ment without fixing any legal substitute has thrown upon the officers the responsibility of inventing new forms of punishment, which shall correct the faults of the offender without withdrawing him from active duty, or rendering the officer himself liable to censure, on the ground of inhuman or extraordinary measures. No such punishment has yet been discovered. That which was recommended at the time flogging was abolished-solitary confinement, on bread and water—is no punishment at all to the vicious or refractory seaman, who sees in it an excellent opportunity of skulking from work; while the other plans in force-such as carrying a sixty-eight pound shot, standing lashed fast in one position for a certain number of hours, &c., are looked upon as a kind of slow torture, and in many cases tend to exasperate still further a nature already vicious. Ether of these methods punishes the good as well as the bad, by removing the offender from his work, which thus falls upon the honest and faithful seamen. The good men who are never punished, are rewarded for their fidelity by being obliged to perform more than their share of the labor, and are gradually being driven out of the service. I have heard it proposed that the idle and insubordinate shall be mulcted in their wages, and the sums thus deducted divided among the others. I am correct in my estimate of the sailor character, when I say that very few of them would accept such a reward. In fact, where a man really guilty has been punished by the loss of his wages for a number of months the entire crew has united to repay him the loss. Few sailors are destitute of a sense of honor, which would lead them to spurn the taking of a shipmate's wages, no matter how culpable that shipmate might be.

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463

No deductions can be drawn from the experience of society on shore which would be of much advantage in the government of a ship on the open ocean, cut off from the world, and a world in itself, but in many respects of a very different order from that with which landsmen are acquainted. Every member of this world has his appointed station and his regular daily duties. He is subject to inexorable laws, and obedience to those laws must be enforced at every hazard Without entire and absolute subordination a navy cannot exist. Its character is necessarily despotic, in fact, all sea life is so, and must always be So. Its government demands the exercise of the strictest justice, and of justice to all. In its forms of punishment, therefore, that which most effectually preserves discipline, which corrects the guilty without throwing an additional burden on the good, is the most expedient.

Among the seamen who compose the crews of our national vessels, there is every variety of character. Men as brave, manly and generous as any class can afford, there are; in most cases, no doubt, the major part of the crew are reputable in their conduct; but there is always-at least, under the present system-a leaven of depravity and sullen, dogged wickedness, which will bend to nothing but material force. I have seen so frequently the inefficiency of the other methods of punishment employed, and have heard, from the men themselves, such honest desire for the restoration of the old régime, that I cannot avoid the conclusion that the entire abolition of corporeal punishment in the Navy, without authorizing some effective substitute, was one of those mistaken acts of philan thropy which are founded on abstract ideas of humanity rather than a practical knowledge of human nature. It has more

than once happened, on board our vessels, that the seamen, in defiance of authority, have seized below decks and soundly flogged the idle and vicious, whom all other punishments had failed to intimidate.

Mr. Kennedy, Ex-Secretary of the Navy, in one of his Annual Reports, recommends a course which will partly remedy the evil by drawing into the service a better class of men, and thereby rendering punishments of all kinds less frequent. I allude to his proposal for creating a class of "registered seamen," who shall be permanently attached to the Navy, and receive an increased rate of pay with every five years of their service. The high wages now paid to sailors in the merchant service will soon render the adoption of some such plan necessary, in order to procure seamen at all-notwithstanding the superior comforts which a man-of-war affords, and that representative national character which is so gratifying to the pride of an American tar. There are many noble fellows among our seamen, and the adoption of a measure like Mr. Kennedy's, which would retain them in the service and identify them with its achievements, would go far toward restoring that energy and morale which once made our crews the finest in the world. I am too proud to admit that they are not so still; but every year makes the difference between the slackening discipline of our vessels, and the perfect and thorough subordination witnessed in the English Navy, more painfully perceptible.

While upon this theme I must allude to another circumstance which has an injurious operation-at least upon the vessels attached to the East India station, and I have no doubt the Pacific and African stations as well. I allude to the

SMALL STEAMERS NEEDED.

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length of the cruise. Three years in those climates, hot and unhealthy as they are, is trying to any constitution, while from the absence of all that can excite or amuse, the men gradually become spiritless and depressed. So far removed from home, exposed to gross sensual temptations, where every indulgence is followed by a terrific penalty, the length of the cruise tends inevitably to demoralize the crew. An active cruise of two years would accomplish far more than an idle one of three.

What is needed for the East India station is not a leviathan war-steamer like the Susquehanna, which cannot go within thirty miles of Ning-po and Foo-chow-foo, and can barely manage to reach Shanghai, but two small steamers, drawing not more than twelve or fourteen feet of water. When Canton was menaced, we could with difficulty get a store-ship within reach of the factories, to watch over the interests of our citizens. If a fleet of piratical junks was hovering about the Ladrone Islands, and one of our big vessels attempted to follow, they were off at once into water too shallow for us. The small English steamers Hermes and Styx did more in this way for the security of commerce, than all other men-of-war on the coast collectively. 20*

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

HONG KONG-SOCIETY

IN

CHINA.

Impressions of Hong-Kong-A Man Drowned at Midnight-Hong-Kong from the Water-The town of Victoria-The Island of Hong-Kong-The Hong-Kot g FeverHospitality of Foreign Residents in China-Their Princely Style of Living-Rigid Social Etiquette-Balls-Tropical Privileges-The Anglo-Saxon Abroad.

My first impressions of Hong-Kong were not very favorable, but I attributed them partly to the gloomy March weather which prevailed during my stay. After the genial quiet of Macao, and the mellow historic light which plays about its decaying palaces, the thoroughly modern air and desolate surroundings of the place became still more distasteful to me, and an unfortunate association which I shall never be able wholly to banish from memory, increased the feeling into absolute dislike.

On the second evening after our arrival I went ashore with some friends, and did not return until ten o'clock. My cot was not yet slung, for my hammock-boy was one of the crew of the Captain's boat which had also gone ashore. He was a strong, dark-eyed, lusty fellow named John Williams-one of the maintopmen, who are generally the picked men of the ship. About eleven o'clock Williams made his appearance,