1830.] [ 669 ] 



TALES OF A TAR.* 



WE have not only been much amused at the humour with which this 

 work abounds, but we have received from it much valuable information 

 relative to one of the important crises in the annals of our history, the 

 mutiny of the fleets in 1797- That the information is authentic there 

 can be no doubt ; the facts have been skilfully collected by the author, 

 who has communicated with the veterans now easily basking away the 

 remainder of their lives in Greenwich Hospital, and who once were the 

 principal actors in a scene unparalleled, as it was momentous. If any 

 thing could prove how little truth is to be found in history, it would 

 be the serious contradictions given by this volume to all the records 

 which have been penned by those whose literary talents would entitle 

 them to be considered by posterity as correct historians of the time. That 

 secret springs of action should seldom be disclosed, or be misrepre- 

 sented, is no fault in man, as there is but One to whom "all hearts are 

 open ;" but that particulars should be collected in so slovenly a manner, 

 as is evinced in the records of the mutiny, and should be so eagerly re- 

 ceived, without any endeavour to ascertain their truth, is a melancholy 

 proof of the doubt and error in which we are fated to remain during 

 our pilgrimage on earth. As a record of history, this work is valuable, 

 and on some future day will be referred to, and will correct the histo- 

 rian, upon several points connected with a remarkable, we may say, 

 solitary instance, wherein power, in the hands of the oppressed, was used 

 with firmness and moderation. 



Where, in the annals of the world, have we read of such noble-minded 

 conduct ? Show us in all the records of sacred and profane history 

 one instance where uneducated and oppressed men, fully aware of the 

 terrible power which they possessed, not only abstained from bloodshed, 

 but from even the slightest individual retaliation ; and, separating their 

 own claims from the welfare of their country, declared themselves ready 

 to chastise it's enemies if they had the temerity to approach its shores, 

 and then return and renew their demands for justice. We exalt the pa- 

 triotism of individuals in the histories of Greece and Rome ; why, here 

 were 40,000 heroes, 40,000 real patriots, such as no other country ever 

 did produce. We consider that the character of English sailors stands 

 higher in estimation from their conduct during the mutiny, than even 

 from all the splendid victories by which they have raised their country 

 to its envied pre-eminence. 



There is another point in which we consider this work valuable. It 

 is a glossary of the naval idiom ; for, being ourselves nautical, we believe 

 that there is hardly an expression in use which the author has not 

 embodied in his book. Captain Glascock seems to have made it his pe- 

 culiar study, and we think that no one but Captain Glascock could have 

 so perfectly succeeded. True it is that he has laid his phrases on rather 

 thick, and that few sailors talk so wholly in trope and figure. Never- 

 theless, the expressions are most correctly nautical, and must constantly 

 have met the ears of seafaring people. 



Without entering into a disputation upon naval phraseology, we must 

 observe that it cannot be considered as slang which implies certain ex- 

 pressions used to conceal the real meaning from any other persons than 



* Colburn and Bentley, 1 vol. post 8vo. 



