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Captain Eardley - Wilmot reproduces a plan made after the attack by Cowper Coles, Lyons' flag-lieutenant, representing the position taken up by the ships. In this plan the power of the forts, so far from being underestimated, is considerably exaggerated. For example, the cliff batteries are credited with three times the number of guns that they really possessed, and at least 300 guns in the outer forts are depicted as bearing on the ships, whilst Todleben gives the number as only 152. The number of guns in the second line of forts is also overestimated, and it is scarcely conceivable that Lyons could have been at all sanguine of success if this plan had been before him previous to his leaving Balaclava. There is nothing, indeed, in what is brought forward by Captain EardleyWilmot to show that Hamley and Kinglake are not correct in making it appear that Lyons only learnt by bitter experience that nothing could be done by the ships which would be of material assistance to the army. The skill and gallantry with which the Agamemnon was anchored exactly in the position assigned to her has been already made clear by Kinglake. It is not astonishing that the landsman gives all the credit for the expert handing of the ship to the admiral, and ignores the captain of the Agamemnon, Mends, who was really responsible for the working of the ship. But in this book, which is in great measure a popular naval history written

by a naval officer for the general public, the omission of Mends' name is somewhat ungracious. The handling of the Agamemnon is frequently alluded to by Captain EardleyWilmot, especially in connection with the weighing of the flotilla of transports and the entry into Balaclava harbour; but in each instance the credit is given to Lyons, without any mention or explanation that even a flagship is always handled entirely by her captain.

Owing mainly to the fact that the French insisted on carrying out their part of the attack at very long ranges, the much-talked- of naval attack was really only a reconnaissance in force. The fleets carried about 12,000 men, and the total loss in killed and wounded amounted to only 450. Not a single ship was disabled, though the Albion was a good deal damaged. More than a third of this loss was borne by the Agamemnon, Sanspareil, and Albion, which were the only three ships really warmly engaged for any time. The London, Rodney, and Arethusa also assisted this inshore squadron ; but the combined fire of the six ships, although it produced some temporary effect, failed to silence the guns which they engaged. These guns, according to Todleben, did not number much more than twenty or thirty. The gallant attack of the inshore squadron, therefore, went quite far enough to make it clear that it was hopeless for the fleets to break their way into the harbour, whilst outside

they could do nothing to assist the assault. Lyons' gallantry, however, had an excellent moral effect, and prevented the fleet being over depressed at their failure.

At last, in December 1854, eight months after war was was declared, Dundas was relieved. This officer's popularity had been rapidly on the wane, and when Lyons on his departure ordered the signal to be made, "May happiness await you ! the fleet was quite entranced when a blundering signal-officer substituted for "happiness" the next word on the list, so that the signal appeared, "May hanging await you"! Dundas, however, was not nearly so much to blame as the Administration which kept him in command: he ought to have been relieved a year before. When Lyons became commander-inchief there was not much for him to do. He gathered round him a younger and more energetic set of officers than his late chief, and tried for some time in vain to get the French to agree to more active measures. The great difficulty was, that to operate on the line of communication in the Sea of Azoff it was necessary to force the Straits of Kertch. These were defended by powerful batteries, and a land force was required to assault them.

The navy now understood most thoroughly that it was no use to make an attack from the sea on forts without a landing force to occupy the batteries when silenced. But for many months not a man

could be

spared from the lines before Sevastopol, and it was not until the middle of May that the men were available. The Kertch forts then fell without a blow, the Russians retiring when they saw that resistance was hopeless. Lyons had organised a light squadron of small craft under young and dashing officers, which he sent into the Sea of Azoff, his son, Captain Lyons of the Miranda, being in command. The operations which ensued were not of great importance, for though the supplies of the Russian army were somewhat interfered with, the garrison of Sevastopol still received sufficient for their needs. The officers and men employed on this service, however, showed much resource and enterprise, young Lyons especially distinguishing himself. His career was but a short one, for scarcely had he returned to his father before Sevastopol than a chance shell gave him his mortal wound. The loss of such a promising son was a great blow to the father, and one from which he never entirely recovered. remained in command of the Mediterranean fleet two years after the conclusion of the war; but the comparative rest and ease came too late to enable him to recruit his shattered health. He came home in 1858, and quietly passed away in November from rapid consumption, brought on by the heavy strain that the war entailed.

He

In summing up the qualities and services of Lord Lyons, his biographer more than once

compares him to Nelson. This, in my opinion, is a mistake. Nelson was a genius and a hero; Lyons was neither. Nelson was raised up at a time when not only the fate of Great Britain but that of the liberties of Europe depended upon the upholding of the sea-power of our nation.

Great as were the

sacrifices willingly borne by our people, our fleets were constantly outnumbered at the scene of action by those of our antagonists, and genius was needed in order to ensure victory. Lyons was never tried in this way. Like many another gallant seaman, his foresight was not always clear; he was never called upon for a great decision; he never led a

fleet in search of the enemy. His merit consists in his doing well what came to his hand; his energy was untiring; he won the confidence of his inferiors; and by his winning manners and high character secured the respect and cordial co-operation of our somewhat difficult allies, the French. There have been, and there will be, many a Lyons in the navy, but only one Nelson. But Captain Eardley-Wilmot's book is not the less valuable for this reason, for it does not hold up an unapproachable standard, but rather shows how a man who is not a genius may still by devotion to duty live and die honourably in his country's service.

FROM FOREIGN PARTS: A SONG OF DEVON.

I WAS wanderin' dro' the thicket, hot and wet, and night acomin':

All to once I yeard a cricket set to drummin', drummin',

drummin'.

Her buzzed so gude and neighbourly I laughed aloud to hear, I zimm'd 'twas engine dreshin' wheat to home in Devon-sheer. Here us has no ice nor snow,

Like in purty Devon.

Oh, to hear the cattle low,

Winter nights in Devon!
“Hark the herald angels sing".
Mother with her Christmasing,
Boys all slidin' ring-a-ring

On our pond in Devon.

Now the winter days be come, you beside the barn,
Fill the dresher, make her hum, fed with yellow corn.
Red the field, and green the bank, sun in mist a-settin',
Frost in air and smoke lieth low,—and I lies here a-sweatin'.
Shorter grow the afternoons
(Ricks beside the linhay).
Early shine the winter moons
(Ricks beside the linhay).

Far along the howlets whoopin',
Milkmaid calleth coop, coop, coopin',
Sweet red cows to farmyard troopin'
(Ricks beside the linhay).

Home-brew zider soft as cream, blaze of ashen logs,
Our little maids like cherubim round the fire-dogs:
But hereaway-I could ha' cried, 'twas just a goin' home,
I seed un so distinckly when I yeard yon cricket drum.
Here there be no winter days,

Same as home to Devon.
Never see the wood-fire blaze
(Jolly land of Devon!).

Here the niggers call me "Zir, "

Oh, to be a labourer,

Back again amid good cheer

Back to jolly Devon!

EDWARD A. IRVING.

THE REBEL KING.

He

It is agreed on all hands that Mr Parnell played one of the most important parts in the political drama of his age. Men of every shade of opinion are prepared to concur in that view. "Parnell was the most remarkable man I ever met," was Mr Gladstone's mature verdict; "I do not say the ablest man; I say the most remarkable and the most interesting. He was an intellectual phenomenon.” Lord Rosebery expressed his assent to this judgment the other day in Edinburgh. "I thought him very remarkable," says Mr Chamberlain; "a great man. I have often thought Parnell was like Napoleon. allowed nothing to stand in his way. He stopped at nothing to gain his end." Sir Charles Dilke (who, it is to be observed, had at least one thing in common with the Irish leader) attributes to him "inexorable tenacity, sound judgment, knowledge of his own mind at all times, dauntless courage, an iron will, and the faculty of controlling himself and others." These are not the qualities of mediocrity, and we make no apology for calling attention to the life of a man who unquestionably possessed them.1 But let there be no misunderstanding. We purpose to employ very plain language in dealing with our subject.

are not to mince mat

ters; we are to make no lavish use of periphrasis. We shall take the liberty of calling treason and murder by their proper names, and of applying the terms "traitor" and "murderer" to any instigator, as well as to any perpetrator, of those crimes. For the truth is, that Mr Parnell was nothing if not the inveterate and implacable enemy of England. It was a character in which he gloried, and which, to do him justice, he would have scorned to repudiate. We shall, accordingly, endeavour to discuss his career in precisely the same spirit in which we should seek to comment upon that of the great Captain to whom Mr Chamberlain not inaptly compares him. But we cannot be answerable for it-nor, in truth, shall we be either surprised or ashamed

if we are unable to preserve a uniform composure of mood and imperturbability of temper. It is one thing to review perils from the menace of which we are separated by the space of three generations. It is quite another to recall dangers which ceased to be desperately formidable only a very few years ago, and with which the course of events or the exigencies of party warfare may once again confront us. The reader, when he has refreshed his memory with the tale, will not, we are persuaded, be slow to pardon

By R. Barry O'Brien, of the Middle London Smith, Elder, & Co., 1898.

1 The Life of Charles Stewart Parnell. Temple, Barrister-at-Law. 2 vols.

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