously received no - injury. We had been eighteen in the boat, of which ten escaped: - the others were hurled up at our feet; and the next morning we - found them dreadfully mangled. One or two had their heads literally - shattered to pieces against the rocks. I felt that I was saved, - and was grateful; but still the hurricane howled--still the waves - were washing over us. I crawled further up upon the beach, and - found Swinburne sitting down with his eyes directed seaward. He - knew me, took my hand, squeezed it, and then held it in his. For - some moments we remained in this position, when the waves, which - every moment increased in volume, washed up to us, and obliged - us to crawl further up. I then looked around me: the hurricane - continued in its fury, but the atmosphere was not so dark. I could - trace for some distance the line of the harbour, from the ridge of - foam upon the shore: and for the first time I thought of O’Brien - and the brig. I put my mouth close to Swinburne’s ear, and cried - out, ‘O’Brien!’ Swinburne shook his head, and looked up again at - the offing. I thought whether there was any chance of the brig’s - escape. She was certainly six, if not seven miles off, and the - hurricane was not direct on the shore. She might have a drift - of ten miles, perhaps; but what was that against such tremendous - power?” - -Now this might have come straight from another Dampier. There is no -attempt to convince you of the force of the hurricane by laborious -descriptions of what it looked like. It is shown to be awful by the -effect it produces. The sentences go rapidly on. Their very simplicity -helps to convey the impression of the suddenness and overwhelming fury -of the storm. The effect would have been lost if the writer had stopped -to talk. The style seems to me to be the perfection of prose, for a tale -of adventure--the straightforward, almost colloquial report of one who -has gone through it all, carried to its very best--made into literature -without being obtrusively literary. - -As the style is, so are the stories. A natural tact seems to have told -Marryat when he had gone far enough in search of the strange. His -heroes lead lives that are possible. He might, if he had chosen, have -rivalled Michael Scott’s wondrous pirates. Once, indeed, in “Percival -Keene,” he actually did it, but, as a rule, his pirate is a conceivable -good-for-nothing rather cowardly blackguard, such as came in the natural -course of things to swing at Kingston or at Execution Dock. Even Cain -himself, “The Pirate,” is within the bounds of probability as compared -with the wondrous Spanish Americans, or astounding Scotch gentlemen of -superhuman wickedness, who flourish in “Tom Cringle’s Log,” and the -“Cruise of the _Midge_.” Neither do incidents of the wilder and more -horrific kind appear in Marryat’s books. There is nothing in him, for -instance, like that scene of the “_Midge_ in the Hornets’ nest,” which -may, by the way, be commended to the attention of critics who think that -blood and horror have been recently imported into romance by a generation -which is supposed to have been corrupted by the French taste of the -decadence. The adventures of Marryat’s heroes might possibly and even -probably have befallen an officer of his time. - -Of construction, except such as was imposed by an instinctive desire to -make the incidents follow one another in some sort of natural sequence, -there is little or no sign. When, as in “Peter Simple,” he tries to fit -one on to his story, it is no addition to the merits of the book. Who -cares a straw for Peter’s wicked uncle, for the changing of the children, -or for the unravelling of the very transparent mystery? It is too obvious -that Marryat took these things at random from the common fund of the -Minerva Press. What he took from nobody was his fun. - -After all, it is this fun which is the living element in Marryat’s -work. Wit, or humour of the highest class, he cannot be said to have -possessed, though he was by no means destitute of the sympathy which -is inseparable from all true humour. The sketch of the mate, Martin, -in “Midshipman Easy,” is a sufficient defence against the charge of -want of feeling, if, indeed, it had ever been made. Many who have had -a more visible anxiety to be pathetic than Marryat have failed to draw -so touching a figure as this slight outline of the melancholy officer, -in whom the disappointments of years have crushed all hope, without -hardening or souring him. “No, no,” said the mate, when his acting order -as lieutenant was brought him as he lay wounded in his hammock, “I knew -very well that I never should be made. If it is not confirmed, I may -live; but if it is, I am sure to die.” And die he does, because hope -deferred has dried up the spring of life within him. In the character of -Mr. Chucks kindness and fun are mingled. He is respectable in spite of -his absurdities, and lovable because of them. In the Dominie in “Jacob -Faithful” there is an effort to produce a second Mr. Chucks, but it is -not successful. He is too plainly a reminiscence of another Dominie--a -fairly well-done copy, but only a copy. For the most part the fun of -Marryat belongs to the grotesque order. This, unquestionably, is not -the highest. But what is not the highest may yet be genuine, and _that_ -Marryat’s fun, as the world has now recognized for half a century, -undoubtedly is. His gallery of “figures of fun” is a long one. Peter -Simple in the days before Terence O’Brien made a man of him; Jack Easy -before he had been converted from a belief in the equality of all men; -in a rougher way his father; Mr. Muddle; and, above all, Mr. Chucks, -have an intrinsic comic _vis_. The fun which they make, or which goes -on about them, is never mere horse-play. They are not mannikins of the -stamp of Smollett’s Pallet, created only to be knocked about, and to -make grimaces, but possible, and even probable, human beings--a little -distorted, a little exaggerated, put frequently into such positions as -are more fit for farce than comedy, but not on that account ceasing to be -real. - - “Mr. Smallsole’s violence made Mr. Biggs violent, which made the - boatswain’s mate violent--and the captain of the forecastle violent - also; all which is practically exemplified by philosophy in the - laws of motion, communicated from one body to another; and as Mr. - Smallsole swore, so did the boatswain swear. Also the boatswain’s - mate, the captain of the forecastle, and all the men--showing the - force of example. - - “Mr. Smallsole came forward. - - “‘Damnation, Mr. Biggs, what the devil are you about? Can’t you - move here?’ - - “‘As much as we can, sir,’ replied the boatswain, ‘lumbered as the - forecastle is with idlers.’ And here Mr. Biggs looked at our hero - and Mesty, who were standing against the bulwark. - - “‘What are you doing here, sir?’ cried Mr. Smallsole to our hero. - - “‘Nothing at all, sir,’ replied Jack. - - “‘Then I’ll give you something to do, sir. Go up to the mast-head, - and wait there till I call you down. Come, sir, I’ll show you the - way,’ continued the master, walking aft. Jack followed till they - were on the quarter-deck. - - “‘Now, sir, up to the maintop gallant mast-head; perch yourself - upon the cross-trees--up with you.’ - - “‘What am I to go up there for, sir?’ inquired Jack. - - “‘For punishment, sir,’ replied the master. - - “‘What have I done, sir?’ - - “‘No reply, sir--up with you.’ - - “‘If you please, sir,’ replied Jack, ‘I should wish to argue this - point a little.’ - - “‘Argue the point!’ roared Mr. Smallsole--‘by Jove, I’ll teach you - to argue the point--away with you, sir.’ - - “‘If you please, sir,’ continued Jack, ‘the captain told me that - the articles of war were the rules and regulations by which every - one in the service was to be guided. Now, sir,’ said Jack, ‘I have - read them over till I know them by heart, and there is not one word - of mast-heading in the whole of them.’ Here Jack took the articles - out of his pocket and unfolded them. - - “‘Will you go to the mast-head, sir, or will you not?’ said Mr. - Smallsole. - - “‘Will you show me the mast-head in the articles of war, sir?’ - replied Jack; ‘here they are.’ - - “‘I tell you, sir, to go to the mast-head: if not, I’ll be d----d - if I don’t hoist you up in a bread-bag.’ - - “‘There’s nothing about bread-bags in the articles of war, sir,’ - replied Jack; ‘but I’ll tell you what there is, sir;’ and Jack - commenced reading,-- - - “‘All flag-officers, and all persons in or belonging to his - majesty’s ships or vessels of war, being guilty of profane oaths, - execrations, drunkenness, uncleanness, or other scandalous actions, - in derogation of God’s honour, and corruption of good manners, - shall incur such punishment as----’ - - “‘Damnation!’ cried the master, who was mad with rage, hearing that - the whole ship’s company were laughing. - - “‘No, sir, not damnation,’ replied Jack; that’s when he’s tried - above; but according to the nature and degree of the offence.’ - - “‘Will you go to the mast-head, sir, or will you not?’ - - “‘If you please,’ replied Jack, ‘I’d rather not.’ - - “‘Then, sir, consider yourself under an arrest. I’ll try you by a - court-martial, by God. Go down below, sir.’ - - “‘With the greatest pleasure, sir,’ replied Jack; ‘that’s all right - and according to the articles of war, which are to guide us all.’ - Jack folded up his articles of war, put them into his pocket, and - went down into the berth.” - -Here is farce, but farce which almost borders on comedy. Given Jack -Easy with his natural pluck and his absurd training, suddenly put into -a man-of-war, and set to reconcile the practice of the service with -the ideal picture of it presented by the articles of war, and this is -precisely what might be expected to happen. The absurdity always arises -from the clash of the characters; and though it be farce, it is farce of -the highest order. Rarely does the grotesque lean to the horrible. The -death of Mr. Vanslyperken is a case in which it does; but Marryat was, -for the most part, content to amuse, and to amuse only. - -How well he succeeded we all know. Which of us has not laughed with him -ever since we were boys? Mr. Chucks stands between Commodore Trunnion -and Mr. Micawber. The scene I have quoted above, and a dozen others, -live by the side of Pipe’s journey to the garrison with the nymph of the -road. The adventures in battle and wreck are very good, but they are not -the best. Romance of the brilliant order Marryat did not often try, and -when he did, he was at best but moderately successful. He was more of -the race of Defoe than of Dumas. But from Defoe, over whom no man ever -laughed, he was divided by his love of laughter, and power of drawing -it forth. His fun may be often mere animal spirits, but at least it -was spontaneous, and was by natural instinct literary. He did not toil -and labour to be funny. Even in his most hasty work he would hit off -a scene with neat pen-strokes, marking just enough and no more. Take, -for instance, the revenue officers in “The Three Cutters.” Lieutenant -Appleboy and his companions are introduced simply because he had seen -them, and as much for his own amusement as his readers. Marryat had seen -the types when he was doing preventive work himself in the _Rosario_, and -drew them out of his memory when he needed them. Some of his figures were -doubtless portraits--all of them had possibly some touch of portraiture. -But on his paper they have an interest altogether independent of their -originals. There are, as Mr. Saintsbury, speaking of the personalities of -Daudet, has said, two ways of drawing portraits in literature. The first -is to adapt your sitter into somebody else whom we love for his own sake. -The second is to give us an image for which we should care but little if -it was not meant for A or B. Of these two methods Marryat took the first. -If there was an original to Terence O’Brien we should like to have known -him; but, whether or not, we like Terence for his own sake. Was there a -boatswain in His Majesty’s Service who stood for Mr. Chucks? Possibly; -but what then? In Marryat’s stories are types as well as individuals. -They and their doings have an independent universal truth. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - - -When Marryat was about to start for the United States he gave a reason -of some gravity for his proposed trip. The last words of the “Diary on -the Continent” propound a serious question: “Do the faults of this people -(to wit, the Swiss) arise from the peculiarity of their constitutions, -or from the nature of their government? To ascertain this, one must -compare them with those who live under similar institutions. I must go -to America--that’s decided.” A biographer of any virtue will desire to -be inspired with the Boswellian spirit--to write as loyally as Macaulay -did of Addison--but I cannot quite believe that Marryat’s visit to -America was caused by a sudden passion for the study of comparative -politics, and the influence of institutions on national character. A more -plausible explanation could be found. It was excellently given by the -elder Mr. Weller in the course of some remarks made for the benefit of -Mr. Pickwick. To write a book about America was a favourite enterprise -with literary persons in those years. Miss Martineau and Mrs. Trollope -had just done it, and there was no reason why Marryat should not do it -also. A taste for seeing the world may have helped to turn his activity -in that direction, and, besides he was, as will be seen, on the lookout -for promising speculations, and may have had some thoughts on copyright. -Possibly none of these motives were very clear to himself, and he may -really have thought he was going to study American institutions. - -Moved by sufficient motives, whether the alleged or the unconsciously -felt, he did go to America by the packet _Quebec_ in 1837, did stay there -for two years, and write a book about the States in six volumes, and two -series. Of this book it may be said, in a favourite phrase of the writer -whom Marryat described as “Mr. Carlisle, the author of ‘Sartor Resartus’” -(a slip which was dreadfully avenged), that “it is forgetable.” Marryat’s -diary and remarks show that he would have made an excellent newspaper -correspondent. He had a faculty for getting up information, a quick eye, -and a ready pen. With these qualities a man can easily make “copy” out -of a visit to a new country. Indeed, Marryat was no novice at the work, -for which his “Diary on the Continent” had prepared him. When his six -volumes on America are judged as what they were, they are on the whole -creditable. He made the Americans very angry, but that it was never -difficult to do. He had provocation to write more bitterly than he did. -But whatever may be the merits of, or the excuses for, the thing, it -is hardly worth while to return to “newspaper correspondence” at the -end of half a century. Unless the correspondent has seen history in the -making, and has noted it well so as to become an original authority, he -can hardly hope to be read two generations or so later on. The worst of -it, too, is that Marryat saw something which was well worth recording, -and did not record it properly. A large part of his book is taken up with -contradicting Miss Martineau; and who can rejoice in the refutation of an -almost forgotten book by a still more forgotten book? - -The incidents of the visit form an interesting passage in Marryat’s life. -He reached New York in the midst of the great financial smash of 1837, -and saw the “Empire City” in all the excitement of panic. He stayed in -America till after the suppression of the Canadian rising, and himself -took part in the fighting. Of course he had a newspaper controversy--and -it was of a kind sufficiently honourable to himself. When he first landed -Marryat seems to have been well received, though with a certain reserve. -By reserve is not to be understood anything so absurd as that he was left -alone. On the contrary, he was abundantly overwhelmed with inquiry and -comment. But the Americans were then in the midst of one of the sorest of -their sore fits with foreign comment, and were (not quite unjustifiably) -on their guard against travellers who came to spy out the land, and make -a book about it. They were not averse to comment, but they were anxious -that it should not only be favourable, but of exactly that kind of -favourableness of which they approved. Therefore they were intent to know -whether Marryat meant to write about them, and, if so, what he meant to -say. He extricated himself from the difficulty dexterously enough, and, -on the whole, succeeded in keeping on friendly terms with his hosts. As -a matter of course, American copyright institutions, and their effect -on the national character of the publisher, had their share of his -attentions. In this respect, also, his experiences were pleasing enough -in America. He was working in the intervals of observation. For American -consumption he wrote a play, “The Ocean Waif; or, The Channel Outlaw,” -which appeared at a New York theatre; and he was moreover engaged on “The -Phantom Ship.” In 1838 he made an arrangement with Messrs. Carey and Hart -to sell them “proof sheets of his ‘Diary in America’ and ‘Phantom Ship,’ -a month prior to their publication in London, for the sum of two thousand -two hundred and fifty dollars; and provided no one else published the -works in America within thirty days from the date they issued from their -press, a further sum of two hundred and fifty dollars.” Whether pirate -enterprise deprived him of the extra sum needed to make up the round two -thousand five hundred, does not appear, but at least Marryat, with his -usual turn for business, contrived to get something out of America for -the amusement he had given it. - -A letter to his mother, pleasant and manly as all his letters to her -were, gives a sufficient picture of the first part of his stay in America. - - “_October, 1837._ - - “MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I have been so occupied and I have been - moving about so fast that I really have had time to write to - hardly anybody, and I put off a letter to you till I had a more - quiet moment; but as it appears that moment was never to come, I - now write to you on board of a steamer on Lake Erie. You have, of - course, heard from the Tuckers [these were his cousins on his - mother’s side] that I went up to Boston for a few days to see some - of them; indeed all except Mrs. C---- and Mr. Tucker himself, who - was mending his bridge, and could not leave his work; they were all - very kind, but I like poor Mrs. G---- better than any of them. - - “I have since been a tour of the lakes, and have travelled some - thousand miles. I went up the Hudson, crossed to Saratoga, Trenton - Falls, Falls of the Mohawk, Oswego River to Lake Ontario; then to - Niagara, Buffalo, and to Lake Erie--to Detroit; from Detroit to - Lake St. Clair, and Lake Huron to Mackinan, from Mackinan took a - bark canoe, and crossed the Huron, went up the River St. Clair to - the Sault Sᵗᵉ Marie, and from thence to Lake Superior. The latter - part of the journey, five days in a bark canoe, was very fatiguing, - and I was devoured by the mosquitoes; but it has been very - interesting, and I have been much gratified. I am now on my return - and am bound for Canada, passing by Buffalo and Niagara to Toronto. - Since I have been here I have been looking out for a good piece of - land, for it more than doubles its value in five or six years, and - I have been fortunate in purchasing some very fine land from the - Government opposite to Detroit on the Canada side--about 600 acres. - I have written to B---- B----, offering to settle him on it, as it - is not out of the world, but in very good society. I think it will - be worth his while, as in a few years he will be independent. He - will however require £300 or so to fit himself out, but that he - only need borrow as he will soon be able to pay off. I trust that - if he accepts my offer his brother will assist him, and if so, he - will do well. - - “I am going to Toronto to pay the first instalment, and from there - to Montreal, and then I return by Lake Champlain so as to call - upon Mrs. C---- at Burlington; and from thence proceed to Bellows - Falls to see my Uncle Tucker, who is rather angry with me for not - going there before, which I could not. From Bellows Falls I shall - return to New York--I do not think by the way of Boston, for they - want to give me a public dinner there, and I want to avoid it. - At Philadelphia I must be in September for the same purpose, as - I accepted the invitation; but I wish they had not paid me the - compliment. From Philadelphia I go to Washington to canvass for the - international copyright, and then I shall probably go south for the - winter. - - “The more I see of America the more I feel the necessity of either - saying nothing about it, or seeing the whole of it properly. Indeed - I am in that situation that I cannot well do otherwise now. It is - expected by the Americans, and will also be by the English; and if - I do not, they will think I shrink from the task because it is too - difficult, which it really is. All I have yet read about America, - written by English travellers, is absurd, especially Miss M----’s - work: that old woman was blind as well as deaf. I only mean to - publish in the form of a diary (but that is the best way); but I - will not publish till I have seen all, and can be sure I have not - been led into error like others. It is a wonderful country, and - not understood by the English now, and only the major part of the - Americans.(?) They are very much afraid of me here, although they - are very civil; but I do not wonder at it--they have been treated - with great ingratitude. I at least shall do them justice, without - praising them more than they deserve. No traveller has yet examined - them with the eye of a philosopher, but with all the prejudices of - little minds. - - “Except a letter from you, I have not received a line from England, - which is rather strange. From Kate I have had many letters. I have - so many correspondents now--not only at home, but I have a large - American correspondence which is too valuable to break off--that - I really find I cannot write letter for letter. I have so much to - read, so much to write, and so much to think about, that I must be - excused. My time is not idly employed, I assure you, although I do - not grow thin upon it; but, on the contrary, I think I am fuller - than when I left England. I have been so far away these last six - weeks that I have heard little English news, except the death of - the King and the accession of Princess Victoria. I met Captain - V----’s brother the other day who told me that the _Etna_ was going - home to England in consequence of Captain V----’s health. If so, - I may hear something about Frederick, which I have not for a long - while. I hope my dear Ellen [a sister] is quite well and happy. My - kindest love to her. I will write to her as soon as I can; but it - appears to me that I have more to do every day, and I really shall - be glad to arrive at Bellows Falls and stay there for a week, if it - is only _to take breath_. My journal is already swelled out nearly - a volume, and the notes I have taken to work up afterwards will - almost double it, and yet I have seen but a small portion of the - country. I have picked up two or three good specimens for Joe’s - mineral collection on Lake Superior, and some day or another he - may get hold of them. Write and tell me all the news. I have not - had a line from Mr. Howard or anybody else, which is very strange. - The steamboat jogs so that I can hardly write, and I suspect you - will hardly be able to read; but if so, it will take you time to - decipher, and therefore will last the longer. - - “God bless you, dear mother. A hundred kisses to Ellen, and kind - regards to all who care for me. - - “Yours ever truly and affectionately, - - “F. MARRYAT.” - -From this letter it may be gathered that in October, 1837, Marryat was, -in good humour with America, and was seriously thinking of a study of -it which should be a possession for ever. America was, on the whole, -well pleased with him. He had been civilly received, with a certain -reserve as might have been expected, seeing that he was a writing man, -who had come with the hardly disguised intention of writing, and after -many who had written by no means acceptably; but still, in spite of this -natural wariness, with kindness. He was a good talker and showed it. He -had kinsmen in the States who helped him on. Altogether things had gone -smoothly with him. The Americans had even been glad to acknowledge his -connection with Boston, and some of them had given him a helping hand in -that great copyright fight in which the sympathy of the more right-minded -has never been denied to the English author, but has also never been of -any effect Unfortunately this very trip to Canada led to a storm which -put Marryat for a time into the position of best-abused man on the -continent. - -At Toronto he was naturally asked to a public dinner, and also naturally -requested to speak. In the course of his speech he, again very naturally, -took occasion to mention, in a laudatory manner, the cutting out of the -_Caroline_, by Lieutenant Drew. This feat had then made some noise in -the world. Canada was in a disturbed condition, and the confusion had -been fomented by filibustering from the United States territory. The -_Caroline_ had been fitted out to help the rebels, and had been “cut out” -in gallant style from under the guns of Fort Schlosser on the American -side of the river, after sharp fighting by a Lieutenant Drew and a body -of Canadian volunteers. After capturing the vessel and removing her -crew, the Canadians had sent her down over the falls of Niagara. The -incident was one of which the loyalists were with good reason proud. As -an Englishman, as a naval officer, and as a speaker at a public dinner, -Marryat was triply justified in praising “Captain Drew (as he styled -him), and his brave comrades who cut out the _Caroline_.” Nothing ought -to have been a more complete matter of course than that he should propose -their health. But Americans were then in a particularly thin-skinned -state, even for them. They chose to be very angry with him for doing -what any American officer would have done under similar circumstances, -at least as loudly. What may be called the spirit of Hannibal Chollop -awoke within them, and a chorus of denunciation was begun at once, -in the most loud-mouthed and abusive style of American journalism. -Paragraphs headed “More Insolence,” and so forth, appeared in abundance. -Marryat’s books and his effigy were publicly burnt. When he returned -from Canada to the States, deputations waited on him, much in the frame -of mind of the enlightened citizens who were so indignant when Martin -Chuzzlewit offended a free people by coming back from Eden. As a matter -of course, any stick was good enough to serve the turn of American -journalism. He was accused, among other things, of having “insulted and -contradicted, and refused to drink wine” with Henry Clay. The story was, -it is needless to say, only a piece of Yankee smartness, but Marryat -drought it necessary to appeal to that distinguished politician for a -certificate of character, and obtained from him an assurance that their -meeting had afforded mutual satisfaction. In short, the whole business -was one of those displays of noisy gregarious folly of which our American -cousins are occasionally guilty. It was rather more absurd than a recent -incident of the same sort, because Marryat was merely a traveller, and -was speaking on British territory when he gave the toast which Yankee -journalism chose to think offensive. But the old colonial hatred of -England (not yet perhaps so entirely dead as after-dinner orators are -accustomed to assert) was then full of vigorous life. Americans were -wavering between reluctance to plunge into war, and desire to do the old -country a damage by helping the rebellious French Canadians. In this -divided state of mind they relieved their feelings by howling at Marryat, -because he had not “cracked them up accordingly.” - -Marryat extricated himself from this pass with commendable nerve and -dexterity. He faced and soft-sawdered the deputations. He took the -burning of his books very coolly, went about as before, and finally had -it out with his hosts at a dinner given him at Cincinnati. The speech, -which is far too long to quote, is full of the manly good sense which -the American, when not acting in the characters of raving journalist or -anxious candidate, will commonly listen to. Marryat reminded his hearers -that he had spoken in British territory to his countrymen, and that their -own patriotic orators were not averse to waving the banner habitually, -or restrained from doing so by the knowledge that an Englishman was -present. His hosts being simply American gentlemen, sitting in their -right senses, agreed with him. A somewhat dramatic finish was given to -this stage of the incident by Captain J. Pierce, who had been captain -of the American privateer _Ida_ when she was taken by the _Newcastle_, -of which Marryat was then second lieutenant. Captain Pierce got on his -legs to thank Marryat for the courtesy and good nature he had shown to -himself and other prisoners. “The Wizard of the Sea,” as the American -newspapers loved to call him when they were not in a flaming rage, might -consider that, as far as his hosts at Cincinnati could answer for it, -he was cleared of the charge of insulting the great American people. -Their opinion, like that of the “respectable American,” in so many other -matters, did not avail to stop all annoyance. Marryat continued to be -pestered by abuse, frequently conveyed in unpaid letters. At last, and -somewhat weakly, in October of 1838, he published a general protest in -the form of a letter to the editors of the _Louisville Journal_, wherein -he denied with much detail that he intended to spy out the barrenness of -the land. He was, of course, answered as offensively as might be. - -Marryat had perhaps begun by this time to discover that it was not so -easy to write of America in a philosophic spirit as he had once thought. -To be sure he had laid himself open to annoyance by going to the States -at all, and still more by going there with the intention of writing a -book. - -The Canadian troubles were destined to break into his tour again. In the -autumn of 1838 the French population rose in open rebellion, and, as is -commonly the fate of insurgents, gained some preliminary successes, which -made their final punishment all the more severe. Marryat remembering -that he was an English naval officer still on the active list, gave up -philosophic inquiry, hurried back to Canada, and volunteered for service -under Sir John Colborne. This officer, a veteran of the Great War, and -one who had had a distinguished share in winning the battle of Waterloo, -made short work of the rising. Marryat saw some fighting once more in his -life, and described it briefly in another of his capital letters to his -mother. - - “MONTREAL, _Dec. 18, 1838_. - - “MY DEAREST MOTHER,--Except one letter from B---- B----, it is now - nearly four months since I have heard either from England or the - Continent; the latter I can in some way account for, at least in my - own opinion--still I wish to hear how my little girls are. - - “I was going South when I heard of the defeat of St. Denis, and - the dangerous position of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada; - and I considered it my duty as an officer to come up and offer my - services as a volunteer. I have been with Sir John Colborne, the - Commander-in-Chief, ever since, and have just now returned from - an expedition of five days against St. Eustache and Grand Brulé, - which has ended in the total discomfiture of the rebels, and, I - may add, the putting down of the insurrection in both provinces. - I little thought when I wrote last that I should have had the - bullets whizzing about my ears again so soon. It has been a sad - scene of sacrilege, murder, burning, and destroying. All the fights - have been in the churches, and they are now burnt to the ground, - and strewed with the wasted bodies of the insurgents. War is bad - enough, but civil war is dreadful. Thank God, it is all over. - - “The winter has just set in; we have been fighting in the deep - snow, and crossing rivers with ice thick enough to bear the - artillery; we have been always in extremes--at one time our ears - and noses frost-bitten by the extreme cold, at others roasting - amidst the flames of hundreds of houses. I came out of Grand Brulé - after it was all over. I had the greatest difficulty in getting - through the fire. I had a sleigh with two grey horses driven - _tandem_ (as it was too cold to ride the horse the general had - offered me), and before I escaped, one side of each of the horses - was burnt _brown_ and _yellow_ before we could force them through; - however, the poor animals were more frightened than hurt. - - “As I can be of no further use now, I shall return to America in - a few days. I really wish I could receive a letter from England. I - feel very much about having no intelligence. It will be too late to - go South now, and I think I shall winter quietly at New York, and - proceed to Washington early in the year. - - “I really have nothing more to say. It is hard to fill a sheet when - correspondence is all on one side. So give my love to Ellen, and - God bless you both. - - “Ever your affectionate son, - - “F. MARRYAT.” - -A postscript gives directions to B---- B----, who appears to have decided -to come out and settle on the desirable piece of land which Marryat had -purchased in Canada. - -The American tour was near its end. Marryat never made that examination -of the South which he had very justly thought necessary, if he was to -obtain a thorough knowledge of the States. When he returned to New York -in January, 1839, the country was in no condition to attract English -travellers. The already existing hostility to England had been excited -to a storm, and there was copious talk of the tallest kind about war -going on from end to end of the Union. Everybody was waiting for the -President’s message and professing to expect the outbreak of hostilities. -Marryat waited to see what would come of it all. The prospect of serious -war had for a moment swept all thought of books out of his mind. He -waited for a summons to join Sir F. Head if his services were further -needed in Canada; but while there was a prospect that he might again -have “a man-of-war on the ocean,” he was in no hurry to run the risk -of being shut up in Canada, where the best he could hope for would be a -lake command. In a letter from New York to his mother he expresses very -explicitly his wishes to serve again, and his hopes of further employment -on blue water, and even ends up with one of those growls at the business -of book-writing not uncommon among writing men when they happen to be -languid, or to have heard bad news. “Mr. Howard” (his former sub-editor -no doubt, and the author of “Rattlin the Reefer”) “writes me in very bad -spirits. He says that I am injured by remaining away from England, and my -popularity is on the wane. I laugh at that; it is very possible people -will be ill-natured while I am not able to defend myself; but what I have -done they cannot take from me, and if I wrote no more, I have written -quite enough. If I were not rather in want of money I certainly would not -write any more, for I am rather tired of it. I should like to disengage -myself from the fraternity of authors, and be known in future only in my -profession as a good officer and seaman.” - -There is about this a ring of manly good sense. Marryat could well afford -to laugh at Mr. Howard’s croaking, knowing as he did, with his robust -self-confidence, that his popularity was in no danger; that he had it -in him to make another popularity if the old was indeed waning. It may -well be that his wish to be back in active service was wise. His life -might have been longer, and happier, if he had again walked his own -quarter-deck. The wish was certainly no vague one, floating idly in his -mind. He made plans in Canada, drew maps, and sent home information to -the Admiralty in the manifest hope that his exertions would serve him at -headquarters. If war had broken out with the United States it is certain -that Marryat, recommended as he was not only by his past services, -but by his knowledge of the American coast, would have stood well for -employment. But the storm blew over; the British Empire settled down into -peace again, and Marryat remained on shore, driving away with his pen -under the pressure of that tyranny which he describes as the state of -being “rather in want of money.” He left the States early in 1839, and by -June of that year was settled in quarters of his own in 8, Duke Street, -St. James’s. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - - -The state of being “rather in want of money” was to be chronic with -Marryat, if we are to judge by the amount of writing he did during the -remaining nine years of his life. Before very long, indeed, he began to -have very serious reason indeed for complaining of straitened means. His -father’s fortune, which must have been considerable, had been invested in -the West Indies in those golden days at the end of the Great War, when -the languor of Spain, and the ruin of San Domingo by the negro revolt, -had given the English sugar islands a monopoly of the market for colonial -produce. In the forties, however, these happy times had disappeared for -ever. Competition and free trade brought down prices, the abolition of -slavery stopped production, and the value of West Indian property went -down with a run. The Marryat family suffered with the rest of the world. -The novelist had resources which were wanting to his brothers; but then -this advantage was compensated, as has been said before, by extravagant -and speculative habits. In 1839 the pinch was not as yet felt so severely -as it was later on. Marryat, immediately upon his return, went over to -Paris for his family, which had moved thither from Lausanne during his -stay in the States; and, bringing them to England, settled at 8, Duke -Street, St. James’s. For some four years he led, as he had hitherto done, -a somewhat wandering life. After a brief year in Duke Street, he moved -to Wimbledon House; which had belonged to his father, and was still -occupied by his mother. A short stay there was succeeded by a brief -residence in chambers at 120, Piccadilly, and then by another year or so -of occupation of a house in Spanish Place, Manchester Square. In 1843 be -broke away from London for good, and established himself at his own house -at Langham, in Norfolk. - -All this restlessness speaks for itself. Men who possess the faculty of -managing their affairs with judgment, or who wish to apply themselves -to steady work, do not run in this way from pillar to post. Once again -I have to remark that much in Marryat’s life is left to be guessed at. -It is as well that it should be so. The indications we possess tell the -world all that it is entitled to learn. There is--though the contrary -proposition is frequently maintained in these days--no inherent right in -the public to be made acquainted with the private affairs of a gentleman -simply because he has done it the inestimable service of supplying it -with readable books. That Marryat, who has just been found expressing -a wish to retire from the “fraternity of authors,” was writing himself -blind in these years, is a fact which tells its own tale. Add to this a -few indications which Mrs. Ross Church has thought it right to supply--a -brief reference to some family misfortune of which the details are -not given; a complaint in one of Marryat’s letters that somebody, -apparently a relation, had suspected him of a wish to borrow money; -and an increasing tone of grief and trouble in all his letters--and -we have enough to form a general estimate of his position with. More -we probably could not learn, and would have no right to hunt up if we -could. That Marryat had a difficulty in making both ends meet; that his -expedients did not always succeed; that some of them were, too probably, -undignified; that the need for them was, at least partly, due to his own -mismanagement, are acknowledged facts. We may, and must, be satisfied -with them. - -It is also easily to be believed that Marryat would enjoy the -hard living, and even hard drinking--artistic, literary, and -semi-literary--life of his time. Clarkson Stanfield was an intimate -friend. Rogers, who was acquainted with everybody, was an acquaintance. -With Dickens and Forster his friendship was of long standing, and -seems to have remained unbroken. One of the few, and too generally -insignificant, letters to her father printed by Mrs. Ross Church, is -an invitation to dinner from Dickens, ending with a pleasing promise -to give him some hock which would do him good. He was a guest at those -merry children’s parties which Mr. Forster has described. In his quarters -in his various London lodgings we are given to understand that there -was much and gay hospitality. Friends were profusely entertained in -rooms adorned with furs, trophies, Burmese idols, and weapons--all -the miscellaneous curios collected by a sailor and traveller during -many wandering hours. In Burmah, Marryat had even made a collection of -jewels cut from out of the bodies of slain enemies. The Burman who has -a gem makes an incision in his leg and hides it there, as our sailors -discovered more or less to their profit. Unfortunately the curios and the -talk are all scattered and irrecoverable. “It has all vanished like ‘air, -thin air’”--as Marryat wrote himself of certain common reminiscences -to “a lady for whom, to the time of his death, he retained the highest -sentiments of friendship and esteem.” Marryat’s friendships were not all -of this enduring kind. “Like most warm-hearted people,” as his daughter -puts it, “he was quick to take offence, and no one could have decided, -after an absence of six months, with whom he was friends and with whom he -was not.” Eager restlessness is the quality which seems to have been most -noticed in him by all his friends. It kept him on the move, not only from -house to house, but on excursions to Langham or other parts of England. - -The toil which circumstances forced upon Marryat must have greatly aided -his natural restlessness in wearing out his life. Steady work and hard -work are not necessarily synonymous, and Marryat worked very hard by fits -and starts. While in America, and amid all the racket of his tour, he -had written “The Phantom Ship” which appeared in 1839. The six volumes -of his “Diary in America” followed in the same year. That was not off -his hands before he was at work on “Poor Jack,” “Masterman Ready,” “The -Poacher,” and “Percival Keene,” followed before the end of 1842. Here was -an amount of work (six books within five years) which might not be found -excessive by the orderly business-like novelist of to-day, but which must -have put a severe strain on a man who wrote at irregular times, but when -actually at it, wrote furiously. It was a distinct aggravation of the -burden that his handwriting was very minute. A man who, having to write a -great deal, writes very small, must either be very sure of his eyesight -and his nerves, or prepared through ignorance or recklessness to ruin -them both. It is, therefore, not to be wondered at that Marryat’s letters -between 1839 and 1840 contain references to the state of his health of a -constantly more melancholy nature. “I shall,” he wrote to the same lady -friend in the first of these years, “be at leisure, I really believe, -about the first week in December; but the second portion of ‘America’ has -been a very tough job. I am now correcting press (_sic_) of the third -volume, and half of it is done. I hope to be quite finished by the end -of the month, and also to have the other work ready for publication on -the 1st of January; but what with printers, engravers, stationers, and -publishers, I have been much overworked. I have written and read till my -eyes have been no bigger than a mole’s, and my sight about as perfect. -I have remained sedentary till I have had _un accés de bile_, and have -been under the hands of the doctor, and for some days obliged to keep my -bed; all owing to want of air and exercise. Now I am quite well again.” -Some two years later the news is much worse, and there is no mention of -complete recovery. “That you may not think me unkind,” he writes again -to the same correspondent, “in refusing your invitation, I must tell you -that I am much worse than I have made myself out in my former letters. I -fell down as if I had been shot a few days ago, and have been ever since -obliged to be very quiet, and am not permitted to drink anything but -water, or undergo the least excitement, and you would offer me every -description in the shape of beauty, mirth, revelry, and feasting, putting -yourself out of the question! No; for my sins--sins in the shape of three -volumes chiefly--and heavy sins, too, I must now submit to mortification -and penance. I am positively forbidden to write a line, but you may -tell William and Dunny that the little book is finished, and will be -out at Easter, when they will be able to read it.” Obviously work, and -forms of relaxation as wearing as any work, had begun already to ruin a -constitution not really robust. Marryat’s tendency to break blood vessels -had already crippled him when a lieutenant in the navy, and should have -warned him that though he might be muscularly powerful, he had no great -reserve of constitutional strength to draw on. - -The visit to America makes a break in the character as well as in the -continuity of Marryat’s work. He had said all he had to say about the sea -life of his own time, and had to turn elsewhere. The “Diary in America” -is perhaps a sign that he thought for a moment of rivalling Captain Basil -Hall. If he was indeed tempted to do so, the temptation ceased to be -difficult to resist after his return to Europe. The toil of travel, and -then of writing out his impressions of travel, had been greater than he -had expected, and had produced no equivalent result--either in money or -reputation. Mrs. Ross Church states that he received for the “Diary,” -“on first publishing the manuscript,” £1,600. But, according to the same -authority, he had received nearly as much for several of his other books -in a lump sum, and they continued to bring him in a yearly harvest, -whereas the “Diary” sank at once into the position of a mere book about -America. In truth, this kind of writing had been overdone. There was no -longer a market for books of the Trollope or even the Martineau order. -Everything had been said about the United States which the public wanted -to hear for the time. The publishers of the “Diary” must have discovered -that, in taking the “Diary,” they had made the mistake not uncommonly -committed by the trade, and by theatrical managers, the mistake of -overestimating the length of time during which the public will continue -to care for the same thing. They, doubtless, told Marryat that the taste -for stories was more enduring than the liking for descriptions, abusive, -laudatory, or philosophical, of our American cousins. With or without -advice of this kind, he returned to stories, and remained steadily -faithful to them. - -“The Phantom Ship,” written during the American tour, differs materially -from all the tales which had preceded it, except “Snarley Yow.” It is a -romance with a strong element of _diablerie_. Possibly because it was -not written in a hurry for the press, it shows more signs of care in -construction than most of the earlier books. Also, it is an historical -romance, and proves that Marryat had worked at the history of the -sea-life--not, doubtless, very hard, but still to some purpose. The -result makes one regret that he did not find, or seek for, the leisure to -dig further, and to avail himself of his discoveries. No great amount of -research can have been required to collect the materials for “The Phantom -Ship.” Admiral Burney’s “Discoveries in the South Seas” would alone have -given Marryat all he wanted for this picture of the old Dutch seamanship. -Still he brought with him so much knowledge acquired by actual experience -that a little was enough. Had he so pleased he might, with the help of -Hakluyt, of Monson, and of Sir Richard Hawkins’ “Voyage,” have given us a -picture of the Elizabethan seamen. He might have drawn the “chivalry of -the sea,” as Washington Irving asked him to do. A “Westward Ho” he would -not have written. We should not have had from him (nor have expected) -anything equivalent to the dream of Amyas Leigh, or the exquisite speech -at the grave of Salvation Yeo. But what he could have done was what -Kingsley could not do, and, with the tact of an artist, did not try to -do too much. He might have realized the actual sea life of the time--the -ships, the seamen, and the seamanship of the past. It was a work in -which only a sailor could have succeeded. The pictorial imagination of -Kingsley and the conscientious workmanship of Charles Reade alike fail -to give reality to their sea scenes. The first was a great artist, and -the second an exceedingly clever man with no contemptible share of the -imagination of the historian and biographer--the power of seeing the -value of materials, of deducing from the report of a thing done the -manner of the doing and the nature of the doer. They both worked hard to -realize the sea, and yet, if we compare the cruises of the _Rose_ and -the _Vengeance_, or the fight with the pirates in “Hard Cash,” with the -“club-hauling” of the _Diomede_, there is a perceptible difference. I am -not unaware that one may be unconsciously influenced by the knowledge -that Marryat was a seaman, to expect, and see more truth in his pictures -than in theirs. Remembering that, however, I still think that his sea -scenes differ from Kingsley’s, or Reade’s, as the thing seen differs from -the thing “got up”--with imagination, with insight, with conscientious -industry, no doubt,--but still “got up.” - -In this, and in other ways, Marryat did not do all he might have -done. “The Phantom Ship,” with “Snarley Yow” which preceded, and the -“Privateersman” which followed it, must be taken for what they are worth -in place of the possible better. Even so, however, the value of the first -of them is considerable. Marryat made a good use of what Leigh Hunt -has somewhat hastily decided is the only sea legend. There is no great -originality in the incidents. Vanderdecken was made to his hand, and he -had German enough--or failing that had translations enough--to supply him -with the _diablerie_. But the materials are well used. The story swings -along. Philip Vanderdecken, the Pilot Schriften, the greedy Portuguese -governor, and the priests have a distinct vitality. Amine is by far -his nearest approach to an acceptable heroine; for indeed it must be -confessed that this sailor had an altogether maritime ignorance of women, -except bumboat women and the ladies of the Hard. The scenes in which his -heroines are on the stage are skip. Amine’s appearances, however, are not -skip. She is a very acceptable heroine of melodrama, good of her kind, -with a decided character of her own. The Inquisition scenes in which she -is the central figure are the highest point Marryat reached in romance. -Very good too are the successive appearances of the Phantom Ship, done -as was commonly the case with Marryat, simply, without straining, without -obvious desire to make you shiver. If the last scene of all trenches on -the namby pamby, as I am afraid it does, it is preceded by a very good -one indeed. Marryat has indicated the loneliness, the weary waiting, the -heart-broken striving of Vanderdecken’s doomed crew, very sufficiently -by the futile effort of the poor mate, who would fain persuade the -Portuguese to carry the _Flying Dutchman’s_ fatal letters home. That -Marryat was content to indicate is not the least of his claims to be -considered an artist. He knew by instinct, or deduction, the advantage -of coming suddenly on his reader. Too many other story-tellers prepare, -and accumulate, and pour forth, the materials of the shower (too commonly -of adjectives) which is to cause us the _frisson_. We see them doing it, -and know what is meant, and, human nature being perverse, hold ourselves -steady and refuse to shiver. The princess whose husband could not shiver -gave him the emotion by turning the cold water and tittlebats down his -back when he was expecting no such shock. If he had seen her filling the -tub, putting in the little fishes, and coming to tilt it all over him, -there would have been no surprise, and, too probably, he would never have -known that delightful sensation. - -“Poor Jack,” the immediate successor of “The Phantom Ship,” is somewhat -closer to “Mr. Midshipman Easy,” but it, too, is something of an -historical study, whether it was deliberately designed to be so or -not. Greenwich Hospital has become something very different from the -retreat for wounded seamen which Marryat knew, and his picture of it, -somewhat sketchy as it is, will always have the value of a document. -The story one need not stop to analyse at any length. Incidents and -characters are of the kind familiar with Marryat--not inferior to the -average of the others, but not distinguished from them by any very marked -characteristics. One piece of fun it does contain not inferior to his -best, the immortal apology of the midshipman who had told the master that -he was not fit to carry guts to a bear. The palpable absurdity of the -incident is on a par with Mr. Easy’s amazing use of the Articles of War. -“The Poacher” and “Percival Keene,” which also belong to these years, -both have a flavour of work done only because the author was “rather -in want of money.” The first is another venture in the same line as -“Japhet.” The second is the least pleasant, take it for all in all, of -the books which bear Marryat’s name. It is the only one which had better -not be re-read in maturer years by him who has read it as a boy. The fun -is forced--of the horse-play practical joking kind--and the serious parts -are somewhat spoilt by fustian. The negro pirate captain and his crew -are good enough for boyish tragedy, but that is not what we expect from -Marryat. Finally, too, there is a disagreeable flavour in the book. The -hero is a low fellow--not in a healthy human way even, but in a very mean -intriguing fashion, and he plays his part in the meanest possible manner. - -The one story of these days which could least be spared from Marryat’s -work is “Masterman Ready.” This, the first of his children’s books, -is also one of the best, perhaps the very best, thing of its kind in -English. It is a child’s story in which there is not one word above the -intelligence of the readers it was designed for, one situation or one -character they could not grasp, and yet it is distinctly literature. It -is didactic, and yet there is no preachment. It is pathetic, and yet it -is not mawkish. It ends with a death bed scene which is not an offence. -In point of mere cleverness of workmanship it ranks, in my opinion, first -among Marryat’s works, and yet it is perfectly simple and unstrained. -Marryat was indeed well qualified to write for children. He had loved -their company at all times, and had served a long apprenticeship in -telling stories to his own. The practice had taught him to avoid the -fatal mistake of condescension. An intelligent child, as even so weighty -a writer as Guizot has remarked, can understand a great deal more than -the duller kind of adult is disposed to allow. It does not like to be -effusively addressed as “my little friend,” and made to see that the -kind gentleman or lady who speaks is intent on improving its mind. “I -can’t be always good,” said Tommy; “I’m very hungry; I want my dinner.” -The unsophisticated youthful mind is apt to be equally direct about its -literature. It can’t be always imbibing preachment; it becomes languid, -and wants to be amused: but it also likes precision of detail, and is -eager to learn the why and how of everything. With these two rules to -guide him--not to be too obtrusively instructive, and yet to explain -every incident as it came, Marryat wrote a model child’s story. Forster -was certainly in the right in declaring it to be the most read, and the -most willingly re-read, of its class. For its mere cleverness the book -can be enjoyed by the oldest of readers who is not too dreadfully in -earnest. It was no small feat to have taken so well worn a situation as -the shipwreck and the desert island, and to have made out of it a book -which may stand next to Defoe’s. The desertion of the _Pacific_ and her -passengers by the crew, her wreck, the life on the island, the fight with -the savages, and the rescue, are as probable, they follow one another -as naturally, as the events in the life of Robinson Crusoe. Marryat -had too much tact and knowledge to fall into the extravagances of the -“Swiss Family Robinson.” The beasts and plants of the island are not an -impossible collection of the flora and fauna of three continents. Then, -too, the book contains two of Marryat’s very best characters. Masterman -Ready is an ideal old sailor, brave, modest, kind, helpful, able to turn -his hand to anything, and to do it well, yet, withal, no mere bundle of -abstract virtues, but a most credible human being--such a man as might -have been formed by such a life. Very different, but equally good, is -Master Tommy Seagrave, the ideal of greedy, naughty boys. Tommy’s ever -vigorous appetite and irrepressible passion for making a noise, for -meddling with everything, for trying everything, for spoiling everything, -are as perfect in their way as the meek heroism of Masterman Ready. At -the end, the collision of the two produces very genuine tragedy. Master -Tommy was just the boy who would have emptied the water-butt, under -pretext of bringing water from the well, and would have accepted the very -undeserved praise bestowed on his zeal without the faintest scruple. The -consequences of his bad behaviour are absolutely natural and inevitable. -That Masterman Ready should have met his death through Master Tommy was -an artistic stroke of the highest merit. And Marryat tells it all with -a calm detachment which might reduce the average Russian novelist to -despair. He is not wroth with Tommy. He accepts him as inevitable, and -only describes him with a calm artistic precision, simply as the type -of “The Boy.” Then, too, consider the final no-repentance and escape of -Tommy. He howled for water and got it, and Masterman Ready died that he -might have it. The little wretch never knew what mischief he had done. He -sailed away to Sydney with an excellent appetite, and as long as he had -enough to eat, and things to break, was no doubt perfectly happy. There -is a something colossal in the truth, and the artistic calmness of the -whole story. - -While Marryat was at work on “The Poacher,” he had a slight literary -skirmish--not unworthy of notice as a proof that certain things are -unchanging in the literary world. The story appeared in _The Era_ in -weekly numbers. One of those remarkable persons, who, in every successive -generation, find it necessary to make a protest in favour of the dignity -of literature, and whose idea of dignity commonly is that literature can -only be good when it appears in a certain way and at a certain price, -fell foul of Marryat for choosing this low method of publication. This -egregious person wrote in _Fraser_, and very gratuitously attacked -Marryat, in the course of some remarks on Harrison Ainsworth, in the -following “slashing” style: “If writing monthly fragments threatened -to deteriorate Mr. Ainsworth’s productions, what must be the result of -this _hebdomadal_ habit? Captain Marryat, we are sorry to see, has -taken to the same line. Both these popular authors may rely on our -warning, that they will live to see their laurels fade unless they more -carefully cultivate a spirit of _self-respect_. That which was venial in -a miserable starveling of Grub Street is _perfectly disgusting_ in the -extravagantly paid novelists of these days--the _caressed_ of generous -booksellers. Mr. Ainsworth and Captain Marryat ought to disdain such -_pitiful peddling_. Let them eschew it without delay.” - -These were very bitter words, but the only influence they had on Marryat -was to provoke him to show that he could do the single-stick style as -well as the _Fraser_ men themselves. With less wit, but more good humour -than Thackeray, he, too, wrote his Essay on Thunder and Small Beer. He -pointed out that there is no necessary connection between the manner -of publication and the method of composition of a book, and even made -quite respectable fun of _Fraser’s_ pedantry. “In the paragraph,” he -says, “which I have quoted there is an implication on your part which -I cannot pass over without comment. You appear to set up a standard -of _precedency_ and _rank_ in literature, founded upon the rarity -or frequency of an author’s appearing before the public, the scale -descending from the ‘caressed of generous publishers’ to the ‘starveling -of Grub Street’--the former, by your implication, constituting the -_aristocracy_ and the latter the _profanum vulgus_ of the quill. Now -although it is a fact that the larger and nobler animals of creation -produce but slowly, while the lesser, such as rabbits, rats, and mice, -are remarkable for their fecundity; I do not think that the comparison -will hold good as to the breeding of brains; and to prove it, let us -examine--if this argument by implication of yours is good--at what -grades upon the scale it would place the writers of the present day.” By -applying “this argument by implication” in a rigid fashion, Marryat has -no difficulty in showing that “my Lady ---- anybody,” who produces one -novel a year, is necessarily twice as great a writer as Hook or James -who produces two, and twelve times as great as the _Fraser_ man himself, -whose production is monthly. The reasoning is burlesquely fallacious, but -it was meant to be so. Marryat spoke with more gravity, and more point -too, when he urged that he was doing a good work by spreading his story -“among the lower classes, who, until lately (and the chief credit of the -alteration is due to Mr. Dickens), had hardly an idea of such recreation.” - -“In a moral point of view I hold that I am right. We are educating the -lower classes; generations have sprung up who can read and write; and may -I inquire what it is they have to read, in the way of amusement?--for -I speak not of the Bible, which is for private examination. They -have scarcely anything but the weekly newspapers, and as they cannot -command amusement, they prefer those which create the most excitement; -and this I believe to be the cause of the great circulation of _The -Weekly Despatch_, which has but too well succeeded in demoralizing the -public, in creating disaffection and ill-will towards the Government, -and assisting the nefarious views of demagogues, and chartists. It is -certain that men would rather laugh than cry--would rather be amused than -rendered gloomy and discontented--would sooner dwell upon the joys and -sorrows of others, in a tale of fiction, than brood over their supposed -wrongs. If I put good and wholesome food (and, as I trust, sound moral) -before the lower classes, they will eventually eschew that which is -coarse and disgusting, which is only resorted to because no better is -supplied. Our weekly newspapers are at present little better than records -of immorality and crime, and the effect which arises from having no other -matter to read and comment on, is of serious injury to the morality of -the country.… I consider, therefore, that in writing for the amusement -and instruction of the poor man, I am doing that which has been but too -much neglected--that I am serving my country, and you surely will agree -with me that to do so is not _infra dig._ in the proudest Englishman: -and, as a Conservative, you should commend, rather than stigmatise my -endeavours in the manner which you have so hastily done.” - -The intention and the argument here are better than the style. Marryat -was better at narrative than exposition, and could at times be as free -with the relative pronouns as that distinguished officer, Captain -Rawdon Crawley. The confidence Marryat, in common with most of his -contemporaries, reposed in the influence of wholesome amusement was -doubtless excessive. It has not been found that when the “poor man” [or -other reader for that matter], has a choice of Hercules given him between -good literature and bad, he will cleave to the first and reject the last. -Also, there is a candid confession of the faith “that there is nothing -like leather” in Marryat’s confidence that good weekly stories would -soothe the discontent which was seething in England before 1848. But -in spite of slips of grammar, optimism, and over-confidence, Marryat’s -answer to the priggery in _Fraser_ is a creditable manifesto. To desire -to kill the trash of _The Weekly Despatch_ was at least a respectable -ambition, and a man has a good right to believe in his causes, and his -weapons. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - - -Langham, to which Marryat betook himself for good in 1843, had been -in his possession for some thirteen years. Its history, as far as he -was concerned, may be taken to have been characteristic of the man. -He acquired it, according to Mrs. Ross Church, by exchange--having -“swapped” it, after dinner and copious champagne, against Sussex House, -Hammersmith. From that period it had been an interesting but unprofitable -possession to him. Before he left for America he had already had -occasion to complain of the difficulty of getting rent. A tenant had -been expelled, and replaced by another of the fairest character. But -appearances had proved delusive. Langham had been all along more of a -burden than a profit to its owner. In 1843 he seems to have decided to -see what he could do with it himself. A passage in his fragmentary life -of Lord Napier, quoted by his daughter, shows that he shared to the full -the common delusion of men, and the especial delusion of sailors, that it -is easy to manage a small property. In this pleasing but fatal belief he -set out to see what he could do with the 700 acres of the estate himself. -Again I have to acknowledge my inability to give any account of the -motives for this sudden (for it appears to have been sudden) decision. -Considerations of economy were doubtless of weight with him. The fall in -the value of West Indian property had, as has been said, hit him hard. -The demands on his purse were as heavy as ever--indeed, to judge from -a somewhat plaintive reference in one of his letters--even heavier. He -speaks in this place of actions brought by tradesmen to recover money -for goods supplied to his sons Frederick and Frank--from which we may -conclude that the young men had inherited their share of the paternal -faculty for spending money. Their father was driven to express the wish -that the value of this necessary was taught in schools. Neither at school -nor at home do the young Marryats appear to have gained this knowledge, -and in those years the navy, which they had both entered, was no school -of thrift. Doubtless they were among the causes which first induced -Captain Marryat to betake himself to the country, and then kept him hard -at work when he was there. - -Langham is in the northern division of Norfolk, halfway between -Wells-next-the-Sea and Holt. The Manor House, says Mrs. Ross Church, -“without having any great architectural pretensions, had a certain -unconventional prettiness of its own. It was a cottage in the Elizabethan -style, built after the model of one at Virginia Water belonging to his -late Majesty, George IV., with latticed windows opening on to flights -of stone steps ornamented with vases of flowers, and leading down from -the long narrow dining-room, where (surrounded by Clarkson Stanfield’s -illustrations of ‘Poor Jack,’ with which the walls were clothed) Captain -Marryat composed his later works, to the lawn behind. The house was -thatched and gabled, and its pinkish white walls and round porch were -covered with roses and ivy, which in some parts climbed as high as the -roof itself.” When Marryat came down to examine his property with an -intention of living on it, he found it suffering from all the evils which -commonly fall upon the property of absentee landlords. The tenant of the -larger of the two farms into which the estate was divided had not only -mismanaged his land. Having the house itself at his mercy, he had turned -the drawing-room into a common lodging-house, in which tramps and other -necessitous persons could have a bed for the modest sum of twopence a -night. The windows were smashed or unclosed, and the birds of the air had -built their nests in the rooms. This state of neglect was soon changed -for the better, and Langham Manor became habitable. - -In it Marryat sat down during the last five years of his life, to show in -practice the soundness of his theory touching the fitness of sailors for -the management of small properties. It will surprise few to learn that -the result only proved once more that small properties are not so easily -forced to yield a profit. Even before actually coming to live on the -estate, Marryat had tried various speculations with his land. The results -of his efforts, personal and vicarious, are illustrated in his daughter’s -“Life” by the following extracts, taken at random from his farm accounts. - - £ s. d. - - 1842. Total receipts 154 2 9 - - Expenditure 1637 0 6 - - 1846. Total receipts 898 12 6 - - Expenditure 2023 10 8 - -It will be seen that the balance was less heavily against Marryat in -’46 when he was present, than in ’42 when he could only look on from -afar. Even in these cases the master’s eye is of value. It is better to -lose on your own ventures than to be robbed all round, and in so far -Marryat no doubt gained by living on his land. In 1845 he even secured -some compensation for the damage done to his house and property by the -dishonest tenant--at least the courts decided that compensation should -be paid him. After a lawsuit, an unsuccessful effort at compromise, and -(Marryat declares) much hard swearing by his opponent, he was awarded -£150. Whether he ever got it is a question, for the tenant seems to -have been meditating bankruptcy immediately afterwards. The end of the -business is wrapt up in mystery. On the whole, one can quite believe -that the Captain’s “agricultural vagaries appeared almost like insanity -to those steady plodding minds that could not understand that a man -may have genius, and no common sense.” Quite credible, too, is it that -Marryat was very particularly proud of his common sense, and “would have -been very much hurt” if any man had doubted his claim to possess it in -an eminent degree. If there is anything of which the more flighty kind -of speculator is firmly persuaded, it is of his practical faculty and -sober good sense. It is very characteristic that in all Marryat’s stories -for children, and in touches scattered over his earlier works, there -are proofs of a taste for thinking about matters of business, and for -constructing plausible narratives of profitable investments of money and -labour. It would seem that, among writing men (and not among them only) -this taste is an infallible sign of a natural incapacity to acquire three -pennyworth of anything for less than eighteen pence. Balzac had it, and -he never could keep his fingers off a losing speculation. Marryat is so -exact about sums of money, and has such a turn for showing how profits -are to be made, that we are quite prepared to hear of him bursting into -his brother’s room at 3 o’clock a.m., with splendid schemes for draining -the marshes of Clay-by-the-Sea, and thereby realizing wealth beyond -the dreams of avarice. It follows as a matter of course that his only -surviving son, Frank, found Langham a worthless inheritance. - -It is at this period of his life that we can obtain the best, and, -indeed, almost the only personal view of Marryat. Of the last years -of his life at Langham, Mrs. Ross Church speaks from memory, and her -evidence has independent support. The picture we obtain is in the main -pleasant, though it is sufficiently clear that Marryat was not exactly -an angel. “Many people,” says his daughter, “have asked whether Captain -Marryat, when at home, was not ‘very funny.’ No, decidedly not. In -society, with new topics to discuss, and other wits about him on which to -sharpen his own--or, like flint and steel, to emit sparks by friction--he -was as gay and humorous as the best of them; but at home he was always -a thoughtful, and, at times, a very grave man; for he was not exempt -from those ills that all flesh is heir to, and had his sorrows and his -difficulties and moments of depression like the rest of us. At such times -it was dangerous to thwart or disturb him, for he was a man of strong -passions and indomitable determination; but, whoever felt the effects -of his moods of perplexity or disappointment, his children never did.” -Mrs. Ross Church must forgive it if this description reminds me more -than a little of a certificate to character I once heard given to a -British skipper, a mahogany-faced man of immense strength and violence, -in the office of one of Her Majesty’s consuls, in a Mediterranean port. -This gallant seaman had been summoned by one of his men for assault -and battery. He confessed the beating, but denied that it had been so -aggravated as the plaintiff alleged. Moreover he pleaded provocation, -and called up his boatswain as a witness to character. The boatswain, -an honest-looking rather chuckle-headed fellow, was obviously torn by -conflicting desires. He did not wish to displease his captain, and yet -he did not wish to tell lies which would go against his comrade. Nothing -definite could be got out of him while in the presence of the parties. -When asked in confidence (and in an outer office) what the truth of -the matter was, he answered, “Why, you see, sir, it’s just this--the -captain he’s a very good sort of man as long as he has everything his own -way--but when he’s crossed he clears the place.” - -It may be taken as proved, then, that Marryat had in abundance that -kind of good nature which is displayed when the owner is pleased and -happy--of which this may at least be said, that it is vastly superior to -no good nature at all. Moreover, we have to consider what things it was -that made him displeased and unhappy. Mrs. Ross Church’s qualification -to the character just quoted shows that he did not entirely hang his -fiddle up when he came home. To his children “he was a most indulgent -father and friend, caring little what escapades they indulged in so -long as they were not afraid to tell the truth. ‘Tell truth and shame -the devil’ was a quotation constantly on his lips; and he always upheld -falsehood and cowardice as the two worst vices of mankind. He never -permitted anything to be locked or hidden away from his children, who -were allowed to indulge their appetites at their own discretion; nor were -they ever banished from the apartments which he occupied. Even whilst he -was writing, they would pass freely in and out of the room, putting any -questions to him that occurred to them, and the worst rebuke they ever -encountered was the short determined order, ‘Cease your prattle, child, -and leave the room,’ an order that was immediately obeyed. For with all -his indulgence of them, Captain Marryat took care to impress one fact -upon his children--that his word was law.” - -The children were aware that they were dealing with a parent not -incapable of getting in a rage, and therefore stopped in time--which -is one of the many advantages of not possessing a too equable temper. -These collisions of theirs with the sovereign authority at Langham -cannot, however, have been frequent, as this further quotation from Mrs. -Ross Church will show: “The long-expected governess [there were great -negotiations over the engagement of this official], when eventually -secured and transplanted to Langham, was not received by the children, -who had been accustomed to have their own way in everything, with much -enthusiasm; and their father was the friend to whom they invariably -appealed for protection against her authority. Captain Marryat had -rather an original plan with respect to punishment and reward. He kept -a quantity of small articles for presents in his secretary, and at the -termination of each week the children, and governess armed with a report -of their general behaviour, were ushered with much solemnity into the -library to render up an account. Those who had behaved well during the -preceding seven days received a prize, because they had been so good; -and those who had behaved ill also received one, in hopes that they -would never be naughty again. The governess was also presented with a -gift, that her criticism on the justice of the transaction might be -disarmed. Thus all parties left the room perfectly satisfied; an end -which, Captain Marryat used to observe, it required some diplomacy to -attain. The governess was in the habit of restraining the children’s -thoughtlessness by imposition of fines or lessons when they tore their -clothes; but, as tearing their clothes was an event of daily occurrence, -the punishment became rather heavy; and one of the younger ones, having -made a large rent in a new frock, ran in dismay to her father in order -to consult him how best to escape the impending doom. Captain Marryat, -without any regard to the future of the garment in question, took hold of -the rent and tore off the whole lower part of the skirt. ‘Tell her _I_ -did it,’ he said in explanation as he walked away.” This story, which had -previously made its appearance in an article in the _Cornhill Magazine_, -is supported there by the general assertion that whenever any of the -young Marryats required punishment they were doubly petted for the rest -of the day. “It seemed as if no amount of indulgence was thought too much -for compensation; like the jam to take the taste of the physic out of the -mouth.” - -Persons who make a serious study of the art of training children may not -all agree that a system which recommended courage by giving them nothing -to fear, inculcated the love of truth by making it safe and pleasant to -tell it, and developed the moral virtues by unlimited indulgence, was one -to be held up as a model to fathers. No doubt, however, it was abundantly -pleasant for the children, and it may readily be believed that Captain -Marryat was loved by his own house. With his children he lived on terms -of affectionate freedom, making them his companions, and even training -them to play piquet, for which scientific game he had a great affection, -in order that they might share with him in all things. - -For animals, too, he had a genuine but not a maudlin affection. His -dogs and his pony Dumpling figure much in the accounts given of his -last years. His favourite bull, Ben Brace, was kept tethered opposite -the window of the room in which he wrote. It is a good sign of his -genuine kindness for animals that he seems to have been made rather -impatient by the gushing talk about them, and the wondrous tales of -their intelligence, which are (in the opinion of some) nearly the most -nauseous of all forms of twaddle. We have it on his own authority that -he joined Theodore Hook in inventing outrageous stories about the -intelligence of animals, and palming them off on the too credulous -popular naturalist. To his men Marryat seems to have been a kind master. -He at least gave them copious feasts on proper occasions. “All the men -who were on the farm,” he tells his god-daughter, “were invited to a -Christmas dinner in the kitchen, and they sat down two-and-twenty at the -table in the servants’ hall, and were waited upon by our own servants. -They had two large pieces of roast beef, and a boiled leg of pork; four -dishes of Norfolk dumplings; two large meat pies; two geese, eight ducks, -and eight widgeon; and after that they had four large plum puddings.” -This, with “plenty of strong beer,” which was also duly supplied, made, -as Marryat seems to have felt with pardonable satisfaction, a feed -likely to be remembered by the two-and-twenty farm hands. He was not so -original as he perhaps thought himself, or as some have supposed him to -have been, in employing an ex-poacher, one Barnes, as gamekeeper. That -particular kind of thief had often been set to catch the other thieves -before Captain Marryat went to live at Langham. The poacher who is not -merely the paid hand of a London poulterer is commonly enough not such a -bad fellow, and when he is allowed to combine his sporting tastes with -a regular salary, and a position of some authority, is capable of doing -fairly well. In this case whatever risk Marryat ran was justified by the -result. Barnes proved not only a good servant to him, but is said to have -been a loyal follower to his son Frank when he emigrated to California. - -Here, on his own land, surrounded by his family, Marryat spent what were, -doubtless, not the least happy years of his life. An occasional friend -from London found the ex-_viveur_ and dandy in velveteen shooting jacket -and coloured trousers, turning out at five in the morning, trotting about -his farm on Dumpling, attentive to scientific farming, and invincible -in hope of profit from that deceptive venture. For company, he had his -romps with his children, his game of piquet, and an occasional, or even -frequent, visit from Lieutenant Thomas, of the coastguard station at -Morston. The two old seamen met, and talked of the rapid progress of -the service to the d----, as old seamen have done from the beginning, -and will do to the end of time. From the outer world came requests for -work from editors, suggestions that he should take up this subject or -the other, and at times invitations to come up and take part in farewell -dinners to Macready or to Dickens. These last he steadily declined. -Except during a few brief visits to London on matters of business, he -remained fixed at Langham till the disease which proved fatal drove him -up to town in search of better medical help than he could obtain in -Norfolk. - -He has himself described the work of these last years in a letter -to Forster, who had written in 1845 to Marryat, suggesting that he -should give “a month or two to a short biography, of about a volume; -something of the size and manner of Southey’s ‘Nelson,’ and the subject -‘Collingwood.’” Marryat thought it over, but declined, giving, among -other reasons, this: “That I have lately taken to a different style of -writing, that is, for young people. My former productions, like all -novels, have had their day, and for the present, at least, will sell -no more; but it is not so with the _juveniles_; they have an annual -demand, and become _a little income_ to me; which I infinitely prefer -to receiving any sum in a mass, which very soon disappears somehow -or other.” Marryat justified his unwillingness to write the life of -Collingwood by other than business reasons. “I should like,” he told -Forster, “to write about Collingwood, but if I were to write it in -anything like a stipulated time I should not do it well. Biography is -most difficult writing, and requires more time and thought than any -original composition, and if I take it up I must be free as air.” In -addition to this (justly high) estimate of the difficulty and dignity -of biography, Marryat, with sound critical judgment, decided that -Collingwood was not a proper subject. There is not enough known or to be -known about him. So much of his work was done as a subordinate under St. -Vincent or Nelson. With them he was always in the second place at best, -and when he reached great independent command, the heroic days of the -naval war were over, and there was little for him to do beyond duties of -a mainly routine character, performed in the midst of chronic illness. -It is a pity perhaps that Marryat did not devote some part of his work -to naval biography, but he would hardly have made a real success with -Collingwood. For Forster himself, Marryat wrote a series of letters to -the _Examiner_ on the “Condition of England Question,” or that part of -England which he saw about him in Norfolk. “I have,” he wrote to Forster, -“been amusing myself with putting together my thoughts and knowledge of -the condition of the agricultural class--I mean the common labourer -principally--and I believe I know more of the subject than anything I -have seen in print. What I can say is from personal knowledge. I was -thinking of writing some letters to Peel as a Norfolk farmer, ‘The Poor -Man _versus_ Sir Robert Peel.’ It would not do to put my name to them as -they would be anything but Conservative, but they would be the _truth_.” -It was not Marryat’s destiny to be a politician, and his opinion of Sir -Robert Peel is perhaps not very valuable. His own political activity was -not particularly consistent, for he appears to have swayed from Reformer -to Conservative, and back again, but it may be noted that he ended by -sharing that dislike of the leader who always led his followers to -surrender which was so widely felt in Peel’s last days. - -His main work was always his stories for children. Five of these belong -to the Langham period--“The Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of -Monsieur Violet,” “The Settlers in Canada,” “The Mission,” “The Children -of the New Forest,” and “The Little Savage.” There may be some doubt -whether the first ought to come under this heading. Marryat did not -consider it a child’s story himself; but if it is not _that_ one has some -difficulty in deciding what it was. The materials were, Mrs. Ross Church -says, supplied by a young Frenchman, named Lasalles, who turned up at -Langham, and astonished the neighbourhood by lassoing cattle and doing -other barbarous feats. The matter supplied by this amusing adventurer -was “licked into shape” by Marryat. This account of the origin of the -book is certainly borne out by its contents. It is a somewhat rambling -story of adventure among the Red Men, starting from an improbability, and -ending somewhat abruptly. No small part of it consists of an account of -the early Mormons, and has sadly the air of padding. On the whole, it has -much more the look of a collection of notes for a tale of adventure than -anything else, and has always been one of the least read, if not entirely -the least read, of the books which bear Marryat’s name. Of “The Mission” -its author gave an exact account in a letter to his friend Mrs. S----: -“It is composed of scenes and descriptions of Africa in a journey to the -Northward from the Cape of Good Hope--full of lions, rhinoceroses, and -all manner of adventures, interspersed with a little common sense here -and there, and interwoven with the history of the settlement of the Cape -up to 1828--written for young people of course, and, therefore trifling, -but amusing.” “The Mission,” although this promising sketch of it is -strictly correct, has not been much more popular than “Monsieur Violet,” -and the reason is obvious enough. It is not so much a story as a series -of unconnected, or very loosely connected, incidents; and moreover, it -contains what any right-minded boy could only regard as a cruel “sell.” -The hero starts forth to clear up the fate of a relative--a lady who -has been wrecked on the Caffre coast many years before. It is not known -for certain whether she was drowned or died on shore, and a fear has -always existed that she survived as a prisoner among the natives, and -had grown up to be the wife of some Caffre chief, and bear him young -barbarians in his kraal--a fate which it is believed did actually befall -the daughters of an English officer, who were wrecked on that coast on -their way back from India. He goes on, hears of a renowned chief, whose -mother was an Englishwoman, finds him, and then discovers that it was -another shipwrecked lady, who had the happiness to produce a half-bred -hero in that distant region. His own relative has certainly perished. Now -this is cruel. It was not worth while to go so far to learn so little, -and the feeling of disappointment caused is too acute. Marryat made a -fatal mistake when he overlooked the possibilities of the situation. -For the rest, it is a pity he did, because the background of the story -is particularly good. Marryat seems to have obtained a very clear idea -of the Cape, which he must have visited during his service in the South -Atlantic. His hunting adventures, his Zulu warriors, his Dutch Boers, and -Hottentot boys are distinctly good. There is even a touch of something -grandiose in the references to the invaders from the North, who were then -pressing down on Caffraria. They weigh in an imposing fashion on the -fortunes of the adventurers in “The Mission.” It is somewhat unfair to -look at it all now, when these materials have again been made popular. -But good as it is of its kind, the book has a feeble, aimless look, -simply from want of satisfactory ending. - -Of the three children’s stories which remain--“The Settlers,” “The -Children of the New Forest,” and “The Little Savage”--the second is -most likely to be interesting to children, and the last is, in part at -least, the most original. There is something rather gruesome in the -picture of the child born on a desert island, and growing up by the side -of a ruffian who bullies him. The natural savagery of the human animal -is developed in him unchecked, and Marryat has shown some power in the -scenes in which the boy discovers the helplessness of his companion, -who has been blinded by a flash of lightning, and then turns on him -with cool ferocity. But the promise of the beginning is not kept. “The -Little Savage” becomes didactic--full of repetitions--and ends by being -more than a little tiresome. On the whole, after all, “The Children” is -better. Our old friends, the Cavaliers and Roundheads, are less new than -“The Little Savage,” but they last out more briskly. It is a child’s -story of merit--nothing more--and the historical erudition of it, if -somewhat shallow, is on a level with that of more pretentious books. “The -Privateersman” has a certain interest as being the last of Marryat’s sea -stories, and as a picture, or at least a rough sketch, of the strange old -privateer life of which “The Voyages and Cruises of Commodore Walker” is -almost our only record from the inside. It is not a pleasant book, or a -strong. Moreover, Marryat puts his hero in the very most ignoble position -any hero was ever in. It may be safely laid down as a rule that under -no conditions ought a gentleman to desert a woman in a forest full of -Red American Indians. It is one of those things which a gentleman cannot -do. Now the hero of “The Privateersman” does it--and the deduction is -obvious. The story has touches which remind one of “Colonel Jack,” but -it is too clearly a book written simply to fill space in a magazine. -Marryat’s fun had gone when he wrote it for Harrison Ainsworth and _The -New Monthly Magazine_. “Valerie,” a species of Japhet in petticoats, is -not even all Marryat’s, and was, in any case, written when he was slowly -dying. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - - -The weakness which proved fatal to Marryat had shown itself while he was -still a young lieutenant in the West Indies. He had then been invalided -home for rupture of a blood vessel in the lungs, and a military doctor -“also certified to his tendency to ‘hæmoptysis,’ and prophesied that, -without great care, ‘the most dangerous and perhaps fatal results’ would -be the consequence” of rashness. The danger had passed at that time--had -probably been avoided by the use of care--and for many years Marryat had -to all appearance been a very robust man. He was of the best possible -height and build for strength. He was some five feet ten inches high, -with broad deep chest, and his muscular force was exceptionally great. -His portrait, as far as it can be judged of from the engraving prefixed -to “Frank Mildmay,” gives the impression of a man of boundless energy, -open-faced, alert, and keen-eyed. He was black-haired with blue eyes, and -his beard grew so thick and so fast that he was compelled to shave twice -a day. When he came to Langham, in 1843, his strength was apparently -still unbroken, and he might appear sure of long years of health and -capacity for work. But it is clear that there was more appearance than -reality in his strength. When a man has turned fifty he begins to suffer -for the unwisdom of former years. Marryat, unfortunately, had never given -himself any quarter. He had spared himself no burden a man can lay upon -his strength. He had played and worked to excess, had lived in a whirl of -nervous excitement, had spent beyond his means in constitution as well -as in purse. If he had not spent his summer while it was May--at least -he had run through it far too soon. Langham, which might have given him -rest, was only the scene of more nervous excitement, more strenuous work. -In 1847 the end began. In August of that year he speaks, in a letter to -his sister, of having recently ruptured two blood vessels. The following -letter shows that the accident occurred in London, but Marryat returned -to Langham, and remained there till the want of medical advice likely -to inspire more confidence than a country doctor’s drove him to London -again. He remained at his mother’s house at Wimbledon for two months, and -from it wrote to Lord Auckland, then at the Admiralty, on December 14th. - - “MY LORD,--When I had the honour of an audience with you, in July - last, your lordship’s reception was so mortifying to me that, from - excitement and annoyance, after I left you I ruptured a blood - vessel, which has now for nearly five months laid me on a bed of - sickness. - - “I will pass over much that irritated and vexed me, and refer to - one point only. When I pointed out to your lordship the repeated - marks of approbation awarded to Captain Chads--and the neglect with - which my applications had been received by the Admiralty during so - long a period of application--your reply was ‘That you could not - admit such parallels to be drawn, as Captain Chads was a highly - distinguished officer,’ thereby implying that my claims were not to - be considered in the same light. - - “I trust to be able to prove to your lordship that I was justified - in pointing out the difference in the treatment of Captain Chads - and myself. The fact is that there are no two officers who have - so completely run neck and neck in the service, if I may use - the expression. If your lordship will be pleased to examine our - respective services, previous to the Burmah War, I trust that you - will admit that mine have been as creditable as those of that - officer; and I may here take the liberty of pointing out to your - lordship that Sir G. Cockburn thought proper to make a special - mention relative to both our services, and of which your lordship - may not be aware. - - “During the Burmah War Captain Chads and I both held the command - of a very large force for several months--both were promoted on - the same day, and both received the honour of the Order of the - Bath--and, on the thanks of Government being voted in the House of - Commons to the officers, and on Sir Joseph York, who was a great - friend of Captain Chads, proposing that he should be particularly - mentioned by name, Sir G. Cockburn rose and said that it would be - the height of injustice to mention that officer without mentioning - me. - - “I trust the above statement will satisfy your lordship that I - was not so much to blame when I drew the comparison between our - respective treatment--Captain Chads having hoisted his commodore’s - pennant in India, having been since appointed to the _Excellent_, - and lately received the good service pension; while I have applied - in vain for employment, and have met with a reception which I have - not deserved. - - “And now, my lord, apologizing for the length of this letter, allow - me to state the chief cause of my addressing you. It is not to - renew my applications for employment--for which my present state - of health has totally unfitted me--it is, that my recovery has - been much retarded by a feeling that your lordship could not have - departed from your usual courtesy in your reception of me as you - did, if it was not that some misrepresentations of my character had - been made to you. This has weighed heavily upon me; and I entreat - your lordship will let me know if such has been the case, and that - you will give me an opportunity of justifying myself--which I - feel assured that I can do--as I never yet have departed from the - conduct of an officer and a gentleman. I am the more anxious upon - this point, as, since the total wreck of West India property, I - shall have little to leave my children but a good name, which, on - their account, becomes doubly precious. I have the honour, &c., - - “F. MARRYAT.” - -I have quoted this melancholy but not altogether unmanly letter at full -for the light it throws on Marryat’s last years. It is clear that when -the ruin of West Indian property had begun to embarrass him, he had -striven to return to active service. The beginning of the letter proves -that in the middle of 1847 his nerve was already gone. At last he was no -longer able to bear the strain of that passion and determination of which -his daughter speaks. When crossed by a First Lord of the Admiralty, with -whom he could not give way to an explosion of rage, the effort required -to control himself was too much for a man worn in health, and accustomed -for many years past to give his feelings unchecked course. The letter -may also stand as proof that Marryat’s reputation as a naval officer was -dear to him. As to the merits of the dispute there is no evidence to form -an opinion. Lord Auckland, in a temperate letter, replied that he had no -recollection of what had passed at the time, but that he certainly could -have had no intention of wounding so distinguished an officer as Captain -Marryat. The letter ended with the agreeable information that a good -service pension had been conferred on him. Heat and disappointment on the -one side, and perhaps a little dry official formality on the other--a -thing which those who deal with Government officials should learn to take -for granted--will doubtless account for the trouble. - -From this time forward Marryat’s remnant of life was filled with flights -in search of health, and with every sorrow. From Wimbledon he went -to Hastings, in the vain hope that a milder climate would give him a -chance of recovery. For a time he seemed to improve, but it was a mere -flicker. Whatever chance of recovery he had was utterly destroyed by -the terrible blow which fell on him at the end of the year. His son, -Lieutenant Frederick Marryat, was lost in the wreck of the _Avenger_ in -the Mediterranean. The _Avenger_, one of the first steamers in the navy, -was steered on a reef between Galita and the mainland, during the night. -She was under steam and sail at the time, and struck so heavily that in -a very few minutes she was a complete wreck, with the sea breaking over -her. Frederick Marryat was below when the vessel struck. In the confusion -which followed, he was seen, by one of the few survivors, in the waist -of the ship, endeavouring to keep the men steady, and clear away the -boats. But the _Avenger_ broke up fast; the funnel and main-mast fell -on the group in which Marryat stood, crushing some and hurling others -overboard, where they were swept away in the sea that was then running. -By one death or the other he perished, and the tragedy broke his father’s -heart. The young man had been wild and extravagant--a source of expense -and anxiety to his father. He had been a midshipman of the wild type, and -as a young lieutenant had been unsettled, eager to get on shore and find -some work more agreeable and more lucrative than a naval officer’s. But -if he had the faults--or rather let us say the weaknesses--of the seaman, -he also had his finer qualities. He was a gallant and good-hearted -young fellow. A letter of his father’s, written two years or so before -the wreck, speaks of him as turning up from the China station full of -life and spirit, lighting up the house at Langham. In his then state -of weakness it must have been a killing blow to the father to hear of -the son’s death, under circumstances of which no man was better able to -appreciate the horror than himself. Marryat bore the blow stoutly, for he -too had the “qualities of his defects,” and as he was passionate so was -he courageous. - -From Hastings, which he naturally felt had done him no good, he moved -to Brighton for a month. It seemed for a moment as if the danger was -past, and Dickens, among others, wrote to congratulate him on his -recovery. But, in truth, the case was a hopeless one. From Brighton he -returned to London for the last time to consult with the doctors. When -he re-entered the outer room in which several of his family were waiting -to hear the result, he had to tell them that he had been condemned. -“They say,” he reported, “that in six months I shall be numbered with my -forefathers.” He announced the decision, Mrs. Ross Church tells us, with -an “undisturbed and half-smiling countenance,” and we can easily believe -it, for, leaving his natural bravery out of the question, life can have -had no temptation for him if it was to be lived under the constant threat -of such a disease as menaced him. - -From London Marryat moved to Langham, and there waited for death all -through the summer of 1848. It came at last through sheer weakness, and -apparently with little or no pain. Ruptures of blood vessels could only -be prevented by rigid abstinence from food. He speaks in the last letter -he wrote--in at least the last that is printed--of living for days on -lemonade till he “was reduced to a little above nothing.” The illness -and the remedy were alike fatal, and between the two he was gradually -reduced to extinction. During the summer days he lay in the drawing-room -of the house at Langham, hearing his daughters read aloud to him, till -his growing weakness brought on delirium. To the last he continued to -dictate pages of incoherent talk, much as Sir Walter Scott had written -mechanically long after his intellect was gone. He loved to have flowers -brought him to the end. Finally, after he had long been unconscious -between weakness and doses of morphia, he expired in perfect quiet just -about dawn on August 9, 1848. - - * * * * * - -It ought to be unnecessary for me to add much on the character of Captain -Marryat. Although our knowledge of him is fragmentary, it is my fault if -enough has not been said in these pages to show what sort of man he must -have been. It is tolerably clear that he was passionate, ready to think -that he did well to be angry, and that anger was its own justification. -Passionately eager to enjoy he must have been, and not wise in seeking -enjoyment. It must be remembered, however, that he was trained in the -navy in a wild time, when men repaid themselves for such hardships as -the naval officer of to-day never undergoes, by excesses of which he -would be incapable. Then Marryat fell into the literary and semi-literary -life of London at a time when it was partly honestly, partly out of mere -silly pose, dissipated and Bohemian. His wealth was the means of throwing -him among a hard living set. Among them, his friends, doubtless, helped -him to get rid of his money inherited and earned. He was the fast and -hard living stamp of man whom the Bohemian literary gentlemen professed -to admire, and he paid for his genuineness. In such a world the ardent -natures wore themselves out, while the _poseur_ and the humbug escaped. -But if Marryat wasted his substance and hastened his death by excesses, -he seems to have been generous and good to those around him. To his -younger children he was kind, and if his wife fell out of his life (she -is not mentioned as having been present at Langham), there is nothing to -show that it was for reasons discreditable to him, or indeed to either of -them. If he was one of those who are mainly their own enemies, at least -he did not belong to the worst rank of a very noxious class of persons. -That he was a brave man and a good officer beyond question. - -As a writer Captain Marryat has never--as I began this little book -by saying--been quite fairly treated. There has always been more or -less a suspicion that an _Athenæum_ writer, who described him as a -quarter-deck captain who defied critics, and trifled with the public, -writing carelessly, and not even good English, taking it for granted -that the public was to read just what he chose to write, was stating the -facts. He has never been recognized as one of the front rank of English -novelists. Macaulay only mentions him as one among several writers on -America. Carlyle’s savage “slate” of him is unjust to a degree which can -only be palliated by the fact that it was founded on a hasty reading -of his books in the evil days after the loss of the manuscript of the -French Revolution. At that time everything was looking more spectral to -Carlyle than usual. Thackeray was just to him indeed, but Thackeray was -exceptionally large-minded and fair. Yet I do not know what reason there -is to exclude Marryat from the front rank which would not also exclude -some whom we habitually put there. To rank him with Fielding, with Jane -Austen, Thackeray or Richardson, would be absurd, but I see no reason why -he should not stand with Smollett. He might stand a little below him for -“Humphrey Clinker’s” sake, but not very far. Except Sir Walter Scott, no -man can be read over a longer period of life. He may be enjoyed at school -and for ever afterwards. I doubt whether many boys have delighted in “Tom -Jones.” Did anybody, to take the other end of life, ever experience, on -coming back to “Peter Simple” or “Mr. Midshipman Easy,” that shock which -is produced by a mature re-reading of, say, “Zanoni”? I imagine not. -There must be a great vitality, a genuine truth, in the writer who can -stand this test, and stand it so long. That Marryat was to some extent -a boyish writer is undeniable, and it seems to me to be the secret of -his enduring popularity. His books revive in one the exact kind of -pleasure one felt in reading them in one’s teens. We may re-read some -writers who pleased then, and remember the pleasure, and regret it can -be felt no longer. Others one re-reads with ever new pleasure, but they -satisfy for reasons not felt in early days. We see more in them and ever -more. But with Marryat it is different. He pleases for the same causes -always, which is surely as much as to say that he is unique of his kind. -More than any other man he made what was written for boys and children -literature. He was the best of his class, and that alone entitles him to -a high place. After all, a man can do no more than be the best of his -order. Whoever is that is surely fairly entitled to be called a Great -Writer. Whether that title is to be grudged him or not, he is assuredly -the friend of all who read with a simple and healthy taste. No man has -given more honest pleasure, more wholesome stimulus to youth; few have -given more hearty fun to older readers. If we do not think of him as -“great,” a word of which we might indeed be more chary than we are, -at least we can think of him as kindly, as sound, as manly--and it is -possible to make a stir with one’s pen and be none of those three things. - -THE END. - - - - -INDEX. - - - A. - - Almeria Bay, Action in, 32-34 - - America, Books about, 100 - - America, Marryat’s visit to, 98-113 - - Auckland, Lord, Letter to, 150-152; - his answer, 153 - - _Avenger_, Loss of, 153, 154 - - - B. - - Babbage, 14, 15 - - Basque roads, Action in, 37-40 - - Burmah, War in, 51-55 - - - C. - - Canada, Revolt in, 111, 112 - - _Caroline_, Affair of the, 106 - - “Children of New Forest, The,” 146, 147 - - Chucks, Mr., 96 - - Cochrane, Lord, Captain of _Impérieuse_, his character, 19-21; - in Basque roads, 37-40; - end of service, 40 - - Collingwood, Admiral, Marryat asked to write life of, 143 - - Continent, English on the, 67, 68 - - - D. - - Drew, Captain, _see_ _Caroline_ - - Dundonald, Earl of, _see_ Cochrane - - - F. - - _Fraser’s Magazine_, Marryat and, 127-131 - - - G. - - Giliano, Pasquil, fight with, 27, 28 - - - I. - - _Impérieuse_, frigate, 17; - Marryat’s account of her service, 23, 24; - sent hurriedly to sea, 25, 26; - her cruises, 27-40 - - Irving, Washington, quoted, 84, 121 - - - L. - - Langham, Marryat’s life at, 65, 132-134, 136-142 - - “Little Savage, The,” 147 - - - M. - - Marryat, Frederick, born, 11; - his family, 11-12; - school-life, 12-15; - goes to sea, 16; - appointed to _Impérieuse_, 17; - serves in her, 17-40; - at Walcheren, 40; - in _Victorious_, 40; - _Centaur_, 40; - _Atlas_, 41; - _Æolus_, 41; - _L’Espiègle_, 41; - _Newcastle_, 41; - a Lieutenant and Commander, 41; - breaks blood-vessel, 41; - saves life, 43; - cuts away main-yard of _Æolus_, 43; - his wound, 45; - goes on Continent, 46; - marriage, 47; - command of _Beaver_, 47; - St. Helena, and death of Napoleon, 47; - exchange to the _Rosario_, 48; - service in Channel, 48; - Smugglers, 49; - appointed to _Larne_, 51; - service in Burmah, 51-54; - Post-captain, and C.B., 55; - _Ariadne_, 55; - begins writing, 55; - equerry to Duke of Sussex, 56; - resigns command, 56; - begins literary life, 58; - expensive habits, 59; - _Metropolitan Magazine_, 60; - letter to Bentley, 60-61; - editor of _Metropolitan Magazine_, 61-62; - first books, 62; - stands for Parliament, 63; - at Brighton, 64; - hard work in 1834, 64; - Langham, 65; - letter about lawsuit, 65; - goes to Continent, 66; - his work on, 66; - resigns editorship, 66; - writes for _New Monthly Magazine_, 67; - stories of Marryat, 69-70; - letter to his mother, 71-72; - starts for America, 72; - his literary work between 1832 and 1837, 73-97; - his speedy success, 74; - his earnings, 75; - quarrels with publisher, 75; - letter to publisher, 76-77; - “Frank Mildmay,” his account of, 79-80; - account and criticism of book, 81-82; - Marryat as a story-writer, 83; - truth of his pictures of sea-life, 84; - his story-telling faculty, 85; - his style, 86; - quotation from “Peter Simple,” 87-91; - his faculty of construction, 91, 92; - his fun, 92; - quotation from “Mr. Midshipman Easy,” 94-96; - Marryat’s portraits, 97; - his visit to America, 98; - at New York, 100-101; - letter to his mother from America, 101-105; - visit to Canada, 106; - affair of _Caroline_, 106; - disturbance about, 106-109; - letter to mother, 109-111; - serves during Canadian rising, 112; - return to England, 113; - Marryat’s money matters, 114-115; - life in London, 116-117; - ill health, 118; - his work from 1837 to 1843, 120-127; - quarrel with Fraser, 128-131; - goes to Langham, 132; - Marryat as a farmer, 135; - his life at Langham, 136-142; - his children, 138, 139; - fondness for animals, 140; - his labourers, 141; - his work at Langham, 143; - beginning of fatal illness, 149; - his personal appearance, 149; - letter to Lord Auckland, 150-152; - his good-service pension, 153; - at Hastings, 153; - at Brighton, 154; - return to Langham, 155; - death of Captain Marryat, 157; - his personal character, 156-157; - his place in literature, 157-159 - - Marryat, Joseph, M.P., Marryat’s father, 11 - - Marryat, Lieutenant F., Marryat’s son, his death, 154 - - “Masterman Ready,” 124-127 - - _Metropolitan Magazine_, 60, 61, 66 - - “Mildmay, Frank,” 43, 79-82 - - “Mission, The,” 144, 145, 146 - - - N. - - Naval war in 1806, 17, 18 - - - P. - - “Percival Keene,” 124 - - “Phantom Ship, The,” 122, 123 - - Pierce, Captain J., 108 - - “Poor Jack,” 123 - - “Poacher, The,” 124 - - “Privateersman, The,” 147 - - - R. - - Ross Church, Mrs., Marryat’s daughter, quoted, 11, 57, 68, 75, - 115, 133, 136, 138-140 - - - S. - - Seagrave, Tommy, 126 - - - V. - - “Violet, Monsieur,” 144 - - - W. - - William IV., story of, 56, 57 - - - - -BIBLIOGRAPHY. - -BY - -JOHN P. ANDERSON - -(_British Museum_). - - -I. WORKS. - -The Novels of Captain Marryat.--Percival Keene. Monsieur Violet. Rattlin -the Reefer. Valerie. The author’s copyright edition. 4 pts. London, -Guildford [printed 1875], 8vo. - -The Novels of Captain Marryat.--The Phantom Ship. The Dog Fiend. Olla -Podrida. The Poacher. The author’s copyright edition. London, Guildford -[printed 1875], 8vo. - -The Children of the New Forest. 2 vols. London [1847], 12mo. Part of a -series entitled “The Juvenile Library.” - ----- Another edition. 2 vols. London, 1849, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. 2 vols. London, 1850, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1853, 16mo. - -A Code of Signals for the use of vessels employed in the Merchant -Service. London, 1837, 8vo. - ----- Eighth edition. London, 1841, 8vo. - - The last edition edited by Captain Marryat. - ----- Another edition. The Universal Code of Signals, for the Mercantile -Marine of all Nations, etc. London, 1854, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1861, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1864, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1866, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1869, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1879, 8vo. - -A Diary in America, with remarks on its Institutions. 3 vols. London, -1839, 12mo. - ----- A Diary in America, with remarks on its Institutions. Part Second. 3 -vols. London, 1839, 12mo. - -The Floral Telegraph; or, Affection’s Signals. London [1850], 12mo. - -Jacob Faithful. 3 vols. London, 1834, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxiii. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, New York, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Author’s edition, complete. London [1874], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, Guildford [printed 1877], 8vo. - - One of a series entitled “Notable Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, Halifax [printed 1878], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1881], 8vo. - - One of “Ward and Lock’s Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London [1883], 8vo. - -Japhet in Search of a Father. 3 vols. London, 1836, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxiv. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1857, 8vo. - - One of the “Railway Library” series. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1881], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1883], 8vo. - -Joseph Rushbrook; or, The Poacher. 3 vols. London, 1841, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. 3 vols. London, 1842, 8vo. - -Joseph Rushbrook; or, The Poacher. London, 1846, 8vo. - - No. civ. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- New edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- New edition. London, 1857, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London [1873], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - ----- Reprinted from the original edition. (A Rencontre.) London [1883], -8vo. - - One of a series entitled “Notable Novels.” - -The King’s Own. 3 vols. London, 1830, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxv. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1874], 8vo. - - One of a series entitled “Notable Novels.” - ----- Another edition. With a Memoir by Florence Marryat. Author’s -edition. London [1874], 8vo. - ----- [“Handy-Volume Marryat” edition.] London [1880], 16mo. - -The Little Savage. [Edited by Frank S. Marryat.] 2 pts. London, 1848-49, -12mo. - - Part of the “Juvenile Library.” - ----- Another edition. 2 vols. London, 1850, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1853, 8vo. - -Masterman Ready; or, the Wreck of the Pacific. 3 vols. London, 1841, 8vo. - -Masterman Ready. New edition. (_Bohn’s Illustrated Library._) London, -1851, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. 2 vols. London, 1853, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. (_Bell’s Reading Books._) London, 1875, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1878, 16mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1885, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London [1886], 8vo. - -The Metropolitan: a monthly journal of literature, science, and the fine -arts. - -[Continued as] - -The Metropolitan Magazine. Successively edited by T. Campbell, F. -Marryat, etc. 57 vols. London, 1831-50, 8vo. - -The Mission, or Scenes in Africa. London, 1845, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1853, 12mo. - ----- New edition. (_Bohn’s Illustrated Library._) London, 1854, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1887, 8vo. - -Mr. Midshipman Easy. 3 vols. London, 1836, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London. 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxvi. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1873, 8vo. - -Mr. Midshipman Easy. Another edition. London [1879], 8vo. - - One of a series entitled “Notable Novels.” - ----- [“Handy-Volume Marryat” edition.] London [1880], 16mo. - ----- Another edition. London, [1881], 8vo. - - One of “Ward and Lock’s Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London [1883], 8vo. - -Narrative of the Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, -Sonora, and Western Texas, 3 vols. London, 1843, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1849, 8vo. - ----- The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet among the Snake -Indians and Wild Tribes of the Great Western Prairies. London, 1849, 12mo. - - Vol. 33 of the “Parlour Library.” - ----- The Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet in California, Sonora, -and Western Texas. With illustrations. London, 1874, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1875], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -The Naval Officer; or, Scenes and Adventures in the life of Frank -Mildmay. 3 vols. London, 1829, 12mo. - ----- Revised edition. (_Colburn’s Modern Standard Novelists_, vol. x.) -London, 1839, 8vo. - -----Frank Mildmay; or, the Naval Officer, with a Memoir by Florence -Marryat. London [1873], 8vo. - -The Naval Officer. Another edition. London [1874], 8vo. - - One of a series, entitled “Notable Novels.” - ----- Author’s edition. London [1874], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service. 3 vols. London, 1832, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxvii. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - - One of a series entitled the “Railway Library.” - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1874], 8vo. - - One of a series entitled “Notable Novels.” - ----- Author’s edition. London [1874], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -Olla Podrida. 3 vols. London, 1840, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1849, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1874, 8vo. - ----- Author’s copyright edition. London [1875], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -The Pacha of Many Tales. 3 vols. London, 1835, 12mo. - -The Pacha of Many Tales. Another edition. Paris, 1835, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxviii. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- New edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- Author’s edition. London [1874], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 8vo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -Percival Keene. 3 vols. London, 1842, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1848, 8vo. - - No. cxiii. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- New edition, with a Memoir of the Author. London, 1857, 8vo. - - One of the series entitled “Railway Library.” - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London [1873], 8vo. - ----- New edition. London [1875], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With a Memoir of the Author. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -Peter Simple. 3 vols. London, 1834, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxii. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1870, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1873, 8vo. - -Peter Simple. Author’s edition, complete. London [1874], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, Guildford [printed 1876], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, Halifax [printed 1878], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - ----- Another edition. London [1881], 8vo. - - One of “Ward and Lock’s Standard Novels.” - -The Phantom Ship. 3 vols. London, 1839, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1847, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1849, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1874, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -The Pirate and the Three Cutters. Illustrated with engravings from -drawings by C. Stanfield. London, 1836, 4to. - ----- Another edition. With engravings by Stanfield. London, 1848, 8vo. - ----- New edition. (_Bohn’s Illustrated Library._) London, 1849, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. With a Memoir of the Author, etc. London, Beccles -[printed 1877], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” series. - -The Pirate and the Three Cutters. Another edition. With illustrations. -London [1886], 8vo. - -Poor Jack. With illustrations by C. Stanfield. London, 1840, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1880, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1883], 8vo. - - One of the series of “Notable Novels.” - ----- Another edition. With illustrations by C. Stanfield. London, 1883, -8vo. - -The Privateer’s Man, one hundred years ago. 2 vols. London, 1846, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1853, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. 2 vols. London, 1854, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 8vo. - ----- The Privateersman. Adventures by sea and land, in civil and savage -life, one hundred years ago. (_Bohn’s Illustrated Library._) London, -1860, 8vo. - -Rattlin the Reefer. London, 1838, 8vo. - - No. lxix. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 16mo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1875], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. Edited [or rather written] by Captain Marryat. -[“Handy-Volume Marryat” edition.] London [1880], 16mo. - -The Settlers in Canada. 2 vols. London, 1844, 8vo. - -The Settlers in Canada. Another edition. London, 1854, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1855, 12mo. - ----- New edition. With illustrations by Gilbert and Dalziel. London, -1860, 8vo. - - Part of “Bohn’s Illustrated Library.” - ----- Another edition. London [1886], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London [1887], 8vo. - -Snarleyyow; or, the Dog Fiend. 3 vols. London, 1837, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. Paris, 1837, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1847, 8vo. - - No. cvii. of the “Standard Novels.” - ----- Another edition. London, 1856, 12mo. - ----- The Dog Fiend; or, Snarleyyow. London, 1857, 8vo. - - One of the series entitled “Railway Library.” - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London, New York, 1873, 8vo. - ----- Another edition. [Handy-Volume Marryat.] London [1880], 8vo. - -Suggestions for the Abolition of the present System of Impressment in the -Naval Service. London, 1822, 8vo. - -Valerie, an Autobiography. 2 vols. London, 1849, 12mo. - ----- Another edition. With illustrations. London [1873], 8vo. - ----- Another edition. London, 1852, 16mo. - ----- Author’s Copyright edition. London [1875], 8vo. - -Valerie, an Autobiography. Another edition. London [1880], 16mo. - - One of the “Handy-Volume Marryat” Series. - - -II. APPENDIX. - - -BIOGRAPHY, CRITICISM, ETC. - -Cary, T. G.--Letter to a lady in France on the supposed failure of a -National Bank … with answers to enquiries concerning the books of Captain -Marryat and Mr. Dickens. Boston [U.S.], 1843, 8vo. - ----- Second edition. Boston [U.S.], 1844, 8vo. - -Marryat, Florence.--Life and Letters of Captain Marryat. 2 vols. London, -1872, 8vo. - -Marryat, Frederick.--A Reply to Captain Marryat’s statements relative to -the coloured West Indians, in his work entitled, “A Diary in America.” -[Consisting of letters which appeared in the “St. George’s Chronicle.”] -London, 1840, 8vo. - -Marshall, John.--Royal Naval Biography. 4 vols. London, 1823-35, 8vo. - - Frederick Marryat, vol. iii., pp. 261-270. - -Poe, Edgar A.--The Literati, etc. New York, 1850, 8vo. - - Frederick Marryat, pp. 456-460. - - -MAGAZINE ARTICLES. - -Marryat, Frederick.--New Monthly Magazine, vol. 48, 1836, pp. -228-232.--Bentley’s Miscellany (with portrait), by C. Whitehead, vol. 24, -1848, pp. 524-530; same article, Eclectic Magazine, vol. 16, 1849, pp. -135-139, and Littell’s Living Age, vol. 19, pp. 540-543.--Temple Bar, -vol. 37, 1873, pp. 100-106.--London Society, by T. H. S. Escott, vol. 23, -1873, pp. 34-44. - ----- _and his Diary_. Southern Literary Messenger, vol. 7, 1841, pp. -253-276. - ----- _at Langham_. Cornhill Magazine, vol. 16, 1867, pp. 149-161. - ----- _Life and Letters of_. Chambers’s Journal, 1872, pp. 691-695. - ----- _Midshipman Easy_. Monthly Review, vol. 3 N.S., 1836, pp. 211-223. - ----- _Newton Forster_. Westminster Review, vol. 16, 1832, pp. 390-394. - ----- _Novels_. Fraser’s Magazine, vol. 17, 1838, pp. 571-577. - ----- _Percival Keene_. Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, vol. 9 N.S., 1842, pp. -670-680,--Monthly Review, vol. 3 N.S., 1842, pp. 213-223. - ----- _Sea Novels_. Dublin University Magazine, vol. 47, 1856, pp. -294-308; same article, Eclectic Magazine, vol. 38, pp. 46-60.--Cornhill -Magazine, by J. Hannay, vol. 27, 1873, pp. 170-190; same article, -Littell’s Living Age, vol. 116, pp. 676-689, and Eclectic Magazine, vol. -17 N.S., pp. 464-478. - ----- _Settlers in Canada_. Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, vol. 11, 1844, pp. -807, 808. - ----- _Snarleyyow_. Dublin University Magazine, vol. 10, 1837, pp. -325-338. - - -III. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF WORKS. - - Suggestions for the abolition of - the present system of Impressment - in the Naval Service 1822 - - Adventures of a Naval Officer; or, - Frank Mildmay 1829 - - The King’s Own 1830 - - Newton Forster 1832 - - Peter Simple 1834 - - Jacob Faithful 1834 - - Pacha of Many Tales 1835 - - Mr. Midshipman Easy 1836 - - Japhet in Search of a Father 1836 - - Pirate and the Three Cutters 1836 - - Code of Signals 1837 - - Snarleyyow; or, the Dog Fiend 1837 - - Rattlin the Reefer 1838 - - Phantom Ship 1839 - - Diary in America 1839 - - Olla Podrida 1840 - - Poor Jack 1840 - - Masterman Ready 1841 - - Joseph Rushbrook; or, The Poacher 1841 - - Percival Keene 1842 - - Narrative of the Travels and - Adventures of Monsieur Violet 1843 - - Settlers in Canada 1844 - - The Mission; or, Scenes in Africa 1845 - - Privateer’s Man 1846 - - Children of the New Forest 1847 - - The Little Savage 1848-49 - - Valerie 1849 - -_Printed by WALTER SCOTT, Felling, Newcastle-on-Tyne_ - - - - -THE SCOTT LIBRARY. - -Cloth, Uncut Edges, Gilt Top. Price 1s. 6d. per Volume. - - -VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED-- - -1 MALORY’S ROMANCE OF KING ARTHUR AND THE Quest of the Holy Grail. Edited -by Ernest Rhys. - -2 THOREAU’S WALDEN. WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTE by Will H. Dircks. - -3 THOREAU’S “WEEK.” WITH PREFATORY NOTE BY Will H. Dircks. - -4 THOREAU’S ESSAYS. EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, by Will H. Dircks. - -5 CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER, ETC. By Thomas De Quincey. With -Introductory Note by William Sharp. - -6 LANDOR’S IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS. SELECTED, with Introduction, by -Havelock Ellis. - -7 PLUTARCH’S LIVES (LANGHORNE). WITH INTRODUCTORY Note by B. J. Snell, -M.A. - -8 BROWNE’S RELIGIO MEDICI, ETC. WITH INTRODUCTION by J. Addington Symonds. - -9 SHELLEY’S ESSAYS AND LETTERS. EDITED, WITH Introductory Note, by Ernest -Rhys. - -10 SWIFT’S PROSE WRITINGS. CHOSEN AND ARRANGED, with Introduction, by -Walter Lewin. - -11 MY STUDY WINDOWS. BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. With Introduction by R. -Garnett, LL.D. - -12 LOWELL’S ESSAYS ON THE ENGLISH POETS. WITH a new Introduction by Mr. -Lowell. - -13 THE BIGLOW PAPERS. BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. With a Prefatory Note by -Ernest Rhys. - -14 GREAT ENGLISH PAINTERS. SELECTED FROM Cunningham’s _Lives_. Edited by -William Sharp. - -15 BYRON’S LETTERS AND JOURNALS. SELECTED, with Introduction, by Mathilde -Blind. - -16 LEIGH HUNT’S ESSAYS. WITH INTRODUCTION AND Notes by Arthur Symons. - -17 LONGFELLOW’S “HYPERION,” “KAVANAH,” AND “The Trouveres.” With -Introduction by W. Tirebuck. - -18 GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS. BY G. F. FERRIS. Edited, with Introduction, -by Mrs. William Sharp. - -19 THE MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS. EDITED by Alice Zimmern. - -20 THE TEACHING OF EPICTETUS. TRANSLATED FROM the Greek, with -Introduction and Notes, by T. W. Rolleston. - -21 SELECTIONS FROM SENECA. WITH INTRODUCTION by Walter Clode. - -22 SPECIMEN DAYS IN AMERICA. BY WALT WHITMAN. Revised by the Author, with -fresh Preface. - -23 DEMOCRATIC VISTAS, AND OTHER PAPERS. BY Walt Whitman. (Published by -arrangement with the Author.) - -24 WHITE’S NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. WITH a Preface by Richard -Jefferies. - -25 DEFOE’S CAPTAIN SINGLETON. EDITED, WITH Introduction, by H. Halliday -Sparling. - -26 MAZZINI’S ESSAYS: LITERARY, POLITICAL, AND Religious. With -Introduction by William Clarke. - -27 PROSE WRITINGS OF HEINE. WITH INTRODUCTION by Havelock Ellis. - -28 REYNOLDS’S DISCOURSES. WITH INTRODUCTION by Helen Zimmern. - -29 PAPERS OF STEELE AND ADDISON. EDITED BY Walter Lewin. - -30 BURNS’S LETTERS. SELECTED AND ARRANGED, with Introduction, by J. Logie -Robertson, M.A. - -31 VOLSUNGA SAGA. WILLIAM MORRIS. WITH INTRODUCTION by H. H. Sparling. - -32 SARTOR RESARTUS. BY THOMAS CARLYLE. WITH Introduction by Ernest Rhys. - -33 SELECT WRITINGS OF EMERSON. WITH INTRODUCTION by Percival Chubb. - -34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LORD HERBERT. EDITED, with an Introduction, by Will -H. Dircks. - -35 ENGLISH PROSE, FROM MAUNDEVILLE TO Thackeray. Chosen and Edited by -Arthur Galton. - -36 THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY, AND OTHER PLAYS. BY Henrik Ibsen. Edited, with -an Introduction, by Havelock Ellis. - -37 IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES. EDITED AND Selected by W. B. Yeats. - -38 ESSAYS OF DR. JOHNSON, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL Introduction and Notes by -Stuart J. Reid. - -39 ESSAYS OF WILLIAM HAZLITT. SELECTED AND Edited, with Introduction and -Notes, by Frank Carr. - -40 LANDOR’S PENTAMERON, AND OTHER IMAGINARY Conversations. Edited, with a -Preface, by H. Ellis. - -41 POE’S TALES AND ESSAYS. EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, by Ernest Rhys. - -42 VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH. Edited, with Preface, by -Ernest Rhys. - -43 POLITICAL ORATIONS, FROM WENTWORTH TO Macaulay. Edited, with -Introduction, by William Clarke. - -44 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. BY Oliver Wendell Holmes. - -45 THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. BY OLIVER Wendell Holmes. - -46 THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. BY Oliver Wendell Holmes. - -47 LORD CHESTERFIELD’S LETTERS TO HIS SON. Selected, with Introduction, -by Charles Sayle. - -48 STORIES FROM CARLETON. SELECTED, WITH INTRODUCTION, by W. Yeats - -49 JANE EYRE. BY CHARLOTTE BRONTË. EDITED BY Clement K. Shorter. - -50 ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. EDITED BY LOTHROP Withington, with a Preface by -Dr. Furnivall. - -51 THE PROSE WRITINGS OF THOMAS DAVIS. EDITED by T. W. Rolleston. - -52 SPENCE’S ANECDOTES. A SELECTION. EDITED, with an Introduction and -Notes, by John Underhill. - -53 MORE’S UTOPIA, AND LIFE OF EDWARD V. EDITED, with an Introduction, by -Maurice Adams. - -54 SADI’S GULISTAN, OR FLOWER GARDEN. TRANSLATED, with an Essay, by James -Ross. - -55 ENGLISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES. EDITED BY E. Sidney Hartland. - -56 NORTHERN STUDIES. BY EDMUND GOSSE. WITH a Note by Ernest Rhys. - -57 EARLY REVIEWS OF GREAT WRITERS. EDITED BY E. Stevenson. - -58 ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS. WITH GEORGE HENRY Lewes’s Essay on Aristotle -prefixed. - -59 LANDOR’S PERICLES AND ASPASIA. EDITED, WITH an Introduction, by -Havelock Ellis. - -60 ANNALS OF TACITUS. THOMAS GORDON’S TRANSLATION. Edited, with an -Introduction, by Arthur Galton. - -61 ESSAYS OF ELIA. BY CHARLES LAMB. EDITED, with an Introduction, by -Ernest Rhys. - -62 BALZAC’S SHORTER STORIES. TRANSLATED BY William Wilson and the Count -Stenbock. - -63 COMEDIES OF DE MUSSET. EDITED, WITH AN Introductory Note, by S. L. -Gwynn. - -64 CORAL REEFS. BY CHARLES DARWIN. EDITED, with an Introduction, by Dr. -J. W. Williams. - -65 SHERIDAN’S PLAYS. EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, by Rudolf Dircks. - -66 OUR VILLAGE. BY MISS MITFORD. EDITED, WITH an Introduction, by Ernest -Rhys. - -67 MASTER HUMPHREY’S CLOCK, AND OTHER STORIES. By Charles Dickens. With -Introduction by Frank T. Marzials. - -68 TALES FROM WONDERLAND. BY RUDOLPH Baumbach. Translated by Helen B. -Dole. - -69 ESSAYS AND PAPERS BY DOUGLAS JERROLD. EDITED by Walter Jerrold. - -70 VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. BY Mary Wollstonecraft. -Introduction by Mrs. E. Robins Pennell. - -71 “THE ATHENIAN ORACLE.” A SELECTION. EDITED by John Underhill, with -Prefatory Note by Walter Besant. - -72 ESSAYS OF SAINT-BEUVE. TRANSLATED AND Edited, with an Introduction, by -Elizabeth Lee. - -73 SELECTIONS FROM PLATO. FROM THE TRANSLATION of Sydenham and Taylor. -Edited by T. W. Rolleston. - -74 HEINE’S ITALIAN TRAVEL SKETCHES, ETC. TRANSLATED by Elizabeth A. -Sharp. With an Introduction from the French of Theophile Gautier. - -75 SCHILLER’S MAID OF ORLEANS. TRANSLATED, with an Introduction, by -Major-General Patrick Maxwell. - -76 SELECTIONS FROM SYDNEY SMITH. EDITED, WITH an Introduction, by Ernest -Rhys. - -77 THE NEW SPIRIT. BY HAVELOCK ELLIS. - -78 THE BOOK OF MARVELLOUS ADVENTURES. FROM the “Morte d’Arthur.” Edited -by Ernest Rhys. [This, together with No. 1, forms the complete “Morte -d’Arthur.”] - -79 ESSAYS AND APHORISMS. BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS. With an Introduction by E. -A. Helps. - -80 ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE. SELECTED, WITH A Prefatory Note, by Percival -Chubb. - -81 THE LUCK OF BARRY LYNDON. BY W. M. Thackeray. Edited by F. T. -Marzials. - -82 SCHILLER’S WILLIAM TELL. TRANSLATED, WITH an Introduction, by -Major-General Patrick Maxwell. - -83 CARLYLE’S ESSAYS ON GERMAN LITERATURE. With an Introduction by Ernest -Rhys. - -84 PLAYS AND DRAMATIC ESSAYS OF CHARLES LAMB. Edited, with an -Introduction, by Rudolf Dircks. - -85 THE PROSE OF WORDSWORTH. SELECTED AND Edited, with an Introduction, by -Professor William Knight. - -86 ESSAYS, DIALOGUES, AND THOUGHTS OF COUNT Giacomo Leopardi. Translated, -with an Introduction and Notes, by Major-General Patrick Maxwell. - -87 THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL: A RUSSIAN COMEDY. By Nikolai V. Gogol. -Translated from the original, with an Introduction and Notes, by Arthur -A. Sykes. - -88 ESSAYS AND APOTHEGMS OF FRANCIS, LORD BACON: Edited, with an -Introduction, by John Buchan. - -89 PROSE OF MILTON: SELECTED AND EDITED, WITH an Introduction, by Richard -Garnett, LL.D. - -90 THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO. TRANSLATED BY Thomas Taylor, with an -Introduction by Theodore Wratislaw. - -91 PASSAGES FROM FROISSART. WITH AN INTRODUCTION by Frank T. Marzials. - -92 THE PROSE AND TABLE TALK OF COLERIDGE. Edited by W. H. Dircks. - -93 HEINE IN ART AND LETTERS. TRANSLATED BY Elizabeth A. Sharp. - -94 SELECTED ESSAYS OF DE QUINCEY. WITH AN Introduction by Sir George -Douglas, Bart. - -London: WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square. - - - - -Great Writers. - -A NEW SERIES OF CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES. - -Edited by E. ROBERTSON and F. T. MARZIALS. - - -Cloth, Uncut Edges, Gilt Top. Price 1/6. - - Longfellow By Professor Eric S. Robertson - Coleridge By Hall Caine - Dickens By Frank T. Marzials - Dante Gabriel Rossetti By J. Knight - Samuel Johnson By Colonel F. Grant - Darwin By G. T. Bettany - Charlotte Brontë By A. Birrell - Carlyle By R. Garnett, LL.D. - Adam Smith By R. B. Haldane, M.P. - Keats By W. M. Rossetti - Shelley By William Sharp - Smollett By David Hannay - Goldsmith By Austin Dobson - Scott By Professor Yonge - Burns By Professor Blackie - Victor Hugo By Frank T. Marzials - Emerson By R. Garnett, LL. D. - Goethe By James Sime - Congreve By Edmund Gosse - Bunyan By Canon Venables - Crabbe By T. E. Kebbel - Heine By William Sharp - Mill By W. L. Courtney - Schiller By Henry W. Nevinson - Marryat By David Hannay - Lessing By T. W. Rolleston - Milton By R Garnett, LL.D. - Balzac By Frederick Wedmore - George Eliot By Oscar Browning - Jane Austen By Goldwin Smith - Browning By William Sharp - Byron By Hon. Roden Noel - Hawthorne By Moncure D. Conway - Schopenhauer By Professor Wallace - Sheridan By Lloyd Sanders - Thackeray By H. Merivale and F. T. Marzials - Cervantes By H. E. 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