abandoned waterlogged 50 9N. 37-8W Nov. 11

passed waterlogged by Constance 40°N. 44°W Oct. 2

Argus,-In contact with an American vessel, injured and abandoned sinking. Astoria,-The Master Mr. J. Richards, by a resolution of the Consignees of the ship at Quebec, has obtained much credit for his great personal exertions in saving so much of the cargo.

Juventus,-The crew having abandoned her were picked up by the Scout Capt. Saxby.

Mary Ann,-Two passengers taken off by the Georgian arrived at Liverpool. Midas,-Reported by the Earl of Powis, Walker from Montreal, supposed her to be timber laden.

Rapid, Schooner, crew brought home from the Baltic by the Margaret, England, master.

Regina,-Found abandoned by Hamburgh barque, Augusta and Bertha, a piece of wood was seen in the Regina on which was marked "will you take us off".

Ury. The rest of the crew saved by the life-boat. "Nothing could surpass the gallant devotion of the two Masters and crew of the life-boat, nor the praise-worthy alacrity with which the whole population of Southwold rendered their assistance in launching the boat.

THE survey of the coast of Norway, which for several years has been going forward under the direction of the Norwegian Government, has recently been concluded, and the two last charts of a series extending nearly from Drondheim round the North Cape to the Russian frontier, in the White Sea, have just been published with the necessary directions.

This series of charts consisting of ten sheets, which include the whole coast above-mentioned, are published on the scale of three miles to the inch, are clearly and neatly engraved, and form a highly and valuable addition to Northern Hydrography. The two last sheets are the most important of the series, as the coast embraced by them, was all but a sealed district to all but Russian ships, and they derive even greater importance still from the circumstance that it once served as a refuge to American Privateers, which were enabled to inflict serious injury to our ships frequenting the White Sea, while our cruizers were unable to follow them.

ARCTIC EXPEDITION.-Nothing further has, up to this time, been received at the Admiralty from the three Searching Expeditions: indeed nothing further is likely to be heard from Sir John Richardson's Searching Expedition unless something extraordinary occurs, nor from Sir James Ross till the return of the whale ships in October or November.

Advices however from Capt. Kellett, of the Herald, may be daily expected via Panama, by which it will be known if Sir John Franklin's Expedition has fortunately passed through Behrings Straits.

LIGHTS OF STEAMERS.-The Swedish Government, in order to prevent steamers from running foul of each other in the night, has issued an ordonnance that all Swedish steamers shall henceforth, from sun-set to sun-rise, carry the same lights, of the same colours, and in the same positions as those agreed upon between France and England.

NOVEL MODE OF SHEWING LIGHT FROM A LIGHTHOUSE.-The subject of artificial light has of late years occupied much attention, and some remarkable exhibitions have lately been made of lights of extraordinary

brilliancy. We, therefore, take the opportunity of bringing to the notice of our readers, a suggestion entirely new, relative to the application of the illuminating power of a lighthouse, communicated to us by the author from the new edition of Raper's Practice of Navigation, now in the press.

"It is not unlikely that a light may be found sufficiently powerful, by the addition of a proper reflector, to illuminate the clouds, and, in a fainter degree, the atmosphere itself, over a lighthouse. The pale light in which a distant town appears enveloped at night, the distinctness of the forms of the clouds over a large city illuminated by its ordinary lamps, and the vivid glare diffused over the heavens by a fire, show that the atmosphere renders such reflected light visible at a considerable distance. It is merely a question of intensity. If a sunbeam were admitted through a hole in the earth, in a dark night, it would appear in the atmosphere as a column of astonishing splendour. The light suggested would exhibit no flame, and might with propriety be designated a shaft-light. The shaft, by the dispositon of the reflector, might be directed vertically, or inclined seawards or landwards; or by attaching the reflector to a pendulum, the axis of the light might be made to vibrate from side to side, or revolve; and the effect, even on a small scale, would be a great relief to our already exhausted resources for varying the appearance of lights."

NEW BOOKS.

THE NAVIGATION LAWS OF GREAT BRITAIN,-Historically and practically considered with reference to Commerce and National Defence; by Joseph Allen, Author of Works on Naval History.-London: Bailey, Brothers, and Ridgway.

The object sought to be attained by the publication of this volume is the disabuse of the public mind of the erroneous opinions industriously propagated by enemies Foreign and Domestic. Its appearance is well timed, and without arrogating to itself any great merit, the work places at one view before the reader, the whole facts of the case. The minutes of the evidence given before the Committee of the House of Lords, extend in the original to about 900 folio pages, the whole of which is neatly and truthfully condensed into about 200 pages of Mr. Allen's production.

The volume sets out by detailing the circumstances which led to the first establishments of Navigation or Conserving Laws. It shows, by a reference to the best Histories, that England was driven to the step first taken in the reign of Richard II, by considerations of great national importance, and that the re-enactment of the principle by Cromwell was not occasioned by personal pique or spite, but in order to preserve the country from insult, and the total loss of commerce, and the carrying trade. As our Colonies grew up, the necessity for confining the trade to the ships of this country increased, and there appears good reason for believing that we are, at this day, indebted to the Navigation Laws for the preservation of our foreign possessions. The Navigation Laws have been the tie, and we may trace the disasters of our Colonies to the relaxation of our Conserving System.

The National defence question is most ably treated upon by Admiral Sir George Martin, Capt. Sir James Stirling, Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, Capt. Toup Nicolas, Capt. Berkeley, Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Whitwill, and last, though not least, by Lieut. John Hoskins Brown, the Registrar of Mer

chant Seamen, whose united testimony shows that the Mercantile Navy is an indispensable appendage to the Royal Service.

We think enough has been said to prove that the title of the volume is well sustained, and that it deserves, and in fact has a very strong claim upon the patronage of every British seaman, and indeed of every Briton.

ANNUAL LIST OF NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSES, BEACONS, AND BUOYS, for 1849.-Adam and Blunt, Edinburgh; Longman and Co., London.

At the cost of THREE-PENCE, the seaman, by the yearly publication before us, is placed in possession of the descriptions and positions of all the lighthouses, beacons, and buoys, belonging to the Commissioners of the Northern Light Board; a kind of annual which, might be imitated with advantage to him, and others besides, by the Ballast Board of Dublin, and Trinity Board of London.

It is the fashion in this country to print annuals to suit the public taste: they appear every Christmas, blooming with all the beauties of artistic and literary elegance and excellence. But, what real benefit do they confer on society? save in the employment of capital and the improvement of art, compared with the important historical character of the annual before us! They go by into the shades of fiction, while the truth and real utility of this asserts its right to reference and preservation, as an historical record. Other corporate bodies, which, no doubt, very worthily exercise a control over similar matters, on the coasts of this maritime country, should also render a yearly report of the existing state of their buoys, for many of their measures relating to them, being advertised only in a local paper, pass unknown at the fountain head; or, at least, what should be the fountain head of hydrography in this island. There is an air of business in a general statement like that before us. If there were an annual report to refer to, published by authority, those who look for such information would know where to find it. But, in the present state of things they are dependent on unauthorized sources; and, if they obtain it at all, they frequently obtain wrong information. One good effect of this publication by the Boards we have mentioned, would be a check on chart-sellers by seamen themselves, who would thus be enabled to correct their charts according to the report. Approving as we do highly of the report before us, which we repeat is an example to be followed by other Boards, we think a more compact form would conduce to its more general adoption. An octavo size is handier than a large folio, and some kind of distinguishing feature might be adopted for buoys and beacons newly laid down, or changed in their places, and a kind of obituary list, established of others, which might have been entirely done away, in the course of the year. But, these are mere matters of convenience. The Northern Light Board may justly take the credit of having thus set their neighbours an example, which we hope they will not be above following.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF VICE ADMIRAL LORD NELSON, K.B., Duke of Bronte, &c.-By Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, F.R.S., F.S A., &c.-Two Volumes, T. & W. Boone, London.

It is remarkable, that, notwithstanding the several biographical histories of our great Naval Hero, from the hands of some of our most celebrated authors, followed even by "the Nelson Despatches and Letters," extending NO 2.-VOL. XVIII.

P

to five volumes, a mass of information in the shape of private letters, which had passed between the Admiral and some of the most remarkable leading characters of his day, should have remained to be given to the world in the year 1849. Lord Nelson's public acts were public property, and they have long since been publicly discussed; but there were certain important facts connected with them, of which the world remained till now in ignorance: they lay concealed in private letters between him and his dearest friends, and now, when time has done its work in removing their authors from this world's stage, that they appear throwing new and grateful gleams of light on the darker shades of the picture, the historian has to pass fresh judgment on the name of Nelson! We are informed by Mr. Pettigrew, in his preface to these volumes, that it was not until he saw that the letters in question contained the unreserved narrative of the great events in which he was concerned, along with those expressions of opinion, which can only be found in private correspondence, that he determined on embodying them in the present work, filling up the less important parts from other works. Mr. Pettigrew. has executed his task well; with a becoming modesty he ap proached it, and the public are indebted to him for what may be designated THE LIFE OF NELSON. One of the most important features of these volumes as Mr. Pettigrew, justly remarks, is the portion relating to the trial and execution of Carracciolo for which Lord Nelson has been much blamed. But as it was his misfortune then to be placed as the Admiral of the Neapolitan Squadron, it is difficult to conceive how he could have acted otherwise than he did. Many other facts of his eventful career, receive new colouring from the correspondence in these volumes, but there is one person whose extraordinary history and no less extraordinary end will reach the sympathy of many a Sailor's heart. We allude to the unfortunate Lady Hamilton, "England's Friend," as she was emphatically called, the beloved of the great Admiral. His country performed the honorable part of placing his surviving relatives in affluence, was it theirs to allow her to die neglected in squalid penury. Alas, alas, how would Nelson's dying moments have been embittered, had the veil of futurity been drawn aside, and revealed to him the unhappy end of his "Guardian Angel" Providence in His mercy spared that sorrow, to him worse than death.

There is so much of interest in the short biography of this extraordinary woman that we cannot resist transferring to our own limited pages the following extract from it. We must not omit to observe that these interesting volumes which contain so much classic lore to naval officers, that they must find their place in the library of every ship that floats, are illus trated with admirable specimens of artistic skill in the portraits of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, besides a fac-simile of the writing of each on the Queen of Naples letter, signed by herself and all her children. Lady Hamilton's difficulties after Lord Nelson's death increased.

In vain, she attempted to dispose of Merton and, at length by repeated application to her friends, a meeting was held at the house of Alderman man Sir John Perring, Bart., on the 25th of November, at which were present Sir John Ferring, Sir Robert Barclay, Mr. Davison, Mr. Moore, Mr. Gooch Mr. Macklew, Mr. Abraham Goldsmid, Mr. Nichol, Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Lavie; when Mr. Dawson, Lady Hamilton's solicitor, laid before them a list of debts, amounting to £8,000, exclusive of £10,000 required to pay off annuities; and, a valuation of her property at Merton, and elsewhere, (taken at a low rate), amounting to £17,500.

An assignment of Merton, and her effects, was made to Sir John Perring, Mr. Alexander Davison, Mr. Abraham Goldsmid, Mr. Richard Wilson, and Mr. Germain Lavie; and to afford immediate relief; Mr. Davison, and Mr. Goldsmid, each advanced £1,000; Sir Robert Barclay, Mr. I. Gooch, and Mr. Wilson, each