the ringleaders. Some were flogged through the fleet, and others sent to prison.

Thus was an end put to the Nore mutiny ; a mutiny that, unlike the former, was as futile in its origin, as it happily proved unsuccessful in its issue ; a mutiny that, in the opinion of many, entailed on the British navy more disgrace than could be washed away by the most brilliant triumph. It is notorious, that a custom had long prevailed for the London police, when a culprit possessed wit enough for his roguery just to elude the letter of the law, rather than discharge him that he might commit, with increased confidence, fresh depredations upon society, to send him on board a ship of war. He was generally a plausible fellow, with a smattering of learning and a knowledge of the world ; two qualities which ranked him very high in the estimation of the unsophisticated sailor. He sang a good song, or at all events, he told a good story, and became, in time, the oracle of the forecastle. He knew his business (that which had brought him on ship-board) too well to practise on so circumscribed a spot ; and therefore, as no one witnessed, no one believed, any harm of him. He was perhaps a dabbler in politics, and certainly, from the nature of his profession, a "bit of a lawyer." He therefore could expound acts of parliament to the sailors. In doing this, he read what he pleased, and explained how he pleased ; told them where they were wronged, and pointed out how they might get redressed. In short, such a character (and how many such have been scattered over the British navy!) was capable of infecting a whole ship's company ; and many of the mutinous crews could, no doubt, trace their disorganization to the first appearance among them of one of these pests of society.

A word respecting "private" grievances, or the grievances of particular ships, and we quit the subject of mutiny, we hope for ever. What a lamentable thing it is, that power and cruelty should be so often united. No monarch is more despotic, as far as respects the power of inflicting corporal punishment short of death, than the captain of a ship of war. If a man speaks or even looks to offend, he is ordered to the gangway ; and the bloody furrows on his shoulders soon increase, in number and depth, beneath the rigorous arm that lays on the cat-o'-nine-tails. Captains there have been, and captains there are, who seemingly delight in such work ; and who, were the cruise long enough, would not leave a sailor belonging to the ship with an unscarred back.

Such men, however, are but exceptions. Moreover, they are, for the most part, cowards at heart ; and, what is worse, they frequently make cowards of those they command. Hence, officers of this stamp are commonly the cause, mediately, if not immediately, of dishonourable defeats. The brave officer

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