1856.] Our Views and Reviews. 61 



The author pays a well merited compliment to the high character and effi- 

 ciency of the " Young Hen's Mercantile Library Association:" "It was formed 

 in 183o, and has gone forward, in a course of uninterrupted prosperity, to this 

 date; and its library and reading room are now models for similar institutions." 

 " Its library," continues the author, " contains fifteen thousand, five hundred 

 volumes — fifteen hundred volumes of which have been added during the past 

 year." Its reading room is supplied with files of one hundred and sixty news- 

 papers, and with sixty-two magazines, reviews, and other similar periodicals." 



The article on the " Astronomical Society," contains much valuable information 

 of both a general and local character. Indeed, the whole book abounds in such 

 information ; and it must, therefore, be regarded as an important accession to 

 our public and private libraries. Its typography is excellent. 



^^ Man-of-War Life: A Boy's Experience in the U. S. Navy, During A Voyage 

 Around The World, in a Shi]) of the IJne:" — Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, 

 Keys & Overend, 1856. 



Under this unpretending title we have a most excellent book. The style is 

 perspicuous, the descriptions graphic and truthful, the reflections just and judi- 

 cious. Though assuming to be only " A Boy's Experience," it nevertheless pre- 

 sents us with delineations of " Man-of-War Life " from a stand-point quite 

 different from the usual positions in which such delineations have been presented. 

 It accordingly gives us views of the peculiar polity, of the internal orderings, 

 and of the systematic arrangements of the Floating Castles of the Nation, — our 

 Men-of-War, — that are not presented by any other writer. Views, too, which 

 instruct while they delight; and really daguerreotype " Man-of-AVar Life " be- 

 fore our mind. The author does not assume to speak for the " Quarter Deck," — 

 the upper-tendom — of our National Vessels ; but incidentally gives us much 

 useful information about the "Upper Ten" of that "holy of holies of a Man- 

 of-War ! " Concerning the ' working classes ' of the vessel, however, he furnishes 

 most lively and picturesque descriptions. The information is, therefore, the 

 more valuable, inasmuch as it is the more practical. 



Some of his narratives are exceedingly bewitching to minds of more gravity 

 than belongs to boyhood ; and much of tlie information touching the localities 

 visited is worthy of the philosophic consideration of the wisest landsmen, while 

 it affords a fund of delightful instruction to the minds of youth. 



The account given of the vessel's visit to the ports of China and Japan, is of 

 high interest. His description of the Japanese, though unvarnished in style, is 

 exceedingly impressive. Speaking of them, the author says : 



" During our stay in Yeddo Bay, great numbers visited the ship, our decks 

 being crowded each day with men of all ranks ; but no ladies made their ap- 

 pearance. Judging of the people generally, from the specimens which came under 

 our observation, we were forced to admitthat they were a far better developed race, 

 both mentally and physically, than we had met with since leaving the United 

 States. 



The boatmen, the only ones of the lower classes with whom we came in contact. 



