three dozen of iron ships building and built:
including the Black Prince, the Northumberland,
and the Minotaur, of fifty guns. It is
probable that no armament of ships will make a
sailor of the Frenchman, and the Frenchman
must turn sailor in earnest before France can
become, what she aspires to be, a mighty naval
power. But it is quite true that, since the
Crimean war, the reconstruction of the French
fleet has been arranged with the steadiest
determination. In the year 'fifty-seven the grand
project was adopted, to reconstitute, not in seven
years but in the fourteen years (from 'fifty-eight
to 'seventy-two) the whole French navy. First,
there was to be a transition fleet formed by
giving auxiliary screws to all line-of-battle ships
that were not too old; secondly, there were to
be built and armed, a hundred and fifty rapid
steamers of different sizes and the best attainable
models; thirdly, there was to be formed a
transport fleet of seventy-two ships, partly new,
partly of sailing-frigates converted into steam-
transports. To carry out this scheme, the budget
of the Marine Department is augmented by
seventeen millions of francs a year during the
fourteen years, and the whole yearly cost of the
French navy is raised to about five millions
sterling. During the last two years, expeditions
to Syria, China, Cochin-China, and Mexico, have
raised the annual cost of the French navy, in
English pounds sterling, to more than six
millions and a half. This activity, at a time when
great changes are being established in the
character and armament of ships, compels increased
expenditure in England, while the fact that
several of the questions touching the construction,
size, &c., of the iron ships of the future are
by no means so completely settled as is
supposed by Mr. Scott Russell; who simply asks
for a new monster Warrior every two months.
This causes in England some little rational
unwillingness to build too fast.

As to many of these matters, Mr. Scott
Russell writes, no doubt, in extremes. Much
that he says may be fairly contested; but to
nothing which he says can be denied grave and
earnest consideration, as emanating from an
honest and thorough Expert. He is unquestionably
right in urging that, as we are, indeed, now
forced to look to private contractors for iron-
ships and for guns, so we might, with very great
advantage, work in the direction of a reduction
of dockyard establishments, and—in the present
state of English trade and resources—find it
much cheaper to go to market for ships and for
all that belongs to them, than, by means of a
large costly and clumsy official machinery,
attempt to be our own ship-builders. Whenever
government attempts to supersede private
enterprise, either legislatively or competitively, it
fails. Its aim should be to obtain a thoroughly
competent staff of surveyors—skilled "buyers,"
in fact, who know what their employer wants,
and who are expert enough to see that he is not
cheated. It was this kind of deficiency which
caused certain dishonest manufacturers to
flourish during the Crimean war, and which
disgraced the nation in the Eyes of Europe
accustomed to look upon it as a practical
community.

BURIED ALIVE.

AMONG those who studied under the same
professor with me at Brunswick, was a Prussian,
who made me promise that if ever I visited
Prussia I would spend a few days at his father's
house—a promise I kept last spring, the long
evenings of which were partly passed in reading.
On one particular night my friend's father asked
his son if he had not translated into English
some remarkable instances of individuals being
buried alive? On the latter replying in the
affirmative, he asked him to read some of them,
that I might give an opinion of the manner in
which he had written them into my native
language. After a little pressing, Ludwig said:

"The first I will read, then, shall be that
entitled, 'Of the miner Karoly Varga, who for
twelve days was buried beneath salt.' The story,
as he tells it, is as follows:

"My name is Karoly Varga. I worked in the
salt mines, as my father and brother do, and as
my grandfather did, and his father before him.
On the 17th August, 1723, I dressed myself as
usual, and descended into the mine, taking with
me a box of candles, which were to be used for
a purpose I shall mention presently. My orders
were to make a careful examination of the arches
that had been erected, and the blocks that had
been placed round the pools of water to prevent
the expected visitors from falling in, for it was
intended to give a concert and entertainment in
honour of the director of the mine and his wife,
who would complete twenty-five years of married
life on the twenty-fifth day of the month
mentioned. I had also to select a place in which to
establish the orchestra, of which I was myself
one of the members, the rest having deputed me
to make this choice in consequence of my
experience in working the mine, care being always
requisite in choosing the position, from the
danger of the vibration causing a fall. Having
performed the first part of my duty, I climbed
up into a gallery, which had been cut long before
the mine had reached its present depth, to select
the position in which the orchestra was to
establish itself. The spot that seemed most suitable
was a recess, lofty at the entrance, but of no
great depth. Its shape was so good for the
purpose, that I fetched the box of candles and
put it in the recess ready for use. It was not
till I had done this that it occurred to me to
sound my horn and try the effect produced. I
blew it first at the entrance, then drew back
farther and farther, sounding it at intervals,
knowing there were others in the mine who
would be able to tell me what the effect was in
that part where the company would be assembled.
I was standing at the very bottom of the cave,
and was in the act of drawing a deep breath to
sound a final blast, when I was stopped by a
pattering sound which paralysed me, and before
I was myself again, there was a fall of earth and