fear, be an impassable obstacle." So that, between the Admiralty, the Ordnance, and the inhabitants, the House of Commons will have a pretty round sum to provide for a new magazine. The demand for the present year's service is £20,000. Powder magazines are not show places in the Government establishments; but a few words will explain the kind of connection between the Keyham magazine and the ships in the harbour. One of the duties attached to the officers at Keyham is the removal of gunpowder from men-of-war on arrival in the harbour. The admiral sends an order to the storekeeper to remove the powder from a ship about to enter the harbour, whether for refitting or to be paid off. The storekeeper despatches a powder-vessel to the Sound, which receives the powder in barrels from the ship. The powder is landed, deposited in the magazines, and inspected-each barrel and case of gunpowder, and each cartridge, separately. Such cartridges as are found serviceable are immediately re-packed and stored in the magazines; those which are defective are separated from the others, and broken up, the powder from them being sent to Kinterbury to be dried and proved. The number of filled flannel cartridges issued to a first rate ship of war is nearly 10,000, and requires about 800 metal-lined casks to contain them. When a ship is to be provided with her store of powder, a reversed process is adopted. The establishment at Kinterbury, here mentioned, is a gunpowder mill, situated two or three miles northward of Devonport, where powder and cartridges are examined and dried. The present magazine at Keyham is capable of containing 18,000 barrels of powder; the new establishment at Bull Point is planned for the enormous quantity of 40,000 barrels. At present there are floating magazines in the Hamoaze, besides the stores at Keyham; these magazines are worn-out men-of-war, containing thousands of barrels of powder, and millions of cartridges. The new works at Bull Point will render floating magazines unnecessary. In Between the dockyard and the steam yard is a third establishment independent of both the others, but yet closely related to them—the Gun-wharf. This occupies five acres of ground, which are appropriated to the reception of the guns belonging to men-of-war not in commission. In the open spaces between the store-houses are long ranges of cannon, all carefully marked, and huge pyramids of cannon-balls. other places are gun-carriages, and all the requisite tackle for the management of these engines of destruction. In the upper stories of the building are the smartly arranged stores of smaller arms-muskets, bayonets, cutlasses, pistols, &c,-employed by seamen. All that ingenuity can effect to make such things look beautiful, is effected; they are arranged in circles, stars, diamonds, crowns, columns, wreaths; and they are polished up most industriously-death in its holiday dress. What the amount of ordnance stores kept in store by the Government may be, we do not know, but the value of these carefully prepared implements is very great. It is said that the ordnance stores for an eighty-gun man-of-war, are valued as follows:-guns £3,200, carriages £990, small arms £890, gunpowder £1,500, shot and shell £1,200, powder. cases £1000, sundries £2900, making a total of nearly £12,000. The wear and tear of all these stores (exclusive of course of the powder, shot, and shells, actually consumed) is estimated at about three or four per cent. per annum. MOUNT WISE; THE ROYAL WILLIAM VICTUALLING YARD. Another and another Government establishment calls for our notice in this busy naval emporium. We trace our steps back from Keyham and the gun-wharf, past the Dockyard, to Mount Wise-a spot which yields only to Mount Edgcumbe among the many beautiful elevations in this neighbourhood. It is a hilly portion of the northern margin of the Sound, tolerably flat on the top, but commanding a view on all sides; and few spots can be better chosen to show the various scenes around the Sound and harbour. Northward the streets of Devonport bar out any very pleasant prospect, so we quickly turn the eye in another direction. Northwest lies the Dockyard; and beyond it the broad and beautiful Hamoaze, studded with the huge ships lying" in ordinary." To the south-west rises the graceful Mount Edgcumbe, with its fine old mansion, its luxuriant trees, and its many winding walks and paths. To the south-east lies the long crooked promontory of Cremill Point, quite as often called Devil's Point, with its extensive and imposing looking Victualling-Office; while over and beyond this we see the fortified post of Drake's Island, and still beyond this the long slender line of the Breakwater. Eastward the eye takes into the range of its view the elevations of the Hoe, the Citadel, Catdown, and Mount Batten. For a military parade on land, or a regatta on the Sound, Mount Wise is a right famous show-place; and when the sun is glittering on the broad expanse of the water beneath, and the white sails of the ships fluttering, the Devonport folks have reason to be proud of their Mount Wise. Devonport used to be the head quarters only of the naval government of the port, the military government being located in the citadel at Plymouth; but in 1725 the latter was transferred to Devonport; and Mount Wise has ever since contained the official residences of the lieutenant-governor of the garrison (the Government-house), and of the portadmiral. The Government-house and the admiral's house, are the two chief buildings on this mount, but there is also a laboratory belonging to the Ordnance : and a semaphore, by which signals are transmitted between the admiral's office and the guard-ship in the Hamoaze: the signals to be afterwards transmitted, as occasion may require, from the guard-ship to any other Government ship in the Hamoaze. There are two governing admirals at Devonport-the admiral of the port, and the admiral superintendent of the Dockyard. The former has control over the whole of the ships in the harbour, and is the medium of communication between the Admiralty and those ships. The superintendent of the Dockyard has control only within the Yard; he may be an admiral, and is so at present: but he is sometimes a captain-superintendent. We now come to the vast Victualling Yard on Cremill Point, (represented in Cut p. 383.) We approach it by a road leading along the neck or isthmus, and a large and handsome gate gives admission to the interior. Over the gateway is a colossal statue of William IV., in Portland stone, upwards of thirteen feet high: it is superior to many of our statues of greater notoriety. The interior we find to consist of large quadrangular ranges of substantial buildings, separated by open courts. A glance at these courts shows that the whole has been hewn out of the solid rock; and this forms one of the most marked features of the place. Cremill Point was a bold rocky promontory; and in order to obtain a level spot large enough for the buildings, a vast excavation was necessary. The pavement of the open courts consists of the rocky bed itself, hewn down to that level; the buildings also are constructed of stone; so that if any Government establishment in the neighbourhood has an air of durability about it, it is this. There was a Victualling Office at Plymouth for many years; but as it was found to be inefficient for its purpose, this new one was built. It has been an immense work. The cost has been little short of a million and a half sterling. Fifteen acres of surface have been brought into requisition, some recovered from the sea by sea walls and embankments, and the rest hewn from the solid rock. It is said that 300,000 tons of rock were removed. Large as this expenditure appears, it is probable that the money was well laid out; for if the stores for the hardy seamen are better prepared and better secured thereby, a yearly saving must accrue. Be this as it may, the Victualling Yard is a highly interesting establishment. One quadrangular mass of buildings is devoted to the corn and baking department, another to the cooperage department, a third to miscellaneous stores of various descriptions. The actual machinery employed in the building consists of a corn-mill (capable of grinding 1000 bushels of corn in ten hours), with twenty-four pairs of millstones, worked by two steam engines; a bakery, worked by machinery, with twelve ovens; an oatmeal mill; and two wheatdrying mills. All the rest may be rather described as storehouse fittings than as machinery. The number of persons employed in the establishment is about 140; of whom about 20 are officers and clerks, about 30 hoymen, to manage the shipment and landing of the stores, and the rest artificers and servants of various kinds. About £10,000 per annum are expended in salaries and wages to those engaged at this establish ment. The most attractive part of the building to a stranger is the biscuit-baking establishment. The 66 white jackets and white caps of the bakers are clean as a new pin ;" and the rooms and machinery are cleaner and neater than any one could imagine who had never seen them. Beautiful indeed is this machinery. The corn is drawn up to an upper range of buildings, where millstones, worked by steam, speedily grind it into flour. This flour descends, through a shoot, into a kind of covered box, where a small stream of water is allowed to flow into it. Away it whirls, tossed and cut and mixed by machinery inside the box, until in a few minutes it becomes well compounded dough. Then a pair of ponderous rollers knead it most thoroughly; a machine stamps the thin layer of dough into the form of a batch of hexagonal biscuits; these biscuits are thrown into an oven; and very soon afterwards they are taken out-baked, after which they are thrown into bags and taken away to be stored. So rapid are all these operations, that the routine from the descent of the flour to the baking of the biscuit can be witnessed during the time allowed for each stranger to be present. Well has Mr. Grant earned the premium which he has received from Government for the invention of this machinery. The commissariat department of the navy, like that of the army, is an important affair. To attend to all the personal wants of many thousands of men, to see that their food is sufficient in quantity and good in quality, to arrange all so that there shall be no waste and no confusion, require a well-organized plan. The following are mighty numbers; they represent the quantities of provisions requisite for one year's consumption, for a force of 35,000 seamen: besides many smaller items. The salt meat is purchased in the salted state: the meat purchased in a fresh state is mostly salted by the Government. Biscuit, being almost the only bread used at sea, is of course the chief item; and it was a most important circumstance to devise machinery to make biscuit well, quickly, cheaply, and under the immediate control of the Government. With respect to meat, changes have occurred in the arrangements of the Devonport Victualling Yard. Salted meat is supplied by contract to a much larger extent than when the building was first constructed; and the slaughter-houses are proportionably less used. In the store-houses are rows of casks, chests, boxes, bags, and other packages, filled with the whole of the abovenamed items, and with vinegar, lemon-juice, drugs, and a multitude of other things-all labelled or marked with scrupulous exactness. There is one important part of a ship's provisions concerning which new arrangements are about to be introduced. We will dwell a little upon it. Measures are now in contemplation which may lead to a change in the allowance of spirits to the navy. In March of the present year the Admiralty appointed a committee of eleven flag-officers to inquire into "the expediency of reducing the daily ration of spirits, and the equivalent to be paid to the seamen for such reduction." One of the first paragraphs in the Report of this committee, is a striking one: "The concurrent testimony of all whom we have examined on the subject of drunkenness in the navy, proves the necessity of some remedial measures: and we consider the step now contemplated, with a view to its prevention, not only expedient, but imperatively called for, as well for the safety as the credit of Her Majesty's fleet." The committee examined about fifty witnesses, some of whom were seamen. The committee say"The seamen, without one exception, admit in their evidence that drunkenness is the prevailing crime on board Her Majesty's ships; and they acknowledge with equal frankness, that drunkenness is the cause of almost every punishment." Down to the year 1824, the allowance was two gills of spirits per man per diem. In that year the Admiralty, with the sanction of many experienced officers, reduced the quantity to one gill per day; the evening service of grog being discontinued. In 1826, the old wine-measure was abolished, and the new imperial-measure established ; this gave to the gill one-fifth more in quantity than before; and as it was deemed too much to serve out this larger gill at once, the custom of an evening allowance was renewed, with disastrous results, as the committee show. "Tea, introduced into the navy in 1824, as a part of the substitute for the diminished allowance of rum, is served at the same time as the evening grog; and men who prefer the tea, sell their allowance of grog to others of less temperate habits. This is one source of drunkenness." After due consideration the committee arrived at the following recommendations, which were forwarded to the Admiralty-That the daily rations of spirits be reduced to one half of that which they have been since 1826: the evening ration being withheld; that the spirits shall not be issued raw, but mixed with three times their quantity of water; that an allowance, omitted to be drawn on one day, shall not be drawn on any subsequent day; that admirals, captains, and ward-room officers, from their position and general feelings, would probably not require money-compensation for this lessening of the quantity of spirits allotted to them; that no allowance of spirits be made to midshipmen, masters' assistants, clerks' assistants, cadets, and boys; that mater, assistant-surgeons, second masters, midshipmen, masters' assistants, clerks, clerks' assistants, naval cadets, and boys, be awarded compensation for the withdrawal or the diminution (as the case may be) of the aliowance, to the extent of the present savings' price; that seamen and marines, by whom the change will be more felt than by any of the other classes, should receive an amount of compensation more than equal to the money-value of the spirit saved; and that any petty-officer or seaman may relinquish his remaining half of spirit, at pleasure, and receive its value in money, in addition to the larger compensation for the other half. The compensation to the seamen and marines would be 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. per month. The committee estimate that these compensations, for the whole British navy, would amount to £55,000 per annum; that the value of the spirit saved would be £10,000 per annum; and that therefore the increased annual charge to the public would be £45,000a cheap bargain, if it results in the higher moral and physical condition of the seamen generally. THE HOE; THE CITADEL; THE HAMOAZE. The Hoe and the Citadel, (represented in the Cut p. 380) belong to the Plymouth section of this important triple town. The Hoe, as we have before observed, is a hill which boldly overlooks Mill Bay and the Sound. Its surface is partly clothed in grass, partly strewed with loose stones, and partly laid out in gravel walks; but there are as yet very few houses on it. The Hoe is larger and higher than Mount Wise, and it reveals many points in the view out sea-ward which are not visible from the latter. The inhabitants of Plymouth are at the present time fighting a corporate battle against a wealthy proprietor, who has planned some terraces of fine houses on the Hoe; he naturally wishes to make the most of his land; they naturally wish to retain their beautiful Hoe in its present open state; and a correspondence has arisen out of these differences of view. A small number of houses might possibly be so built as to be an ornament rather than a detriment to the Hoe; but it is to be feared that if stone, brick, and timber be once admitted, these interlopers will know no reasonable limits. The eastern end of the Hoe is occupied by the Citadel. This is a regular fortification, with bastions and ravelins, curtains and horn-works, ditches and counterscarps, covered-ways and palisades, parapets and ramparts, and all the other defensive arrangements common to such a place. It completely commands sea and land on all points of the compass, and is bristled with about a hundred and twenty cannon. There are not many places in England which contain such a number of Government establishments as this. We have described a tolerable range of them already; but there are still several that call for a passing glance. We will go to the north of the three towns, near Higher Stoke, and look at the Blockhouse. This is a small but strong structure, situated in an enclosure on a piece of rising ground. It has ramparts, ditches, and a bridge, and is sufficiently elevated to command the whole of Devonport-and therefore to be very troublesome, unless in friendly hands. Devonport itself is completely girt on the land side with fortifications, called the Lines.' These lines consist of wall, rampart, and fosse, with guard-houses at particular points, and three gates to give entrance to the town. Situated not far distant from each other, in and near Stonehouse, are three large Government establishments—the Royal Naval Hospital, the Royal Military Hospital, and the Marine Barracks. Their names indicate how these buildings are occupied. The Naval Hospital was built about ninety years ago; it is a very large establishment, covering with the open grounds which belong to it, no less than twenty-four acres. The chief buildings are arranged on the four sides of a very large quadrangle; they have corridors running round them, and have every convenience for the reception of twelve hundred patients at a time. In days of peace, when arms and legs do not often come into contact with cannon-balls, this hospital is only in small part occupied, On the side of Stonehouse Creek, opposite to the Naval Hospital, is the Royal Military Hospital. This consists, instead of a quadrangle of buildings surrounding an open court, of four blocks or clusters of buildings, arranged in a line. The Royal Marine Barracks, situated on the isthmus which connects Cremill Point with Stonehouse, is like most other barracks; ranges of buildings surrounding the four sides of a gravelled parade-ground. Let us now turn for a time from the land to the water-from the fixed to the floating property of the nation in these parts. And first of the Harbour or Hamoaze. This is in truth a fine expanse of water. A line of rock, only a short depth below the surface of low water, runs across from Cremill Point to Mount Edgcumbe, in such a way as to induce a belief that these were once connected, and that the Tamar has cut an outlet for itself in this part. Within the rocky line commences the Hamoaze, and thence up to Saltash, a distance of four or five miles, there is a wide sheet of water, in which a large number of fine ships of war are always lying "in ordinary." This lying in ordinary is a sort of figurative "putting on the shelf," till the vessel is wanted. The guns and ammunition are taken out, the masts and sails and rigging are removed, the sailors are paid off, the officers take their departure, and the huge floating mass is placed under the care of one particular officer and a handful of men who reside in it. This officer receives orders only from the admiral of the port, and is responsible to no one else. The old officers, who have perhaps lived and fought in the vessel for many a year, have now nothing to do with it; it lives only in their memory. Strange do these floating masses appear! They contain so few stores, and are thus so much lightened, that they rise to a great height above the water. Their long ranges of port-holes, their numerous cabin-windows at the stern, their stumpy mastless summits, their lifeless silence, their stern immovability-all tend to give them a remarkable appearance. The guard-ship is the sentinel over these sleeping giants. This guardship receives instructions from the port-admiral, by means of the semaphore on Mount Wise, before alluded to, and is empowered to control all the ships in the harbour. There is no difficulty in obtaining admission to the guard-ship, or to some of the other ships in the harbour; and half an hour may be spent, not unprofitably, in seeing the ingenuity displayed in packing so many hundred human beings, with all that is required for their comfort, in one of these great floating receptacles. The number of ships laid up in ordinary in the Hamoaze has remained pretty constant for some years past; in 1847 they were as follows:-two of 120 guns each, one of 104, one of 92, four of 84, one of 80, four of 78, one of 76, four of 72, three of 50, four of 44, five of 42, two of 40, one of 36, three of 26, one of 24, two of 18, one of 14, one of 10, five packets, and eight small brigs, schooners, and cutters-making a total of fifty-four vessels; and we presume the number is about the same at present. But besides these fifty-four vessels in ordinary, there are always others, more or less in a fitted state: some just arrived and about to be paid off; some receiving their complement of men and stores for services on some foreign station; some waiting only for Admiralty orders that they may take their departure. It is a pleasant trip on a bright day to take a boat for a row up the Hamoaze towards Saltash, passing between and among the noble old hulks of the ships in ordinary. Carrington's lines here come to "We glide thought: Through lines of stately ships; and as we pass We believe there is a sort of rough estimate that a man-of-war costs at the rate of about £1,000 per gun; that is, the complete ship costs as many thousands as it carries guns. But whether this includes the entire stores and provisions for the crew we cannot say; perhaps after all the estimate is merely a wild round sum. The following, however, is an exact estimate, founded on the Admiralty experience; that the daily expenses of a 36-gun frigate, carrying a complement of 330 men, are £64 17s. 5d. : viz., pay of officers and men, £26 3s. 2d. ; provisions, £16 1s. 3d. ; wear and tear of vessel, stores, clothing, &c., £22 13s. From a Parliamentary paper just published (May, 1850), it appears that there are at the present time among the ships in ordinary at the several Government depôts, no fewer than seventy-two ships of war which have never been in commission; that is, have never seen any active service. Their ages vary from two to thirty-eight years. It appears strange-at least to one of the uninitiated class-that new ships should be built every year, while old ones remain in idleness Drake's Island, or as it is often called Nicholas Island, situated in the middle of the Sound, claims a word of notice. It is a small and moderately elevated island, occupied wholly as a fortified post. Its guns command every point of the horizon; so that a ship, before approaching the Hamoaze and the Dockyard on the west, or the Catwater and Plymouth on the east, must pass under the guns of this fortress. With Mount Edgcumbe on one side, Cremill Point on another, the Hoe on another, and Mount Batten on another, this small island presents a formidable defensive work. THE BREAKWATER; THE EDDYSTONE. But the Breakwater, now stretching out before us to the south, demands to be noticed. A truly great work is this; perhaps the greatest work of its kind in the world. It seems strange to spend a million and a half sterling in throwing huge stones into the sea; yet there can be no question that the money has been well laid out, because safety to hundreds of vessels has been secured thereby. In order to understand the necessity for, and the nature of, this break water, we must look a little closely at Plymouth Sound. This Sound is bounded on the east by a portion of the Devonshire coast, on the west by the Cornish coast, on the north by the towns of Devonport and Plymouth, and on the south by the open sea. It is three miles across at the widest part, and about the same in depth. The coast on both sides, except at Cawsand Bay, which is on the Cornish side, is rocky and abrupt. The Hamoaze and the Catwater used to be exposed to the heavy sea which rolled into the Sound with gales from the south, and great damage was done at various times; hence it was conceived that if a great embankment were thrown across a portion of the entrance to the Sound, it would break the force of the sea, while ample room might be left at the two ends for vessels to enter and quit the Sound. In 1812 the works for such a breakwater were commenced, and for nearly forty years they have been continued. The expenditure has now reached within a fraction of £1,500,000, and there is still a little more work to be done to it. The breakwater (represented in Cut p. 382) may be thus described. It is a straight line of stonework, with two wings or arms inclined a little inwards towards the Sound. The straight portion is about 1,000 yards in length, and the two wings 350 yards each; making up the total length to about a mile. The width of the line of stonework at the bed of the sea varies from 300 to 400 feet; whereas it slopes so rapidly upwards that the breadth at high-water mark is only fifty feet. The top is a flat horizontal surface, elevated a small distance above the surface of the water. The total depth varies from forty to eighty feet. The mode of forming it was singular. Mr. Rennie formed the |