Literature.

iu belt ancl marlingspiko iu hand , thc captain of the forecastle undertook my improvement in thc arts of knotting ' and splicing ; Larmour himself taking charge of gammoning and rigging the bowsprit , which , as tho frigate lay in dock , overhung the common highway . So little attention was then paid to the niceties of dockyard arrangement . " Dockyards in those days were secondary objects . At Sheerness tho people lived , like rabbits in a warren , in old hulks , hauled up high and dry ; yet everything was well done , and the supervision perfect . It would be foll

y to advocate the continuance of such a state of things , yet it may be doubted whether the naval efficiency of the present day keeps pace with the enormous outlay on modern ' dockyards , almost ( as it appears to mo ) to ignoring the training of men . 1 would rather see a mistake iu the opposite extreme—men before dockyard convenieneios ; and am confident that had such been our practice , we should not have recently heard humiliating explanations , that we were ivithout adequate naval protection , aud that our national safety depended on the forbearance of a neighbouring state . "

Lord Cochrane seems to have benefited by the instruction of that " sea dog , " Jack Larmour , and to have ' occupied himself iu really learning more of his profession than falls to the lot of young officers now a day . With the celebrities of the service he was not much associated , for we find him but once alluding to one of them , but that one was Nelson , whom he met at Palermo , and who gave him the folloiving advice : — "Never mind manoeuvres , always at them

go ; " to wliich Lord Cochrane describes much of his peculiar st yle of attack , but in his case he tempered this advice by long headed forethought , and although acting upon it never did so without carefully consulting the cost and the probability of success . He first came into notice as captain of a little brig , the Speedg , ivhose slender proportions and contemptible armament serve as a curious illustration ofthe way in which great done

things were before steam frigates and rifled cannon were in vogue . She was armed ivith fourteen four-pounders , and her commander used to amuse himself with walking his quarter deck with her broadside , twenty-eight pounds , in his pockets ! With this tiny vessel he repaired to thc coast of Spain , and there commenced harassing the cruisers , taking every thing he could ivithout reckoning the worth of his captures . At last so annoying was this practice that the Spaniards sent their largest frigates in

chase of him , which he evaded in various ways , two of which are worth mentioning . Being chased at night he got aivay from one of these vessels by sending her on a fool ' s errand after a tub winch he caused to be illuminated , and from another b y thc precaution of having had his brig painted like a well known Danish brig , and fri ghtening off the boat , which was about to boarcl him in order to ascertain his real nationality , by incidentall y informing the that he

Spaniards ivas fresh from Al giers , and that there ivas danger of the plague on board . But ivhen he ivas hard put to it by a large Spanish frigate , he signalized himself by the Ibllowhi" - audacious and crafty attack : — ° ' ¦ M y orders were not to fire . _ gun till ive were close to her . "When running-under her lee , ive locked our yards amongst her rigging , and in this position returned our broadside , such as it was . have fired

"To our pop-gun -1-pounders at a distance ivould havo been to throw away the ammunition ; but the guns being doubly , and , as I attenvards learned , trebly shotted , and being elevated , they told admirably upon her main deck ; the first discharge , as was subsequently ascertained , killed the Spanish captain and the boatswain . 'My reason for locking our small craft in the enemy ' s riggin" was the one upon wliich I mainly relied for victory- ™ ., that from the heh-ht ot the trigate out of the water the whole of her shot must necessarily go over our heads , whilst our guns , being elevated , would blow up her main

The Spaniards speedily found out the disadvantage under wliich taey were fighting , and gave the order to board the Speedy ; but as this order was as distinctly heard by us as by them , ive avoided it at the moment of execution by sheering off sufficientl y to prevent the movement , giving them a volley of musketry and a broadside before thev could recover themselves . * " Ttviee was this immcouvre repeated , and twice thus averted . The Spaniards finding that they ivere onlpunishing themselveslive

, y , " up further attempts to board , and stood to their guns , which were ^ cuttiu" - up our rigging from stem to stern , but doing little further damage ; for after the lapse of an hour the loss to thc Speedy was only two men killed and four wounded . This kind of combat , however , could not last . Our ri ggim' bein " cut up , ancl the Speedy ' s sails riddled with shot , I told the men thai , they must either take tiie frigate or be themselves taken , in which case the Spaniards would whilst few minutes

give no quarter ; a energetically employed on their part would decide the matter in their own favour . The doctor , Mr . Guthrie , who , I am happv to say is still living to peruse this record of his gallantry , volunteered to take the helm Leaving him , therefore , for the time both commander ancl crew of the Speed y , the order was given to board , and in a few seconds every man was on the enemy ' s deck— - . _ feat rendered the more easy as the doctor placed the tyealy close alongside with admirable skill . "

"For a moment the Spaniards soomt-d taken by surprise , as though unwilling to believe that so small - , _ , crew ivould have thc audacity to board them ; but soon recovering themselves , they made a rush to the waist of the frigate , where the fight was for some minutes gallantly carried on . Observing the enemy ' s colours still ( l ying , I directed one of our men immediately to haul them down , ivhen the Spanish crew , without pausing to consider by whose orders the colours hacl been struck , and naturally believing it the act of their own officers , gave in , and we were in possession of the Ganio frigate , of thirty-two heavy guns and 810 men , who , an hour and a half before , had looked upon us as a certain if not an easy prcv . "

_ His victory was not yet secured , but by a trick of infinite cunning and naivete he tells us how it was accomplished : — " Knowing that the final struggle would be a desperate one , and calculating on the superstitious wonder which forms an element in the Spanish character , a portion of our crew were ordered to blacken their faces , and what with this and the excitement of combat , more ferocious looking objects could scarcely be imagined . The fellows , thus disguised ,

were ordered to board by the head , and the effect produced was precisely that calculated on . The greater portion ofthe Spaniard ' s crew was prepared to repel the boarders in that direction , but stood for a few moments as it were transfixed to the deck by the apparition of so many diabolical looking figures emerging from the white smoke of the bow guns ; whilst our other men , who boarded by the waist , rushed on them from behind , before they could recover from their surprise at the unexpected phenomenon .

" In difficult or doubtful attacks by sea—and the odds of fifty men to three hundred and twenty comes within this description—no device can be too minute , even if apparently absurd , provided it have the effect of diverting the enemy ' s attention whilst you are concentrating your own . "

He soon after parted with his ship , thc Speedg , which came to an honourable fate after having been cut off and chased by three French line of battle ships of Linois' squadron , and only surrendered after a desperate attempt to slip through , which brought down upon her the broadside of one of them , a compliment , the result of which she only escaped by an accident in the French ship ' s steering . Lord " Cochrane being taken hy the Dessah ;

where he was treated with the utmost courtesy , he witnessed Sir James Saumarez's action off Algesiras , and the loss of the English ship Hannibal . He was soon exchanged , and then commenced the painful part of his career . According to his own account , Lord St . Vincent had taken a baseless dislike to him , which was , to a certain extent , inherited by his successors ; and Lord Cochrane met with nothing hut disgust refusals , and ill treatment , in return

for the energy and conduct which he had displayed ; perhaps in some degree attributable to thc boldness of his criticisms and the freedom of his tongue . Lord Cochrane bitterly complains of being undervalued and set aside , but from his own testimony was pretty fully employed , ancl that not without a due share of luck ; all of which wc pass over to follow our hero through more stirring scenes than the jealousy of professional rivals . In the

Pallas , and afterwards in the Imp ' crieiise , ho continued his favourite style of cruising , keeping off in the day and being ready in shore early in the morning , to pounce on anything that had attempted to venture out by his apparent retreat ; bringing bis handiness and ready resources to stimulate and aid , ou shore , the soldiers of disheartened allies like the Spaniards , destroying the system of telegraphs on the French shore of the Gulh of L and

renp yons , dering the coast roads of Catalonia almost impracticable for the French armies . We shall not folloiv him through his ideas of the manner in which his successes mi ght have been instrumental in preventing the Peninsula War , as ive do not think them based on safe premises , but prefer to see him in actual rather than ideal action .

We next find him in his attempt to destroy the French fleet at the mouth of the Cliarente , and the account be gives is that of a man ivho considers that lie did all that was done on the occasion , and ivas scandalously used , and his prospects in the navy ruined in consequence of his having done his duty while his superiors failed in theirs . In his account of the attack , which is exceedingly interesting , he seems to have made out a strong case against flic

vacillation of Lord Gambier , and the scandalous insubordination and narrow jealousies of some of his subordinates , who were jealous of Lord Cochraue ' s being sent out from England to execute a plan which , when once suggested , they felt competent to execute . The fault complained of in the Russian war—viz ., that of officers being too much afraid of the responsibility of damaging their ships—found its counterpart in Lord Gambierbut

, his most inexcusable fault seems to have been in refusing to followup what Lord Cochrane had alread y demonstrated to be not ord y an effectual , but perfectly safe way of destroying a fleet , which ivas the object of the expedition . The fireships failed of thendirect purpose , but an explosion shi p , conducted by Lord Cochrane