w- 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



known, and the fastest walker in the 

 army. 



FAMOUS, BUT SHORT. 



On the average, the great generals of 

 the nineteenth century have been short 

 men. Mr. Wilson says: — 



It is interesting to record that Washing- 

 ton, who was six feet and two inches m 

 stature, weighed at the time of the siege of 

 Yorktown 195 pounds: Wellington, five feet 

 several inches, weighed, at Waterloo. 140 

 pounds; Napoleon, five feet six inches, 

 at the same date, 158 pounds; and 

 Grant, five feet eight inches, weighed, at 

 Appomattox Court House. 145 pounds ; 

 General Lee, at Gettysburg, weighed 180 

 pounds; Sherman, at Atlanta, 165 pounds: 

 and Sheridan, in the battle of Cedar Creek, 

 about 150 pounds. Washington was the 

 tallest, and Sheridan the shortest, of the 

 seven generals. It will be seen, therefore, 



that Washington's war-horse, '-'Nelson, had 

 a much heavier weight to carry than the 

 chargers "Copenhagen," "Marengo," and 

 "Cincinnati," in their masters' concluding 

 campaigns. 



Other famous generals of short 

 stature recur readily to the memory, 

 amongst others Gordon, Wolseley, and 

 Roberts. 



" May I be permitted," says Mr. Wil- 

 son, " in conclusion, to mention that 

 none of the hundreds of battle-chargers 

 ridden by Washington, Napoleon, Well- 

 ington, Grant, Lee, Sherman, and Sheri- 

 dan, suffered mutilation by the bar- 

 barous modern practice of docking their 

 tails, which even uncivilised savages 

 never perpetrate on their horses." 



AMERICAN SHIPS FOR PANAMA. 



Mr. Winthrop L. Marvin tells in the 

 American Review, of Reviews what 

 American shipping companies are doing 

 to take advantage of the Panama Canal 

 when opened. He points out that so 

 far as international commerce via 

 Panama is concerned, not one new keel 

 is being laid in the United States, and 

 not one new ship has even been pro- 

 jected. The Panama Canal Act of last 

 August reversed the former policy and 

 granted free American registry to 

 foreign-built ships for international 

 commerce, through the Panama Canal 

 or elsewhere. But this " free-ship " ex- 

 periment has utterly failed. Not one 

 foreign craft has hoisted the American 

 flag ; not one request for the flag has 

 reached the Bureau of Navigation. 

 Foreign-built ships when admitted to 

 American registry cost as much to 

 officer, man, and maintain as American- 

 built ships, and are not eligible for 

 foreign subsidies. 



If international trade with South 

 America, Oceania, and the Orient were 

 all, it might well be assumed that the 

 Stars and Stripes were never to be seen 

 at Panama save as borne by some casual 

 yacht or man-of-war. But there is 

 another and a great and important 

 traffic served by the canal — the purely 

 American coastwise traffic between the 



ports of the United States, including 

 Porto Rico, on the Atlantic, and ports 

 of the United States, including Hawaii 

 and Alaska, on the Pacific. All this 

 commerce under century-old national 

 laws must be carried in American ships ; 

 and for this commerce American ship- 

 owners are making the most vigorous 

 and far-sighted preparations. 



Owing to the fact that hardly an 

 American ship is employed in deep 

 water trade, it comes as a surprise to 

 learn that the American merchant 

 marine as its exists to-day is very 

 much larger and more powerful than 

 those who are unfamiliar with it may 

 imagine. It is in aggregate tonnage the 

 second mercantile fleet in the world — a 

 fleet of 7,714,183 tons, as officially re- 

 ported on July 1st, 191 2. Of this sig- 

 nificant total, 2,949,924 tons is repre- 

 sented by the shipping of the great 

 Northern lakes, but the Atlantic fleet is 

 larger still, or 3,625,595 tons, and the 

 Pacific fleet is 963,319 tons. These 

 vessels, with the craft of Porto Rico, 

 Hawaii, and the Western rivers, make 

 up the aggregate of 7,714,183 tons, all 

 but 932,101 tons of which is employed 

 in coastwise or domestic commerce. The 

 coastwise fleet of 6,782,082 tons com- 

 pares impressively with the 1,380,057 

 tons of British shipping employed 



