the numerous steamers that are plying up and down; and the host of wherries with which its surface is sometimes covered. This inconvenience would be obviously removed by banishing these dingy receptacles of fuel to less conspicuous stations; and, occasionally, as convenience might dictate, constructing a line of wharfage with deep water at their margin, convenient for the unlading of vessels of no inconsiderable burden. This is practicable, to a certain extent, as ships of much greater tonnage than have ever yet been in the habit of unlading and receiving between bridges, might conveniently pass up and down. The banks of our metropolitan river would, moreover, so far as our naval commerce is concerned, present to the eye of the gazer, of whatever country he may be, some type of our vast maritime resources. Now, it is manifestly the policy and the interest of trading capitalists to render every facility to the embarkation or debarkation of the frieghts of their ships-would it not incomparably add to the convenience of the British merchant, in this respect, if occasional wharfs were constructed between bridges, with noble piles of warehouses thrown back, allowing sufficient space for the traffic necessarily attendant upon such marts. The great thoroughfare lying alongside the river would thus be practicable and safe for foot passengers; and the dangerous blockades which are continually occurring in Thames street, to the impediment of public business, would, in a considerable degree, be removed. The port of London has a noble Custom-house, but really the approaches to it, on every side, except that of the river, are absolutely disgraceful to the metropolis of Great Britain. Is this the case with other capitals of Europe, at all approximating to it in wealth and extent? Is there, indeed, a capital in Europe with so noble a river flowing through it, whose citizens would not turn it to higher account, both to ornament and utility. The banks of the Thames, instead of being a source of recreation as well as of commerce, as in other cities, are, as your correspondent observes, neither available for the one nor the other. During the whole length of Fleet street and the Strand, except at the opening to Waterloo bridge, the vicinity of this noble stream is almost entirely lost to the citizens. In any other European capital, proper openings, at intervals, would afford to the crowds who incessantly throng these busy marts, salutary and exhilirating glimpses of its waters, or its wharfs, with the gay and gallant vessels which might, under a proper arrangement, chequer its margin. Abundantly admitting the truth of your correspondent's remarks, as to the wretched state of ship accommodation between Westminster and London bridges, I quite coincide with him in opinion, that the citizens of our metropolis must shrink from a comparison with their continental neighbours, where, with so many natural advantages, they possess so few artificial ones. London is superior, as a port, in point of trade, to what Amsterdam or Antwerp ever were; and yet, look at the quays and shipping accommodation in the latter cities, in comparison with the former! Rotterdam is a secondary city in Holland; and yet view her superiority in this respect to London, vaunted as the first port in the world. In a similar scale of magnitude stands Bordeaux, in France; and yet all the quays on the banks of the Thames shrink to insignificance before those of a port, the annual tonnage of whose shipping, bears no comparison to that of our river. From my recollections of the port of Paris, (I was there soon after the peace of 1815,) I should say that your correspondent had by no means exaggerated its superior claim over those of London. The views from the Pont Neuf and Pont Royal, so far as the banks of the two rivers are concerned, are certainly not to be paralleled in London; and, although Englishmen sometimes regard the scene with a contemptuous toss of the head; yet, as your correspondent observes, as far as art is concerned for their improvement," the Thames is the ditch, and the Seine the river." Londoners have much more reason to blush nature has done so much, and themselves so little. Look at the cities of Italy, renowned for their commerce before the discovery of the passage by the Cape. The magnificence of their public quays and accommodation for the merchant, was on a scale commensurate with their great trade. The writings of the most intelligent travellers confirm this. Dr. Moore, from Florence, thus writes:-"The quays, the buildings on each side, and the bridges, render that part of Florence by far the finest." "The same," adds this celebrated traveller, "is the case at Paris;" and it happens fortunately for those two cities, that those parts are almost constantly before the eye, on account of the necessity people are continually under, of passing and repassing those bridges,— whereas, in London, people may live whole seasons, and drive every day from one end of the town to the other, without ever seeing the Venice and Thames or the bridges, unless they go on purpose. Genoa, those splendid emporiums of commerce in the middle ages, were built and adorned with an especial reference to their great maritime importance. The latter stood proudly eminent as a port, while the local situation of the former city rendered it peculiarly eligible for traffic, since almost every street furnished at once a quay and a floating dock. London has, also, her peculiar advantages, were they but made the most of. And, although her foreign trade, in point of magnitude, and the tonnage of its shipping, bears at present no proportion to that of any other city of the empire, it may not be always so. What strides have been made by Liverpool, within the last half century. Her docks, public quays, warehouses, and conveniences for the stowage of goods may, in a great degree, account for her rapid rise in wealth and consequence. In default of many of the advantages possessed by Liverpool, London, may, spite of her being the seat of government and all the metropolitan immunities consequent there upon, still sink in the scale of commercial importance. The inconveniences likewise, inconveniences of no common magnitude, so forcibly pointed out by your correspondent, in the want of proper quays for the embarkation and debarkation of the innumerable passengers who diurnally freight our steamers, calls aloud for the interference of the public authorities. The annoyance and danger arising from the deficiencies of wharf accommodation on the river Thames, in this particular alone, is really frightful. In the port of Bristol, the quays within the city, and taking into consideration its inferior trade and the tonnage of its vessels, rank far higher in point of accommodation. Their principal wharf is nearly a mile in length, with every convenience for the landing and stowage of goods. If the shipping trade of Bristol has, for the last thirty years, declined, it has probably been partly owing to the high port and dock dues, demanded of the ship-owners, and partly to the circumstance of a monopoly of the foreign trade being in the hands of a few merchants, who are so rich that they care little about it. The declension of their trade is certainly not to be traced to the inconveniences of their port, which, considering the smallness of their river, is conspicuously the reverse. Surveying the Thames from Lambeth to the Tower, does the port of London, nothwithstanding its noble river and vast trade, present the wharf conveniences and accommodations which distinguish the port of Bristol, with a river whose confined channels at ebb tide scarcely suffices to bring up vessels of burden to her shores and marts of commerce? Why will not the citizens of London, and those who are interested in its prosperity, learn from their neighbours, both at home and abroad, to improve the facilities of her commerce, so far as the Thames navigation is concerned? They have just lost a noble Exchange. Is the public spirit and munificence which animated Sir Thomas Gresham, its founder, 250 years back, extant among our merchants of this age? London abounds in chartered societies of wealthy order. Could not some of the enormously rich city companies, instead of spending their money in eating and drinking, appropriate some of their surplus funds in improving the shores and avenues which lead to the Thames. The river, at present, exhibits between bridges, a most unseemly appearance-fringed with filthy barges, and skirted on its banks, for the most part, with old walls and nondescript edifices. It is the interest of Londoners to raise the accommodation of the river Thames to a scale of splendour and of beauty, competing with other large maritime cities of Europe; and, if the flux and reflux of the tide, bearing upon its waters commodities from all the nations of the earth, furnish employment for its thousands and tens of thousands,— surely, it is not too much to hope, that the almost total absence of public quays on the Thames will not be much longer a matter of disgraceful notoriety. E. P. THE BRITISH FLAG IN INDIA. Madras, 11th Nov., 1837. MR. EDITOR,-The following changes will no doubt interest your nautical readers visiting the East Indies. Since the 1st June, 1837, the offices and establishments of Masters attendant at the ports mentioned below, have been abolished, and the British flag heretofore hoisted there, is no more shown to vessels passing by. It is doubtless of no consequence to the mariner, as there are other flag-staffs sufficient on the Coromandel and Malabar coasts where the flag is still hoisted on the occasion of a ship heaving in sight, viz. : Coromandel Coast: Calingpatam, Ganjam, Pulicat, Trincomalee, (on the Island of Ceylon,) Tranquebar, Pondicherry, Madras, Coringa, Masulipatam, Vizagapatam. Malabar Coast: Sadras, Covelong, Cuddalore, Port Novo, Negapatam, Calicut, Mangalore, Tutacorin, Cochin, Tellicherry. J. F. M. EXTRACT FROM THE REGULATIONS OF THE PRUSSIAN SCHOOL OF NAVIGATION. [We are enabled to lay the following information before our readers, through the polite attention of B. Hebeler, Esq., his Prussian Majesty's Consul-General in London, to whose kindness we are also indebted for the article on the same subject in our last number.-ED. N.M.] SECTION I. The object of the School of Navigation is the scientific education of a complete merchant-seaman, who must unite in himself all that is requisite, 1st, for a master shipbuilder; 2nd, a steersman; 3rd, a captain of a ship (shipmaster and captain.) Sec. II. The objects to be learnt are divided into three classes, which may be denominated, 1st, shipbuilding class; 2nd, steersman class; 3rd, sea-captain's class. The special course of each class would occupy one year, therefore the three classes three years. Sec. III.-The first, or shipbuilding class, affords in itself a conclusive one, so that the future shipbuilder can learn everything therein, necessary for his appointment, without going through the other classes. Sec. IV. The second, or steersman's class, also consists of an entire one; so that the intended steersman may, after completing, that is, after a period of two years, have attained the requisite knowledge. Sec. V. The intended sea-captain is obliged to go through the whole three years' course. Sec. VI. The scholars to be elected must have been confirmed, read fluently, and understand arithmetic with fractions. Sec. VII. In the shipbuilding class is taught, in the winter halfyear, 1st, algebra; 2nd, geometry; 3rd, plain trigonometry; 5th, tracing designs of shipbuilding, and explaining the good and bad qualities of ships in regard to their sailing and burthen; 6th, the art of rigging or sailmaking; 7th, shipbuilding in general.-In the summer half-year, 1st, shipbuilding in detail, according to a complete model, which is to be provided, of a proper size; 2nd, trigonometry; 3rd, hydrostatics; 4th, rules by which to calculate the strength and durability of wood and ship's cordage; 5th, mechanics: the most essential principles are explained and elucidated by experiments, for which proper models are provided; 6th, shipbuilding wharfs and dock-yards are visited the properties of different modes of shipbuilding the most advantageous is taught by inspection of ships of different nations -the more clear demonstration of the characters and varieties to be facilitated by models. Sec. VIII.-In the steersman's class is taught, in the winter halfyear, 1st, mathematical geography; 2nd, nautical astronomy and attending the observatory; 3rd, use of the compass; 4th, knowledge of charts; 5th, theory of the lever; 6th, calculation of equipoise of the various machines which are in daily use with seamen, as windlass, pulleys, &c. &c.; 7th, theoretical sciences as steersman.-In the summer half-year, 1st, practical steersman's science, and exercising the same in the roads; 2nd, theory of ship's evolution; 3rd, manœuvres. The objects of instruction in the winter half-year, Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5, to be repeated and continued. Sec. IX. In the sea-captains' class will be taught, in the winter half-year, 1st, geography; 2nd, statistics; 3rd, hydrography; 4th, general ideas of physic; 5th, maritime law, particularly in reference to the Prussian state, according to the instructions of the general laws, 2nd part, 8 title; 6th, keeping of a journal, and drawing up reports and statements of every kind.—In the summer half-year, 1st, management of ship; 2nd, commanding the same, and exercise in the roads; 3rd, maritime customs; 4th, repetition and continuation of several studies at the last half-year, particularly those mentioned Nos. 4 and 6; 5th, astronomy, and attending the observatory throughout the year. Sec. X.-Such studies as may have been omitted or misplaced in sections must in all the schools and lessons be rectified and regulated; but this principle must be maintained, that as far as possible, theory should be attended to in the winter, and practice in the summer; and that the first class, then again the first and second, and then all the three classes, form one complete whole. [Note.-The value of the dollar referred to in the salaries of masters, &c. in p. 194, &c. is about three shillings sterling.] ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 4.-VOL. FOR 1838. 2 M |