38 Life and Services of Captain Philip Beaver. [_JvhY, 



Yon French jack shivers in the wind, 

 - Its lilies all look pale; 

 And well they may^they must come down. 

 For Britons shall prevail. 



Raked fore and aft, her shattered hull 



Admits the briny flood ; 

 Her decks are covered with the slain. 



Her scuppers stream with blood. 



Our chain-shot whistle in the wind, 

 The grape descend like hail ; 

 " Huzza ! my hearts, three cheering shouts ! 

 Our foe begins to quail." 



The fight is done — she strikes — she yields ; 



No more our force she braves ; 

 Henceforth she'll bear our cross, and prove 



That Britons rule the waves. 



H.M. Ship Princess Royal, P. Beaver. 



September '23th, 1780. 



THE BRIDGES OF LONDON. 



ThaiiUs to tliC bridge that lias carried iis well over. — Old Saying. 



The above old saying was no doubt very much in vogue when bridges 

 were mere planks placed across a stream, when there was some danger 

 in passing over them, and when a traveller might well express his gra- 

 titude at having crossed safely, as he looked back at the turbulent 

 stream and the tottering plank — or trunk of a tree — which had conducted 

 him from the other side. 



In modern days, how'ever, bridges have been so well constructed, and 

 have been so for such a long period, that the gratitude which was the 

 origin of this old saying no longer exists, or is paid with a penny instead . 

 of a proverb : what was a wonder in former times is a common event in 

 the present day ; and we quietly and negligently walk over arches and 

 causeways, that would have struck our ancestors with astonishment, 

 and the execution of which, in past ages, might have condemned the 

 artificers to the penalties of sorcery. Times, however, have changed — 

 intellect has marched — and what were formerly considered miracles, are 

 now common-place occurrences. 



In our bridges, planks and piles have given way to stone arches and 

 granite columns — solid piers are sunk into the beds of our rivers by 

 means of coffer-dams — and the passenger is conducted across the broadest 

 rivers by roads and causeways, equal in width and convenience to our 

 most splendid streets. 



It is curious to trace the progress of that which has arisen from abso- 

 lute necessity, till it has become a work of wonder and of art, that 

 carries the name of the constructor to posterity. 



The origin of a bridge was tlie necessity of passing any passage that 

 exceeded the step or the stretch of any man's legs. On such occasions. 



