tion, will enable the Greeks to resume. A Bible Society did exist at Athens.

Sir William, of course, speaks triumphantly of the ferocity shown by the Greeks at Tripolitza. It is a scene to be shuddered at and deplored-and by none more than by the Greeks themselves, whose dawning freedom it clouded with infamy. But it was surpassed in horror by the carnage of Santa Fe di Bogota, and other scenes in South America, which have not desecrated her holy cause: and it was provoked by the horrors with which a Turkish army had just marked its road from Epirus to Tripolitza, by the recent murder of the Greek hostages, and by the perfidy of the Turkish garrison of Monemvasia, which had violated a sacred convention, and was then inflicting the most horrid cruelties on the nation which had just spared their lives. From the moment that anarchy was succeeded among the Greeks by the influence of Mavrocordato, they have not had to blush for a single act of needless ferocity; and they may boast of many of mercy. The destruction of Scio, and the other massacres perpetrated by the Grand Seignor, were official and deliberate measures; the cruelties of the Greeks were the excesses of the ruffians who pollute every army, and disgrace every cause-chastised then, and repressed ever since.

We are compelled to pass as severe a censure upon Sir William's speculations on the future lot of the Greeks, as we have on all his feelings and sayings about religion and liberty. His nearest approach to consistent reasoning, is an attempt to smooth the way for Russia's taking possession of Greece. Ac-, cording to him, not only the enslaved Greeks, but even the free mountaineers, would gain by being unconditionally handed over to Russia. In page 295, he tell us, that the Greeks of Maina 'would however receive more benefit than the rest by any change which might take place;' for this English gentleman's eleutherophobia makes him suppose that Russian despotism must be still further endeared by coming after freedom, rather than after Turkish tyranny; and he adds, I know of no lot which must be so desirable to any Mainote of common sense, if such exist, as that of being suddenly placed under the do'minion of Russia.' The joy of a free mountaineer who finds himself suddenly placed under the dominion of a despot, would, we doubt not, amount to mental intoxication; but, unfortunately, men who are in the habit of braving death in defence of their liberty, are apt to be sadly destitute of the common sense' of this archpolitician.

Ludicrous, however, as this dull dogmatism must appear, Greece, we fear, has been materially injured by the belief,

that in escaping from the talons of Turkey, she would fall into the open arms of Russia. From the dreadful struggle of the last two years, this blessing at least has resulted-The Greeks have at length learned, not to feel doubts about Russia, for these they must have always felt, but to know her national policy to be false and unprincipled. She will not be a fourth time duped and deserted; and even so able a jurist as Sir William Gell, will fail to write her into submission to Russia. It is no small delight, indeed, to the lovers of Truth, Freedom, and England, those sacred names which should never be disunited, to see that the Northern Giant has, by mere dint of too much finesse, suffered his once willing prey to slip through his hands; and that the entail, which seemed to have secured him Turkey, has been cut off by the Grecian recovery.

We really cannot envy Šir W. G. this publication; and even his dull folio on Ithaca was better than this rechauffe of odious opinions, and predictions already falsified by the event. Though he has kept his piece more than double the period recommended in the Horatian precept, we can see no trace of the mellowing effects of time and experience. The sole effect of the nineteen years that have elapsed since the work was written, seems to have been to refute his political theories; for we cannot find in the book any symptoms of their having softened the momentary peevishness excited by a rainy day, or a dawdling guide, or sobered down the exaggerations of predetermined hostility. A few days at least out of that long period might have been profitably employed in compressing his wordy tautological narrative, and clothing his charitable conceptions in simple and decent English.

Bound as we are to warn the reading public' against all hawkers of spurious commodities, we really cannot recommend this work to their notice; but we think it but fair to add, that it may be of considerable use to the owners of Masquerade warehouses, as containing some choice descriptions of breeches, sashes and waistcoats, which, we have no doubt, might prove serviceable in making up an Oriental costume.

ART. III. 1. Report from the Select Committee on Captain Manby's Apparatus for saving the Lives of Shipwrecked Seamen. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 16th of May, 1823.

2. Papers relating to Captain Manby's Plan for affording Relief in Cases of Shipwreck. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 30th of May, 1816.

3. Papers relating to Captain Manby's Plan for saving the Lives

of Shipwrecked Mariners. Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 7th of December, 1813.

4. Report of the Committee of the House of Commons on Captain Manby's Petition. Ordered to be printed, 26th of March,

1810.

CAPTAIN MANBY'S Plan has now been for some years before the public; and although its success, wherever it has been fairly brought into practice, has sufficiently proved its importance, it is too evident that it has not yet been adopted to the extent which it deserves; and since every year furnishes dreadful instances of shipwreck on the coasts of our islands, and of the loss of many lives, which might probably have been saved by this simple apparatus, all humane persons must rejoice that the subject has again been taken up by Parliament; and to many, a short abstract of the Report of the late Committee, and a clear account of what has been already effected, cannot fail to be interesting.

It appears from the Parliamentary papers, that sufficient evidence has been adduced to prove the utility of Captain Manby's invention, and the lamentable waste of life which has been occasioned by the neglect of it: And therefore we deem it important to spread as widely as possible the knowledge of the plan, and to point out the means of effecting its general adoption.

It is evident that, in most cases of shipwreck, the only possibility of safety depends upon communication with the shore, -which it is generally quite impossible to reach by mere efforts of strength in swimming. Along the coasts of Great Britain, vessels generally take the ground from within 300 to 60 yards of the shore; and to an inexperienced calculator, it might seem that persons who could swim might have a chance of saving themselves; but experience proves the contrary. In the tempestuous state of the sea which usually occasions shipwreck, the best swimmer will find himself powerless to contend with the breakers, and will need some aid to direct and assist his efforts; but then a slight support will be found sufficient to insure his safety. A singular expedient for gaining communication with the shore, devised in a moment of the ututmost danger, is related in a letter from Mr Wheatley of Mundesley, a gentleman who has since zealously adopted Čaptain Manby's plan, by the means of which, and by his personal intrepidity, he has been eminently happy in saving the lives of his fellow-creatures. The letter is printed in the Report of the Committee on Captain Manby's Petition, 1810, After express

ing his opinion of the high value of the invention, Mr Wheatley tells the following story. 'I have been three different times wrecked myself. On the 11th of December 1792, I was shipwrecked on the island of Silt, on the coast of Jutland, 'coming from the East to London; and unfortunately we could not get any communication with the people on shore, although 6 we were not more than 160 yards from them. I had a small line made fast to the seamen's chests and trunks, but nothing ⚫ would go to the beach that had a line to it, the surf taking the bight of the line, and preventing any thing landing. Two seamen who could swim well, jumped overboard with an intent to swim on shore, but both perished in the attempt. I fortunately had a Newfoundland dog on board, which I bent the lead line to, and he swam on shore with it; and by that means seven seamen, the mate and myself, were saved. Nineteen other vessels were then on shore, and only two men saved out of the whole. If such a mode of communication 6 (as Captain Manby's) had been known on that island at that period, upwards of 200 lives would have been saved.'

But dogs are not always in a wreck, nor, if they were, would they always be able to make a landing through breakers, so that it was necessary to find some less precarious method of effecting communication between the shore and a vessel in danger; and the best plan for this purpose, we owe to the benevolence of Captain Manby. In the year 1803, that gentleman was appointed to the charge of the barracks at Great Yarmouth, and in this situation he was accustomed to hear of shipwrecks, till he, like others, began to consider these calamities as equally irremediable and dreadful. But, on the 18th of February 1807, he was a spectator of the loss of the gunbrig the Snipe, and saw 67 persons perish within 60 yards of the Yarmouth beach, after remaining five or six hours without a possibility of receiving assistance. This distressing scene, and the other * disasters of that terrible gale (after which 147

* Amongst others, the Hunter cutter was lost the same day off Hasborough, within 150 yards from the Cliff. (Report, 1810.) In Mr Wheatley's letter to Captain Manby, another sad catastrophe of this day is thus described by John Fowler, Esq. a magistrate of Suffolk.

Before I conclude, I will relate what I was an eyewitness of last year. The same morning the Snipe gun-brig was on shore, a large coal-laden brig came on shore on the Gunten Beach, a little to the north of the Ness Point, and where it is rather steep, in consequence of which, she grounded very near the shore, so that the

dead bodies were picked up on a line of coast of not more than 30 miles), made a strong impression on Captain Manby's mind, and set him upon endeavouring to contrive some means of affording relief on the recurrence of a similar catastrophe. He at first thought of throwing a line to a stranded vessel from a kind of balista, but he found that such a machine would be too unwieldy. It then occurred to him that a piece of ordnance* might answer his purpose; and a successful experi

same sea that struck her broke on the beach; and so very heavy was the surf, that it broke over her as high as her leading-blocks, the brig lying broadside on the beach. Being in this dreadful situation, her people were all obliged to take to the rigging for safety, the deck being, by the fury of the sea, cleared of every thing; nor was it in our power, although so near them, to give any assist'ance to the poor men (nine of whom were in the main rigging, and two in the fore-top), but we were obliged to be silent spectators of the dreadful scene. Now, if we had been so fortunate as to have 'been provided with your excellent apparatus, I am confident that, before the end of the dreadful catastrophe, we should have been • able to have saved with ease every soul on board; but we were not so fortunate: the consequence of which was, that all but one man' < were lost to their friends and country for ever; for the brig, after lying some time in this situation, parted at the bins, her upper works, masts and men, all falling together with a most tremendous crash to sea board, and in a moment were the nine poor men in the lee main shrouds lost for ever to our view. The two men in the foretop were in a better situation; for when the masts, &c. fell, the 'wind being at N. (parallel to the shore) canted them round, and, in consequence, the mast heads swung on the beach, when one of the men getting from the top of the mast head was saved, the other getting down into the fore chains, jumped off to clear the wreck by swimming, and was lost, the sea being too heavy for him. Such is the dreadful tale which might (had we been provided) have ended differently. JOHN FOWLER.' (Report, 1810, p. 8.)

6

* In the year 1792, Lieutenant Bell of the Artillery had laid before the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, a plan for throwing a rope on shore by means of a shell from a mortar on board the vessel in distress,' and had received 50 guineas on his experiments at Woolwich, (see the 10th and 25th vols. of the Trans. Soc. Arts.) Some of Lieutenant Bell's friends considered his invention entitled to a Parliamentary reward; nor can it be desired to preclude any mark of national approbation for a suggestion which, had it been prosecuted and improved upon, might have been of important service but Lieutenant Bell's plan appears never to have been brought into practice, nor indeed would it generally be practicable to use a mortar from a wreck as he proposed. The same may be