68 BlilTAXXY AND THE CHASE. 



'• SO long that you, witli Buonaparte at your liead, could 

 never cross it." His reply was that modern warfare was 

 a different thing ; that steam had made matters more certain 

 and more capable of calculation ; and much more to the 

 same purport. This is in principle all true ; but my worthy 

 friend forgot the immense power of steam which England 

 possesses. In 1847, by a return made to government, it 

 appeared that there were 1700 steamers afloat, all able 

 to carry from two to ten and upwards of Iteavy guns, 

 and built under the Admiralty regulations ; and, since 

 1847, probably 400 to 500 have been added to the num- 

 ber. Think of that for a moment, there is consolation 

 in the thought ; one steam-ship per mile all round Eng- 

 land, and four to a mile for the parts of the Channel 

 between England and France ; a beautiful lively chain 

 of defence for Monsieur Crapaud to look at with the 

 smoke blown into his eyes by a westerly wind. Think of 

 the Oriental Company, the West India Company, and the 

 American Companies, with their splendid ships of from 

 2000 to 3000 tons burden, capable in a week to become 

 the most pov>^erful steam-ships in existence. These are 

 not counted among the steam navy of England, but 

 there they all are. There is the Himalaya, the great 

 iron monster belonging to the Oriental Company, 3500 

 tons burden. Why, as I heard a sea captain say, with 

 her steel cut-water made expressly for the job, he would 

 eno-aiie to run her stem on upon a first-rate man-of- 

 war, and to cut her down to the water's edge. No can- 

 nonading, no time lost in smoke, but, like the Roman 

 galleys of old, run her straight down upon her adversary 



