effectual against the English marine, must be made by a combination of allied fleets. But how many are the disadvantages under which such an alliance would suffer, that should be composed of men, differing from each other no less in interests than in language and habits, and who are compelled to form a union from distant points, and that under the thunder of the British cannon, and with the chance of being cut off and destroyed in detail! That felicity of position between the two maritime powers of Europe; that fraternal union of a kindred race; that unity of places, concord in interests, similarity of language, agreement in naval tactics and military science, all unite in augmenting and confirming the strength of the naval force of Great Britain. The skill, no less than the intrepidity of her sailors, formed by the continued exercise of a navigation, which embraces the whole globe; the science of her ship-builders consummated by its daily application; the facility with which she can raise her supplies, have contributed to give her that naval superiority upon the ocean, which it would be impossible to wrest from her, and of which, therefore, it would be absurd to contest with her the possession. The glorious days of La Hogue and Trafalgar, so bright in British history, will be but renewed by the renewal of a naval war; and the vessels which shall quit the Texel, Brest, or Cadiz, will merely serve to swell the British fleets at Plymouth, or at Portsmouth. Bitter as this truth may be, yet, if future disasters are to be avoided, it will be wise to recognise it in time. England has inexhaustible resources for repairing any naval losses, which would be sensibly felt by other countries. Beyond a certain point calculation ceases to be necessary. This is the case with British marine ! Her treasury and her building-yards would quickly supply the destruction of any number of her vessels; and it is more than probable, that she would repair her losses at the expense of the enemy.

CHAP. VII.-The Maritime and Colonial Establishments of England considered in order.

It will be interesting to our readers that we should show the manner in which England has formed round the globe a complete chain of insular, or military posts, which serve at once as arsenals and places of refreshment for her fleets; and moreover, as points of observation, whence she may watch the military stations and ports of other powers. An extraordinary concurrence of circumstances has contributed to produce this state of things, so favorable to England, and so fearful to her enemies. Let us review attentively the whole series of those establishments, which are extended

from one end of the world to the other, and let us begin by America. The most northern part of that Continent belongs to England, and yields her the greatest advantages, since it employs a fourth part of all her merchant-vessels. The port of Halifax is her great military and naval station in that part of her dominions; whence she is able to protect readily her other possessions, and particularly Newfoundland, the most valuable of her colonies. In these distant seas she needs to apprehend the sudden attack of no enemy, for there there is neither hostile post nor arsenal. Thence, also, the fleets of England may bear down upon the coasts of the United States, as they have done in the last war. This station is, then, one of the highest importance to the British interests. Next in consideration come the Bahama, or Lucaya Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean (one of which islands was the first land of the new world descried by Columbus in 1492), and which extend along the coast of Florida to Cuba. The passage between the two banks and the continent is called the new channel of Bahama, or Gulf of Florida; and the passage between the great bank and Cuba, the old channel of Bahama. In fact, they lie in the direct passage from the Caribbee, that is, from the Leeward and Windward Islands to the northern parts of America; and in that, which serves as a communication between both portions of that continent. In time, this passage will become the most frequented in the universe, when it shall have rendered to North and South America the means of fully showing to the world, that they are capable of fulfilling the destinies which nature and their own liberty point out to be theirs. England has not omitted to fortify one of those insular points, and to make herself the mistress of that important part of the ocean: she has raised another Gibraltar at New-Providence. : b

A great portion of the Antilles, or Caribbee Islands, belong to England; and by the last war she added to her possessions the Spanish Island of Trinidad, and the French Island of St. Lucia, The first, which is situated on the north-east coast of South Ame rica, is extremely valuable to England, in serving as a point of com mercial communication with the ex-Spanish continent. It is sepa> rated from Paria, on the south, by a channel; and from Cumana, on the west, by the Gulf of Paria. It may be said to command the mouths of the Oronoko. The possession of St. Lucia by Eng land completely checks Martinique, as a post for offensive ope rations; exposes that island at any time to the attack of a British force, and renders its defence by France quite impossible. The occupation, therefore, of St. Lucia has become of no moment to France, nor, indeed, even Martinique, upon the fortifications of which island so much money is expended, for she possesses no means of attacking the islands belonging to England. Inferior,

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as a naval power, to England, herself, she can derive no assistance from the Spanish marine in the Antilles, because Spain holds not an inch of ground upon the American continent, and her colony of Cuba can scarcely be considered as under her control. In this American Archipelago, England possesses all the means of defence and attack. She has her arsenal at Antigua, one of the Antilles her ports at Barbadoes, the easternmost of the Caribbee Islands; as also at Jamaica, whence she may direct, at pleasure, the means of annoyance against her enemies, or for her own preservation. The Gulf of Mexico is not exempt from the presence of British power; for England possesses, in that quarter, a vast extent of territory upon the coast of Jucatan, (a province and peninsula of New Spain, lying between the bays of Campeachy and Honduras,) whence she is enabled to procure logwood, and other dye-woods, so essentially requisite for her manufactories.

But the Island of Trinidad is the most precious acquisition made by England in these seas. Its proximity to the new continent of Spain affords it considerable advantages in opening an inexhaustible market for its manufactures. This island possesses excellent harbours, and is very fruitful. Unproductive in the hands of the Spaniards, it will obtain that prosperity under the British sway, of which the negligence and inertness of its ancient masters had deprived it scarcely had the English been in possession of it during ten years, when its appearance was entirely changed. The revolution in America will make the fortune of Trinidad, in keeping all those ports open, which Spanish tyranny had closed; and by causing those vast and rich countries to pass from that state of death and misery (to which the wretched system adopted by Spain had reduced them), to a condition of life and activity; of increase in population, as in the means of subsistence. But this possession of England, so close upon the coasts of America, is too important and valuable not to become, at a future day, the cause of disagreement between England and America, whose interest it will be to bring back Trinidad to its former connexion with the new continent, and to render it an integral portion of the great American family.

England has not disdained the partition of Dutch Guiana with its ancient possessors; and at the Congress of Vienna, she procured for herself one half of the colony of Surinam, in Guiana, which is a country of South America, on the coast of the Atlantic. England has frequently attempted to establish herself upon the coasts of South America; either at the Falkland Islands, lying in the Atlantic Sea, to the east of the Strait of Magellan; or at the Island of Juan Fernandez, in the South Pacific Ocean, lying 110 leagues west of Chili. By the occupation of these two points she would command the whole of South America. This plan

-formed part of a system, which she has as skilfully conceived, as wisely executed. Spain opposed the most strenuous resistance to this project, assisted by France, in 1770; but a happy reconciliation between the parties prevented their having recourse to arms she was, however, less fortunate in her attempt to keep England at a distance from her Mexican possessions; for the English have established themselves in an intermediate position between New Mexico and America. In 1790 war was on the eve of breaking out between England and Spain, respecting the possession of Nootka, or King George Sound, a bay on the west coast of North America, from which France, at that time engaged in her own revolution, persuaded Spain to release herself. Thus it will be seen, that England has neglected no favorable opportunity to establish herself upon the coasts of America, both with a view to the confirmation of her power, and the increase of her commerce; and that, faithful to the system which has shown her the real character and nature of maritime power, she has cemented and strengthened those establishments by the occupation of certain points, the protection of which can be sufficiently maintained by her navy! England pursues the same system, with similar sound wisdom of plan and equal felicity, in all the other parts of the globe.

Between America and Africa, and on the passage on the ocean from Europe towards Brazil and Buenos Ayres, is situated St. Helena; which fortress, inaccessible to all who do not actually hold it in possession, is a place of anchorage and refreshment to the British vessels homeward-bound from India, and for those on their passage out to, or returning from Brazil; and, in fact, for any English traders to the Southern seas. This important point has been chosen by England with marvellous skill, as a sort of steppingstone between America and Africa-between Europe and Asia.

The Cape of Good Hope, situated at the southern extremity of Africa, and formerly in the possession of the Dutch, has fallen into the hands of the English since the last war. This position is of incalculable advantage to whatever power shall be master of India. When the Dutch power and commerce was at its most favorable period, the possession of this point of land was a natural appendage to her oriental sovereignty. It was upon this title that the Portuguese had held the Cape; and thus it appears, that this southern extremity of Africa is the natural domain of whatever European power may rule supreme over the others in India. It is from Madras, from Bombay, and from Calcutta, that the English have effected the conquest of the Cape of Good Hope. Her views are extended likewise to the Isle of France, which is situated upon the direct line of communication with India. As a mili

tary point, it is of the very first importance. The injury which England received from it during the course of the last war, has apprised her of the necessity of not leaving in the hands of the only power which is able to oppose to her an equality of force, a possession, whence her Indian trade might be readily interrupted. So great, indeed, were the injuries received by England from this island, and so evident its high value to her, that she undertook from India the gigantic expedition of 23,000 men for its conquest. By the treaties of 1814 it was finally secured to England; and thus the political importance to France of the Isle of Bourbon has been destroyed. The effect of this will be to interdict France from dreaming of fixing military establishments within the reach of the Cape and of the Isle of France, as for instance at Madagascar; for being situated between two British possessions, they would speedily fall into the hands of the English, The two coasts of Malabar and Coromandel (the former a province on the west coast of Southern Hindostan, and the latter on the east coast of the same) belong to England. To strengthen the assurance of their continued possession, she has induced Portugal to cede Cochin to her, which is a province on the west coast of Southern Hindostan, and lying between those of Malabar and Travancor; and the Dutch to give up to her Ceylon, an island in the Indian Ocean, separated by a strait from the south-east point of Hindostan. Trincomalee, a sea-port on the east coast of Ceylon, possesses a port, which is considered the finest in the East Indies, and is of immense importance, as keeping up, or continuing the line of communication between the two coasts of the Indian Peninsula, according to the wants and wishes of its possessor!

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Still further, in those distant seas, which are placed between Asia and America, England has exclusively appropriated to her self the vast continent of New Holland, the country which forms the west part of "Terra Australis :" she has likewise chosen other valuable stations in the vast Archipelago of the Southern Ocean, where the prospect of ulterior advantages to her commerce seems to be indefinite, due provision for which, as it may increase, has been wisely made.

In Europe, we observe that every sea is watched and kept in possession by the policy and naval power of Great Britain; for instance, at Gibraltar she retains the key of the Mediterranean; at Malta she concentrates her command in that sea, and thus at the same time keeps in check Italy, and Africa, and the Levant. From Corfu, an island near the coast of Albania, the most important of the Ionian Islands, she can open or close the Adriatic; command at once the eastern coast of Italy; the western coast of Greece; and blockade at pleasure the three only ports which Aus