down on his arrival. This was almost his last exploit, for he soon after quitted the Bacchante,' on account of ill-health, and returned to England as a passenger in the Cerberus,' frigate. Shortly after his arrival in this country, Captain Hoste was raised to the dignity of a Baronet of Great Britain on the 23rd July, 1814, and on the 2nd January, 1815, was nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath.

His
His

So rapid had been the successes of this officer, that he seems very nearly to have lived his life in the limit of a few years. energy and ceaseless activity, howewer, told upon him. health, which had been suffering for some time, and had compelled him to return to England, kept him there for some time. It must have been strange to him after the hazardous exploits in which he had been engaged in the Mediterranean to find himself commanding the Albion,' at Portsmouth. Of all quiet places, the flag-ship, on a home port, must be the quietest to an officer of active habits. True there are storms sometimes, but Portsmouth Harbour knows little about them. A few ships lying out at Spithead may, now and then, feel the influences of weather and their officers know that they were not on terra firma; there may be occasional affrays between crimps and sailors; between ragged looking women and blear-eyed boatmen on the Hard; but of these, even the faintest echo seldom reaches the Flagship. Perhaps the gallant Captain had more absorbing pursuits, at this time, to engross his attention, and to make him welcome a short respite from the service of war and devote himself to the softer duties of home. He was married, and welcomed, we may be sure, without any disparagement to his heroic qualities, a short period of devotion to domestic life.

But why pursue this life any further. The question which I proposed, and, indeed, have undertaken to answer, is whether Captain Hoste was a hero or no. Naval heroism is the one test I wish to apply, and it will be unnecessary, I venture to think, to proceed any farther in his life to prove its existence in him. The wearisome details of the lives of great men often destroy the real effect they are intended to produce. Instead of endeavouring to fix the mind of the reader on one or two points which prove what is required, matters of real interest are mixed with those of no interest at all; and after we have ascertained what really made the life worth writing, we are dragged through the wearisome details of previous or after life which have no real interest in them.

In Captain Hoste's case all that can be asked fairly is to fix our mind attentively on the years 1811 to 1814. They furnish the key to his life; they prove the truth and integrity of his youthful days; and they account for the rewards and honours which, in later years, were bountifully bestowed on him. In every man's life, it seems hardly worth remarking, there are the

sowing, the growing, and the reaping times. However interesting the first and last of these may be, it rarely fails that the growing time is that which gives evidence of real interest. Then it is that a man proves his power, when, emerging from the miniature experience, and traditional habits of youth, he shows how far they have any real hold on him, and how far they are his own. Most men start fairly enough in the race, and give freely the fair blossoms of hope. Their histories, up to a certain point, would be all equally well worth writing. In the time of boyhood, great as the differences often are between one youth and another, it will be difficult to foretell who will win the race in the end. The same hopes and fears seem to animate all; some give evidence of greater powers than others; but, when the boyhood period has past, and the youth emerges into life free to exercise his own will, how great is the difference! We miss, in the ranks of mature life, many a bright face and many a recruit, whose early efforts seemed to give so much promise of success. Where are they? Gone; fallen behind in the race, unable to "stay." They were not heroes.

The making of a hero does not depend upon a few fitful, artificial acts; but on that onward, upward, constant, movement of a highly gifted mind, overcoming the feeble restraints of the body; yet at the same time assisted and stimulated by the physical gifts of nature. Constancy, perseverance, and self-denial mark the hero; and it is the evidence of these, in his naval career, which made Hoste conspicuous among so many gallant comrades.

OUR NEW GREAT GUN.

The new Great Gun which is being constructed at Woolwich, is a more interesting article than most of its predecessors. It is not merely a new gun which is to be made bigger and heavier than any we have yet constructed. It embodies a new idea, and will be, to a great extent, an experiment. Whether the gun will realize all that is expected of it, time alone must determine; but in the meantime, its progress towards completion is being watched by our Artillerists with more than ordinary interest.

The necessity which has arisen for the introduction of this new gun, will be best understood if we state briefly how the contest between guns and targets at present stands.

It will be in the recollection of most of our readers, that when the first iron-clad ship, La Gloire, "took possession of the seas," the most powerful gun we could bring against her was the Armstrong 7-inch breech-loader. That gun, however, when fired in September, 1861, against a target of about equal strength with that of La Gloire, utterly failed to make any serious im

pression upon it. Even three guns firing together, and striking on nearly the same spot, made only a slight indent. The failure, in fact, was complete. Round No. 1 of the great contest, between guns and targets, terminated consequently in favour of the target.

Before our Artillerists could resume the contest, they had to look about for a new weapon. The idea of making a larger gun, upon the same principle as the 7-inch breech-loader naturally occurred to them; but that course was beset by a formidable difficulty. The vent piece had already reached the maximum of weight, which would allow of its being conveniently raised and lowered. It was already 137lbs. in weight, and any further increase would have rendered it unmanageable. Under these circumstances, it was decided to abandon the breech-loading system altogether, in as far, at least, as heavy ordnance were concerned, and to return once more to our old friends the muzzle-loaders. In September, 1862, therefore, a trial between the target and Mr. Whitworth's 120-pounder muzzle-loading rifled gun took place at Shoeburyness. The target put up was fully equal in strength, not only to the French frigate, but also to our own iron-clad ship the Warrior. The gun, however, put both shot and shell completely through the target. This feat was afterwards repeated, with almost equal success, by our Service 7-inch muzzle-loading rifled gun, firing a projectile of 115lbs. weight. Round No. 2 of the contest terminated, therefore, in favour of the guns.

It was now the turn of the ships to be "put upon their metal." The Warrior had a defensive armour of 44-inch iron plate, eighteen inches of teak wood, and §-inch iron skin. There was no difficulty, however, in increasing that thickness of armour. A new class of ships, represented by the Bellerophon and Lord Warden, were therefore built. This new class had 6-inches of iron plate, backed in the case of the Bellerophon, by ten inches of wood and 1-inch iron skin, and in the case of the Lord Warden by twenty-nine inches of wood without any iron skin. To meet these new antagonists, our 9 and 10-inch guns, throwing projectiles of 250 and 400lbs. respectively, were brought up. The trial came off at Shoeburyness, on the 17th June, 1864. The contest was never for a moment doubtful. Both guns put shot and shell completely through the target. So decisive, in fact, was the penetration, that one of the 9-inch shot, which had passed through, was picked up about 500 yards beyond the target. Round No. 3 terminated, consequently, like Round No. 2, in favour of the guns.

Nothing daunted our Naval architects, led on by Mr. Reed, the late Chief Constructor of the Navy, kept piling on the armour. They added three inches more to their plates. This new class of ships represented by the Hercules, had consequently nine inches of iron plate. That enormous thickness of metal was supported,

moreover, by forty inches of wood backing, and 14-inch iron skin. Altogether, there was a wall of over four feet in thickness. Against a target, representing a section of the Hercules, the most powerful gun in our Service, the 600-pounder, was placed in position. The bullet went crashing into it but failed to pass through. Again and again, the shot and shell buried themselves in the target, but a clean daylight hole was nowhere visible. Once, and once only, there was a gleam of hope. A Palliser projectile actually tore through the target and came out on the other side. On examination, however, it was found that the projectile had struck a spot already weakened by a blow from another bullet. It was not considered, therefore, to be a fair hit, and was not allowed to count. In candour, our Artillerists had to admit that the Hercules' target had proved impenetrable to the heaviest ordnance in our Service. Round No. 4 bad terminated in favour of the targets.

To complete this victory of the targets, it was decided to follow up the advantage which had been gained by another, and apparently still more decisive blow. Last year there were laid down at Pembroke and Portsmouth, two sister ships, the Thunderer and Devastation, each of them to have, in addition to a massive wood backing, and 14-inch iron skin, an armour of rolled iron plates twelve inches in thickness.

There

Here, now we arrive at the present state of the contest. are just now, actually upon the seas, or in course of construction, a fleet of first class iron-clad ships, which are declared impenetrable to the heaviest ordnance we possess. It is not England alone, moreover, which possesses these floating fortresses. The French have got rams of the Bélier class, with eight and a quarter inches of iron armour. The Prussians have also got, at least, two iron-clads almost as strong as our own Hercules, and the Americans have Monitors with six inches of plating backed by eight inches of armour stringers, an arrangement which they consider nearly equal to fourteen inches of iron.

What then were our Artillerists to do with these formidable monsters? In considering the problem, the traditional three courses were obviously open to them. One course was to give up the contest altogether; fold their arms and declare it useless to keep running in what seems to be an interminable race. The struggle must come to an end sometime, and they might as well leave off now as at some future period. Another course was to go on doggedly as they had hitherto been doing. Build bigger guns to fire heavier projectiles till by sheer weight of metal, the target should be borne down. For that course, also, there were obvious arguments. We have not yet reached the limit of weight for our guns. The heaviest gun we possess weighs only twentyfive tons. Now at the last Paris Exhibition there was shewn a steel gun made by Krupp, of Essen, which weighed about thirty

five tons. The Americans have three cast-iron guns called Moloch, Satan, and Lucifer, each of which weigh forty-two tons, and two cast-iron guns weighing each fifty-two tons. The Russians have also a cast-iron gun which weighs fifty tons. Why then should not England have a fifty ton gun? Such a gun, if rifled like our other ordnance, and made capable of throwing a projectile of about 1000lbs. weight, would almost certainly break in pieces any ship now afloat, or likely to be afloat for years to

come.

The third course is the one which has been adopted. This course has been to endeavour to produce an equal effect without such an enormous increase in the weight of either the gun or of its projectile. It has for some time past been obvious that we have been increasing the weight of our projectiles in much greater proportion than we have been increasing the charge of powder to propel them. Our 7-inch muzzle loading gun, for example, has a battering charge of 22lbs. of powder, which propels a projectile of 115lbs. weight, while, on the other hand, our 12-inch gun has a battering charge of 67lbs., which has to propel a projectile of 600lbs. weight. The weight of the shot has been increased fully five times, while the charge of powder to propel it has been increased only three times. We have, in fact, been giving three men a five men's weight to carry. The consequence, of course, has been that the charge has proved too weak for the work it was required to perform. The velocity with which a bullet leaves the bore of our 7-inch muzzle-loading gun, is about 1,450 feet per second, while, on the other hand, the velocity with which the shot leaves the bore of our 12-inch gun is only about 1,200 feet per second. Now, as the penetrating power of a projectile depends almost entirely upon the speed at which it is travelling, it will be obvious that this great want of velocity, in our heavy projectiles, has been operating seriously against their efficiency. To remedy this defect, therefore, it has been decided that the new gun, which is being constructed, shall have a calibre of only about eleven inches, and the projectiles to be fired from it will probably not exceed 500lbs in weight. On the other hand, however, it will have a battering charge of about 100lbs of powder, and will be strengthened so as to bear this charge, by being made about thirty-five tons in weight. There will be no change in the material of the gun. It is being made of wrought iron with an inner tubing of steel, and the rifling will be of what is called the "Woolwich" form of groove, with a gaining twist, like all our other recently constructed heavy ordnance.

Of course, until the gun is trial, it will be impossible to

actually finished and put upon its speak with certainty as to the work it will be able to accomplish. The greatest penetration we have yet obtained from any of our guns was on the occasion of the ex