45 o Voyage of the Novara. 



tune of arms had gone against our House, and we now heard 

 for the first time of the desperate battles, the heavy losses, 

 the sudden armistice of Villafranca ! The Commodore at 

 once telegraphed to Trieste the news of our arrival, and asked 

 for further instructions. 



Among our friends and acquaintances at Gibraltar many- 

 changes and alterations had taken place. The former Go- 

 vernor, Sir James Ferguson, had in the interim been replaced 

 by Sir W. Codrington. The Austrian Consul, the estimable 

 Mr. Longlands Cowell, was dead, and in his stead Mr. 

 Frembly attended provisionally to the duties of the office. 



The heads of the community, the Governor, the staff, Mr. 

 Creswell, Postmaster-General, Mr. Frembly, &c., paid us 

 marked attention on our present visit. Singular to say, no 

 one here seemed to be aware of our having been declared 

 neutral by most of the European powers, thanks to the far- 

 sighted circumspection of the projector of the voyage, and con- 

 sequently some apprehension had been felt lest some war- 

 ships of the enemy might have encountered the Novara in 

 American waters. But albeit of late years we have been pretty 

 well accustomed to see even written treaties trodden under- 

 foot, yet, in the present instance, the capture of the Novara 

 had been stringently prohibited to all French cruisers. For 

 even in the Tuileries the consequences of such an abuse of 

 power had been well foreseen; it was felt moreover even 

 there, that in our time the most powerful can no longer dis- 

 pense with science or disregard its interests, that any violence 



