from one high place to another, though thirty or forty miles distant, in as short a time as a man would take to write what he would have said. His plan, though never adopted, was similar in principle to the land telegraph invented by the late Lord George Murray, bishop of St. David's: he proposed to fix telescopes of great power on distant eminences, with people placed by them to watch at certain periods. The present mode is to have a constant watch at the telescopes, by which means a signal is immediately answered.

On what occasion flags of divers colours were introduced as a medium of communication, we do not exactly know; but we learn, on the authority of Hume, that James II. when Duke of York, was the first inventor of sea signals; and the Pere La Hoste speaks of them as in common use in the French fleet in 1697.

Signals, however, had made but little progress at the close of the first American war, when the late Admiral Kempenfeldt, who was drowned in the Royal George, at Spithead, had applied himself to them, and had introduced great improvements. In the peace of ten years which succeeded, the science slept. The ships which sailed for India in 1789, had a very scanty supply of flags, whose signification denoted nothing more than the common messages of calling officers on board, of discovering strange ships, or seeing the land, &c. The war of 1793, found the navy with Lord Howe's tabular signals, and the flag-ship's signal book. These

were our only heralds in the 1st of June; but from that period their advance was rapid, and the benefits derived to the service equally great. In the year 1795, signal posts were established along the south coast of England. The approach of fleets, squadrons, or enemy's cruisers, was immediately made known, and our convoys apprized of any danger. These stations were furnished with a comfortable residence for a lieutenant, a midshipman, and two seamen, whose salary and comfort depended on their vigilance; their signals were made with balls and flags, or pendants displayed on a mast or yard, rigged for the purpose.

The land telegraph erected by Lord George Murray, was established in the same year, between London and the principal sea-ports, and produced a celerity of movement and sudden departure of our ships quite unknown in our former naval history. The French had certainly preceded us in the use of this instrument, or one answering the same purpose; and, as early as 1793, had them between Paris and the Netherlands.

The code of signals, as issued by the admiralty, in 1793, was the first in which the flags singly had been made the representatives of the numeral figures. No. 1, was a red flag. 2. White, with a rectangular blue cross. 3. Blue, white, blue, vertically divided. 4. Yellow, with a black stripe at the top and bottom. 5. Quartered red and white. 6. Blue and white, diagonally divided. 7. Blue,

with a diagonal yellow cross. 8. Yellow, with a blue fly, i. e. half yellow, half blue. 9. A Dutch jack reversed, or blue, white, red; the cypher blue, pierced with a white square; the substitute, striped red and white; and a pendant representing 100, white, with a red fly or tail. Capable as these were of being extended to any amount, it is singular that the highest number in the book of 1793, is 183; this was Lord Howe's book in the action of 1794. There were, however, other signals with pendants and triangular or divisional flags, besides the fog and night signals, and the compass signals. The code used by the private ships was that which had been mentioned before, called the tabular signals; they consisted of eight flags, and a white flag as a substitute. They only made the number of 68, and were laid aside about the year 1799, when the whole code was much enlarged, and private ships had the same flags and signals as the admiral. At length, in 1803, the telegraph appeared, as the invention of Sir Home Popham, not in its present comprehensive form, but containing a sufficient number of sentences to satisfy the utmost wish of a naval officer of that day. At first it was confined to flag-ships, but soon after distributed generally to the navy; the flags of 1793 were retained, and the gradual improvement of the sea telegraph, to what it now is, leaves little reason to expect higher perfection. We may converse on any subject at such a distance as flags can be discerned; and a word of Johnson's Dictionary, or an article

of the Encyclopædia may be signified with a mo mentary waving in the wind of a graceful and beautiful flag. The night signals have not yet attained the most perfect state, but a new night telegraph has been presented to the Society of Arts, by Captain John Weeks of the Royal Navy, and has met with a favourable reception from the admiralty; their lordships, however, decline using it in time of peace, as being unnecessary. This instrument, which is simple, is contained in an oblong square box, with shutters to display or obscure the lights, and is susceptible of the same numbers as the day signals. Upon this subject we might enlarge beyond our limits. The naval reader will find nothing new in what has been said; but his indulgence is requested in favour of those who may now for the first time be taught, how ships at a distance may silently converse with each other, or communicate intelligence to the shore.

The semiphore, at present used by the admiralty, was taken from the French, who had it on all their signal posts along the coast: in 1810 we obtained their key, and knew every message which was conveyed from one port to the other. Captain Frederick Marryat, of the Royal Navy, has invented a set of telegraphic signals, adapted to the merchant service, and highly beneficial to ships in every state of distress. In the month of December, 1822, the following notice was given in the French newspapers: "The telegraphic signals used by the merchant-vessels in England, and

common to those of other nations, are, by order of the minister of the marine, to be used in the navy.".

We shall now offer a few remarks on the resources of our enemies, or of the nations, who by any sudden political change might become so. Recollecting the influence possessed by Bonaparte in the uttermost corners of Europe, we can look back only with wonder and thankfulness, that Great Britain should have weathered the storm, which, in the years 1803, 4, and 5, was rising against her.

The then recent events in the Baltic, had left us no reason to depend on the friendship, or even the neutrality, of the northern powers. Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, must have followed the standard of Russia; and thus, by the breath of Alexander, concurring with the malevolence of Bonaparte, the whole coast, from Archangel to the Bosphorus, might not only have excluded our commerce, but have been in active hostility towards us. After the battle of Copenhagen, the navies of the north were not neglected, but augmented with very considerable industry, as the history of succeeding years will prove. Holland, though divided between the lovers of the old and the new order of things, was preparing a fleet, and had many seamen. Antwerp, under the particular superintendence of Napoleon in person, was rising into a vast naval arsenal, nearly equal in importance to Brest: situated on the eastern side of the British empire, on a coast