562 The King's Own. [MAY, 



afloat, such a proceeding would inevitably cause the dismissal from the 

 naval service of the party so acting, however his feelings might have been 

 outraged as an officer and a gentleman. Under such circumstances, an 

 officer who may have written about " Life at Sea," and who therefore 

 may perchance have stumbled on a disagreeable truth or two, is inevi- 

 tably exposed to the annoyances, unless, indeed, he be charged with de- 

 spatches, of any superior under whose command he may, even accident- 

 ally and fugitively, happen to fall ; and who, with perverse ingenuity, 

 may fancy himself to have been satirised or neglected to be praised, the 

 sin of omission being generally worse than that of commission ; and as, 

 according to the march of intellect, the rising men are guilty of the of- 

 fence of being the cleverest, it is ten to one that the sting will strike 

 where the power of unfair retaliation is the strongest. 



Whether the author of the work before us feels himself quite inde- 

 pendent of the service, we know not; but it is clear that he is a seaman, 

 and not either purser, doctor, or marine officer j and it is equally clear 

 that he lays about him, careless where his blows may fall, and utterly 

 reckless of consequences. He is a man of genius too, a novelist of no 

 common order skilled in the construction of a plot, in the dramatic de- 

 lineation of character, and especially in the description of those animating 

 and absorbing incidents which so often arise in 'his hazardous profession. 

 He is the seaman's Le Sage ; and whether he describe the character of 

 the common sailor, the uneasy condition of the " middy," the toiling 

 hopes of the lieutenant, or the anxious authority of the captain, it is im- 

 possible not to be struck at once with the entertaining character of the 

 sketch, and, with one or two exceptions, the truth of the representation. 



The chief plot of " The King's Own" consists mainly of the adventures 

 of a young man in his majesty's navy, whose birth was attended by cir- 

 cumstances of a very remarkable and tragical nature. His father was 

 hanged for mutiny, and his mother died broken-hearted in consequence 

 of that event. William., the hero of the story, is consigned by his con- 

 demned father to the care of an old seaman, who, with true esprit de 

 corps, thinks he can do no better for the boy than mark his skin with 

 the broad arrow, and thus make him the " Kings Own." But Willy, 

 notwithstanding his rough education, is of gentle blood, which manifests 

 itself in occasional refinement of manner and chivalrous bravery. These 

 qualities attract the attention of the captain of the ship in which the lad is 

 situated ; and he is accordingly " borne on the books," and placed on the 

 quarter-deck, in the capacity of a midshipman. Willy is, in fact, the 

 grandson of an admiral of large property, who disinherited his son and 

 heir, the father of our hero, and the latter had, therefore, been rash 

 enough to revenge the conduct of his parent by entering himself as a 

 common man on board of a ship of war. Willy's fate in the service is 

 marked by striking vicissitudes ; and, after the death of his grandfather, 

 when his own claims to the property were discovered, he is supposed to 

 have been lost in a vessel which foundered at sea. The splendid fortune 

 of Admiral Decourcy devolves, in consequence of this belief, to a Mr. 

 Rainscourt, a distant relative of the family. This last character is capi- 

 tally conceived and executed by the novelist. He is an unprincipled 

 roue, plunged in debt and debauchery ; a scoundrel, who repudiates his 

 wife, and then, because she is no longer at his command, pesters her 

 with vehement solicitations of love, which are the more importunate 

 because the lady firmly rejects his suit. Miserable error in individuals 



