CHAPTER XII.THE SCHOOLMASTER AFLOAT.
The union of abstract or theoretical study with actual practice, is one of the most important characteristics of a naval life; and the distinction is rendered still more remarkable, from its extending throughout the whole range of an officer’s career, from the very hour he enters the service as a midshipman, till he ends his life in battle, like Nelson, or worn out, like Collingwood, in command of a fleet. Every officer in the Navy, in short, who really cares about his business at all, may be said to be perpetually learning his profession, and as perpetually putting in practice what he learns; for by no exertion of talents or industry, can he ever expect to reach the top of his knowledge, or that point where furtherinstruction will no longer prove useful to himself and his country. A naval man, therefore, however professionally employed, is kept constantly alive and active, as far as the pursuit of information is concerned. For there is a permanent and high bounty, as it were, upon every fresh acquirement; and the advantages of each new attainment are so great, and generally so soon felt, that, with a little address on the part of the higher authorities, there can never be wanting opportunities for bringing such information into useful operation. As, therefore, there is very seldom any want of stimulus amongst the young men on board a well-regulated ship; it becomes of great consequence, not only to create and keep alive this impulse, but also to give it a right direction, and so to guide its energies, that the result may be productive of benefit, not merely to the officers themselves, but to their country.
The nature of the sea service is such, that it must be entered at an early age, otherwise its duties are sure to disgust. But unless a boy happens to be one of thoseprodigies, (who, in the long run, seldom turn out worth sixpence!) he must almost necessarily be very ignorant when he commences his sea life. Once afloat, however, the occupations of the ship are quite sufficient to keep his body in healthful exercise, and the variety of new objects he sees will generally prevent his mind from ever wearying. Yet unless some consistent, uniform means be taken to cherish his nascent mental energies, and to give a right direction to that desire for knowledge which belongs to his age, and, above all, to found and regulate his principles; the chances are but too great that he may speedily run to weeds and waste, in spite of the best possible disposition on his part to do right.
Persons who have not had the means of becoming acquainted with the dangers that beset a young man, on his first going to sea, and even for some time afterwards, can form no adequate conception of the risk which he incurs of having his taste and morals corrupted, and the best faculties of his mind not only neglected, but often irretrievablyshaken. Nor must people hope, that by sending a boy under the protection of the captain, or one of the officers, these evils will always be warded off. The danger may be lessened, it is true; but it cannot be effectually guarded against, and for a very plain reason. In ships actively employed, hardly any officer has leisure to devote the requisite amount of time to the superintendence of a boy under his charge; and still less frequently has he either capacity or temper for the arduous task of education. To which it may be added, that, even under favourable circumstances, the duties of an officer, and his assigned position in the ship, generally keep him too much apart from the midshipmen to enable him to exercise, to the extent we could wish, that degree of watchfulness over his protégé’s habits, without which the utmost care may often prove ineffectual in maintaining his young friend in the right path.
The kindness of a captain, or any other of the officers, certainly goes a long way to render the situation of a youngster on boardship happy, and useful. But these advantages can be fully extended only to a few cases, even in ships where the captain’s disposition has that kindly bent which takes delight in opening his cabin to the midshipmen, and prompts him to go out of his way in other respects, to make them pleased with their situation. It is deeply to be regretted, indeed, that in most ships in His Majesty’s service, no such advantages can be reckoned upon; and unless there be something more direct and imperative than the mere good-will of the captain, too many youngsters will inevitably be neglected, not only to their own loss and eventual sorrow, but to the manifest injury of the public interests.
There is a very mistaken notion entertained by many officers in the Navy, who conceive that parental care and kindness to the midshipmen under their command, do not fall within the strict line of their duty. And this would be reasonable, if it were right to govern His Majesty’s ships exclusively by the strict letter of the Printed Instructions and the Articles of War. But how could theservice go on for a single day on such principles? Every thing falls within the line of a captain’s duty which contributes to the advancement of the public good; and who shall say that an attention to the morals and manners of those young men, who are destined to command the ships and fleets of the country, is not an object of vital public interest?
There is no law, strictly so called, by which parents on shore are compelled to educate their children, or to shew them kindness; but what father of a family will plead this omission in the statutes in excuse for neglecting his family? Yet the case is even stronger on board ship, where the dangers of evil communication—that corrupter of good manners—are far greater, and where the value of kindness is enhanced a hundred-fold, by the many hardships and privations to which the poor boys must be exposed.
To say that these young persons are merely public servants—that they must take their chance with the rest of the crew—and that a captain has enough to do besides makinghimself a dry-nurse for every child sent on board his ship, is a bitter and most unworthy mockery, implying little genuine public spirit, and still less private feeling.
At the very best, as I have already said, the captain cannot accomplish all the objects that could be desired; but in every case, even of the most actively employed ships, the exercise of his authority, in a generous and kindly spirit, must contribute, in a most essential degree, not only to the present comfort, but to the solid virtue of the youngsters on board. Indeed, these two results must always go together, afloat as well as on shore; and exactly in proportion as the captain can ameliorate the habits of his young officers, or win them to a conviction of the value of acting upon principle, so will they become happier men and more useful public servants.
It has already been stated, that a captain’s time is generally so much taken up with official duties, that, even if he be so inclined, he cannot devote an adequate portion of his attention to the moral care ofthe important class of rising officers of whom we are speaking. But it requires only a slight acquaintance with any description of public business to shew, that although a commanding officer may often not be able to execute a required task himself, he may usefully superintend its right performance by another. Indeed, it will happen, in most cases, that such work will actually be better done by another person, under his inspection, than it could have been done by the chief himself. This observation applies, in a remarkable manner, to the numerous and varied duties on board a man-of-war. Nor is it too much to say, that in a well-regulated ship the captain is bound not to attempt the execution of all, or, perhaps, any of these duties himself, but rather to devote his attention to their right performance by the officers especially named to such charges.
It is on this principle—that is to say, exactly in the same spirit by which every other duty is carried on afloat—that I consider it of so much importance to the well-being of the Navy that the captain should beprovided with a duly-qualified officer in a most essential department of his discipline, at present absolutely vacant. He cannot, by any exertion, execute the duties of instruction himself; nor is there any other person on board to whom he can delegate them, at least as things are now constituted; and the consequences, we all know, are in many cases every way deplorable.
Fortunately, the remedy for these evils appears neither difficult of discovery, nor costly in its application; and as it has had the advantage of frequent and successful trial, it is to be hoped that, ere long, its adoption as a matter of official regulation will become general throughout the Navy.
It must have occurred to every one who has attended personally to this subject, that the duty of superintending the progress of youngsters circumstanced as the mids are, to any good purpose, can be performed only by a person who shall have this exclusive business to attend to, or whose chief duty and interest it shall be. Neither can there be a doubt, that if a proper salary weregiven, in connexion with some advantages which would cost the country nothing, a class of officers, fully competent to this high and important task, might soon be created, and placed as much at the disposal of the administrators of our naval affairs, as any other description of public servants. I use the word officers instead of schoolmasters, because it appears to me quite essential to the success of the measures under consideration, that the person having the superintendence of the young gentlemen in one of His Majesty’s ships should be permanently placed, as nearly as possible, in the situation eventually to be filled by his pupils, in order that he may become practically familiar with those professional feelings and habits, the value of which it is his duty to teach, along with those still more important principles, and sacred instructions peculiarly his province to inculcate.
Many of these useful refinements, however, cannot be looked for in men who are not placed in situations in which alone, as all experience shews, they can be acquired; it,therefore, becomes indispensable, as I have said before, that the instructors of our naval youth should be made to feel that they really are officers, to all intents and purposes, not only in rank, but in the enjoyment of every other technical advantage possible.
A preceptor, under any circumstances, but most particularly on board ship, in order to have the power of doing any permanent good, should not only respect himself, but ought to be supported in such a way as to command, at all times, the respect, not alone of his pupils, but likewise of the people about them. Unfortunately, few things can be more inefficient, or, generally speaking, more ridiculous, than the present situation of a schoolmaster afloat; and until his position there be materially improved, it is almost hopeless to look for any good results.
“The average pay of schoolmasters,” observes a well-informed writer, “is about £50 and their provisions. They rank with the ship’s cook, mess with the midshipmen, and have no cabin. With so small a pittance, and with such rank and accommodations,it would be unreasonable to suppose that a very highly-educated class of persons could be obtained; and consequently we find, that many ships are totally unprovided. Where they are found, they are often persons who make it convenient to serve for a time; but it rarely happens that they continue in the business. No prospect of advancement is held out to them, nor are they in any way recompensed or provided for when their term of service is complete. The naval instructions ordain that ‘the schoolmaster is not only to instruct his pupils in mathematics, but to watch over their general conduct, and to attend to their morals; and if he shall observe any disposition to immorality or debauchery, or any conduct unbecoming an officer or a gentleman, he is to represent it to the captain.’ This appears very plausible in the printed instructions; but its execution, under the circumstances just detailed, must be pronounced chimerical. It may readily be supposed, how totally inconsistent with this dignified surveillance, living in the same hole with their pupilsmust be, particularly when the democratical form of government, or club-law, which is generally to be found there, is remembered. The habits and awkwardness of a landsman are of themselves a constant theme of irresistible ridicule with their joyous associates; and when it is considered that the highest authority often finds it difficult to restrain their happy thoughtlessness and practical jokes, what, it may be asked, must be expected to be the fate of an unhappy equal?”[2]
This is by no means an exaggerated picture of the situation of a schoolmaster on board a man-of-war; and whatever the remedy be, I believe there can hardly exist a difference of opinion amongst professional men as to the great improvement of whichthis department of the service is susceptible.
In the able paper above quoted, the well-known advantages of uniting the two situations of chaplain and schoolmaster, are stated with considerable force; the practical good results, indeed, which have attended many of the experiments which have been made of that union, are so generally recognised, that in a short time we may expect to see it established in every ship. But the pay of either of these situations is too trifling to render it a sufficient motive for a man of abilities and classical knowledge to go on board ship. The consequence is, either that most of our ships are left without such instructors; or that these stations are not very well filled; or, finally, if occupied by qualified persons, they are held by men who accept them only for a time, till something better shall offer.
In the Leander, on the Halifax station, we had an excellent schoolmaster for about a year, when the situation of professor of one of the colonial colleges happening to fall vacant, we lost his services immediately;and although ours was the flag-ship, on board of which the inducements were considerably beyond the common run, we could never afterwards procure a proper person to fill the office. The youngsters, therefore, who, as usual, flocked on board the Admiral’s ship, were ever after left completely adrift.
What would become of the arrangements of a man-of-war, I should like to ask, if any one of the other officers—the first lieutenant, for instance, the purser, or the boatswain—were at liberty, without warning, to quit the ship the instant he saw an opportunity of bettering himself? And yet, if there existed no prospective benefit in these officers remaining, on what principle could we expect to maintain any permanent hold over them? How then can we wonder that chaplains and schoolmasters, whom as yet we have taken no pains to form into a distinct, respectable, and well-paid class of officers, should scruple so little about abandoning a service in which no proper means have yet been adopted to give them, as in the case of every other officer, a determinate life interest?
The obvious remedy, as has been urged a hundred times, seems to lie in this plan of uniting the situations of chaplain and schoolmaster, and joining the pay of the two. In all probability, the truest economy will be found in still further augmenting this pay, so as to make it really worth the while of properly-educated men to look to it, not merely for a season, but as a fixed provision. The discomforts, however, of a midshipman’s birth—to all but the mids themselves, who are hastening to get out of it—are so intolerable, that hardly any amount of pay will ever be thought a full recompense for the sacrifices which a person grown up to man’s estate, and properly qualified in other respects, would be called upon to make, were he required to mess in the cock-pit. In the event, therefore, of such union of offices, the gentleman in whom they are joined ought to bear a regular commission, mess with the commissioned officers, and walk the weather side of the deck; perhaps also he might advantageously wear a suitable uniform. At all events, he ought topossess a distinct rank, and be considered as essentially a part of the ship’s complement as the surgeon, purser, or any other officer in the civil department of the fleet.
People unacquainted with the nature of naval discipline may smile, perhaps, at some of the privileges glanced at above, as essential to the right exercise of power. But long experience has shewn that the distinctions in question are the recognised symbols or indexes of due subordination and general good order. They unquestionably contribute, indirectly, to the maintenance of that prompt and effective obedience, and respect to constituted authority, which, combined with self-respect, go so far to form the sinews of naval strength. If, therefore, it be of real utility to have the schoolmaster’s work as well executed as that of the other officers, it surely follows that he ought to be placed in a situation to command, not merely the dogged attention of the midshipmen, but in one which will insure the official reverence of the boys, together with a proportionate degree of consideration from those whom they command.If these minute particulars in balancing the scales of discipline be not duly attended to, the respect of the pupils will dwindle into familiarity, and the schoolmaster, if he be not a strong-minded person, may end by losing his own self-confidence. All lessons then become a farce, and the teacher either relapses into a useless appendage to the ship, or, if forcibly sustained by the stern authority of the captain, he is apt to degenerate into a mere pedagogue.
It may safely be laid down as a pretty general principle, that to render any man of much use, he must be placed permanently in a station, which of itself, and by the ordinary workings of the established order of things, will insure attention both from superiors and inferiors. Without this adjustment, there can be no good service performed any where—on land or at sea.
It is sometimes not sufficiently recollected, that schooling on board ship differs materially from what it is on shore; for it not only treats of very different matters, but has other objects in view, both immediate and remote. Before a young person actually engagesin a profession, the great purpose of a school appears to consist in mere training—that is to say, in carrying his faculties through a course of preparatory discipline, without any more specific object than mental exercise. But when the youth is once fairly embarked in the pursuit which is to furnish employment for his life, an immediate modification takes place. The system which it is necessary to follow at sea is then placed in distinct contrast to that previously observed.
On shore, education and business are two separate things, one of which does not begin till the other ends; while, on board ship, the two always go hand in hand. As the lessons of the teacher may be put in practice immediately, the utility of theoretical knowledge is exhibited on the spot; and thus a gradually increasing impulse is given to the whole course of study. A boy who learns from his master what the word Latitude means, and what is the method of obtaining it, instantly runs upon deck, takes a quadrant in his hand, observes the sun’s meridional altitude, and is filled with amaze and delighton discovering: within what small limits he has been able to determine the ship’s place relatively to the equator. Next day he sets to work with increased eagerness to conquer the more difficult problem of finding the Longitude, which he has immediate opportunities of bringing to the test of actual experiment. The theory of Gunnery, likewise, when studied by itself, is frequently found to be intricate, and often far from satisfactory; but, when all its results can be brought to the test of experiment, the aspect which this very important pursuit assumes is totally different. How few officers, for instance, understand correctly the meaning of the elementary term Point Blank, or have any useful conception of the mathematical principles which it involves! How often do we hear people gravely assuming that the shot rises between the gun and the point-blank mark! The laws which regulate the action of fluids directed against plane surfaces are by no means easily explained when grappled with alone; but, when brought to bear on the use of the rudder, or the trimof the sails, there is hardly a boy afloat who fails to appreciate the value of true science over what is called ‘rule of thumb;’ or rather, who may not soon be taught to feel the mighty advantage of uniting the two, so as to make theory and practice mutually assist each other.
Nearly the same thing may be said of almost every other branch of knowledge: with languages, for instance—I mean more particularly the modern languages—French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, most of which are made to tell generally as soon as acquired. The Mathematics in all their wonderful branches, and Science in almost every department, furnish ample objects to fill up the leisure hours of an officer. Geography, history, and the law of nations, come into professional play at every turn. A young man, therefore, of any capacity or industry, is nearly sure of rendering himself useful in a short time, be his particular pursuits what they may, provided only that his zeal is duly encouraged by the captain, and seconded by the ready assistance of a properly qualifiedpreceptor whom he has been taught to respect. It must never be forgotten, however, that along with all this knowledge of a professional, literary, or scientific nature, there ought to be mixed up instructions of a still more important description, upon which the formation of a young man’s character will mainly depend, whether we view him merely as an officer, or in his wider capacity as a member of the civil community.
Every one acquainted with the difficult task of bringing boys safely through the intricate labyrinth of temptations which must be encountered in the early stages of a sea life, will acknowledge, that the superintendent of a young man’s habits has little or no chance of success, unless he can secure the confidence of his pupil. I very much fear, however, that there can be little hope of establishing such a relation between them, unless the preceptor be truly the superior, not only in station but in attainments, and unless it be his peculiar study to acquire this ascendency over his pupil’s mind, in order to the better regulation of his manners. I usethe word manners in its largest sense; and it is clear that, unless the schoolmaster have leisure to keep these objects constantly in view, he cannot hope to gain the proper degree of influence over any boy’s mind. As chaplain of the ship, however, his religious duties, so far from interfering with the objects alluded to, would blend admirably with all of them, and furnish the best means, and, if it were needed, the best excuse, for a judicious and parental sort of interference. To expect that any such interference of the schoolmaster, under the present system, can be efficacious, is, I much fear, a complete delusion; and this furnishes a strong reason for uniting in one person the kindred duties of chaplain and teacher. It shews, at the same time, how inefficient any such union must be, unless care be taken to secure fitting persons to fill a joint office of such delicacy.
There is still another, and by no means an unimportant benefit, which might arise to the naval service from this improvement: I mean its effect on the higher classes of officers. If there be nothing more shockingthan a disreputable clergyman in a mess-room, so, on the other hand, I conceive there can be nothing more useful, in many very material respects, than the constant companionship of a right-minded and well-educated person of this description. I say nothing of the obvious and salutary influence which his presence never fails to exercise over the manners of men, already too much disposed to laxity in their habits; but it may be well to consider, likewise, the great additional benefits which may arise to the officers from their possessing the means of instructing themselves in the different branches of knowledge, with which a chaplain, regularly qualified to teach, would be able to impart.
Except on board ship, and at sea, few of the senior officers of the Navy, in war time, have the opportunity, and still fewer the means, of improving their acquaintance with those pursuits, of which, in the earlier periods of their service, they may have gained a smattering. I allude to the classics, to modern languages, and the belles lettresgenerally, to the higher branches of mathematics, and to many of those sciences formerly deemed abstruse, but which have lately become popular; such as chemistry, geology, and natural history in all its departments.
The time is not remote when it was held by high naval authorities, that all or any of these refinements, instead of being useful to an officer, actually stood in his way; and, as far as they went, interfered with the due execution of his duty. Nor can it, or ought it, to be denied, that the principle of extra instruction is very apt to be carried too far, and the refining system overdone. Nor must it ever be forgotten in these discussions, that the service—that is to say, the hard, regular, seamanlike round of official duties, in all seasons, and under all circumstances, ought always to be the primary objects of an officer’s thoughts, before which every thing else is not only to bend, but, if need be, must break. And it is chiefly on the principle of rendering an officer only the more fit for such technical routine, that any of the pursuits alluded to can ever be considered ashaving legitimate claims on his attention. If such studies become so engrossing as to detach his thoughts from his sterner duty; to make him a scholar instead of a seaman, a dandy instead of a disciplinarian; or if he allow himself to attend to these extraneous matters with any other view than to his improvement as a strictly professional man, he will, of course, find them, one and all, prejudicial, and not be encouraged. Under proper regulation, however, there seems little or no danger of any thing of this description proving injurious to an officer’s character, as a useful, hard-working servant of the public.
It was formerly thought, that high-born, high-bred, and even well-educated men, were less fitted to make good officers for the ordinary course of professional work, than persons who had sprung from a lower origin, or whose education was limited to the mere technicalities of the profession, and who were without taste and without manners—men of the Hawser Trunion school, in short. But the copious experience of the late arduous war seems to have shewn, both in thearmy and in the navy, that the contrary is the true state of the case. And certainly, as far as my own observation and inquiries have gone, I have found reason to believe that those officers who are the best informed and the best bred, and who possess most of the true spirit of gentlemen, are not only the safest to trust in command over others, but are always the readiest to yield that prompt and cheerful obedience to their superiors, which is the mainspring of good order. Such men respect themselves so justly, and value their own true dignity of character so much, and are at all times so sensitively alive to the humiliation of incurring reproach, that they are extremely cautious how they expose themselves to merited censure. From the early and constant exercise of genuine politeness, they become habitually considerate of the feelings of others; and thus, by the combined action of these great principles of manners, officers of this stamp contrive to get through much more work, and generally do it much better, than persons of less refinement. Moreover, they consider nothingbeneath their closest attention which falls within the limits of their duty; and, as a leading part of this principle, they are the most patient as well as vigilant superintendents of the labours of those placed under their authority, of any men I have ever seen. It is not that they watch their inferiors with a view to entrap and pounce upon them, but solely with the public-spirited and generous object of keeping all parties right, in order, by checking errors in the outset, before they have grown into crimes, to prevent the hard necessity of punishment.
This is a pretty fair sketch of the method of acting observed by a thorough-bred, gentlemanlike, well-instructed officer; and every one who has been in command, and in protracted difficulties, or has merely been employed in the ordinary course of service, will readily admit that, with the assistance of such men, every department of his duty has gone on better and more pleasantly than it could have possibly done if the persons under his command had been of a coarser stamp.
It is quite true that the full degree of refinementalluded to can hardly ever be fully taught on board ship. But it may often be approximated to good purpose. It is quite within our power, for example, so to train up young men, that they shall gradually acquire not only that sort of knowledge, but also those habits, which experience has shewn to have the most direct tendency to enlarge the understanding, and to chastise the taste. Precisely as this amount of intelligence increases, so will the capacity of an officer to do good service increase likewise; and it is absurd to suppose that he will be less disposed to do his duty well, from knowing better how to comply with its obligations.
Weak minds and perverse dispositions, under any system of instruction or of discipline, will, of course, defeat these calculations; and there will, therefore, always be many effeminate and idle persons in a fleet, who, by mistaking mere acquirements for the knowledge of how to turn them to useful account, deserve the title they receive of ‘the King’s hard bargains.’ But, taking the average run of officers in the Navy, it maysafely be expected, that if, in other respects, they are kept to their duty, and if they themselves have a real interest in the service, the more information they can acquire upon every subject worthy of a gentleman’s attention, the better will they be fitted for the performance not only of those higher exploits which all the world understand and admire, but even of those humble and unseen professional avocations, which make up by far the greater and the most important part of our daily duties.
If, then, we can furnish all ranks of our naval officers afloat with a ready and agreeable means of filling up their time, of which most of them have a good deal to spare, we may fairly hope that they will not be slow to avail themselves of the opportunities placed within their reach. In order, however, to render these measures of any extensive utility, this plan of furnishing assistance must be carried a long way. A chaplain-schoolmaster should be allowed even to the smallest class of ships on board which, by any contrivance, the proper degree of accommodationcan be obtained. And if these ideas were followed up in the admirable spirit with which some recent improvements have been carried into effect in the Navy, for instance, in the discipline, victualling, payment of wages, ratings, and other matters, a very great boon would be conferred on the service.
It is not likely that the measure proposed would materially augment the expenses of the Navy, if, indeed, it had that effect at all; since both a chaplain and schoolmaster are expressly allowed to all ships, from the first to the sixth class, inclusive. But, even supposing the expense were to be augmented, there can be no doubt, I should conceive, in the mind of any person who has reflected seriously on these subjects, that the return for such outlay would be speedy and certain. The religious, moral, and intellectual character of officers, on whose good conduct so much depends, must, in every conceivable state of things, be an object of material consequence to the country. And it were really almost a libel on the nation, to imagine thatthey would not cheerfully agree to the additional expenditure which might be required, if the advantages be such as are stated. There can be no truer economy, than expending money for the promotion of virtue and sound knowledge amongst this class of public servants. For their duties, it must be recollected, generally lie so far beyond the reach of ordinary scrutiny, that almost the only security we have for their good conduct rests on their own sense of honour. A dishonest officer on a foreign station might often divert from its proper purpose, by a single stroke of his pen, and without much danger of detection, more of the public money than would furnish the Navy with chaplains and schoolmasters for ten years.
It is to accomplish only one-half the great task of instruction merely to fill a boy’s head with technical information—his principles and habits ought to be likewise taken into our safe keeping. It is also greatly to be desired, that, when the period arrives at which he is expected to become, as it is called, his own master, he should find nodifficulty in continuing, from choice, those pursuits to which he had previously applied himself on compulsion, or merely as a means of promotion. And there seems to be no method more likely to accomplish this desirable purpose, than affording the young commissioned officer the companionship of an instructor, or, at all events, of a person whose duty it should be, if required, not only to continue, in the ward-room, the course of information commenced in the cock-pit, but whose aim ought to be, so to modify these studies as to adapt them to the altered circumstances of the pupil, and to win his attention to their pursuit by rendering them agreeable and useful.
It is not pretended, by any means, that such a task is an easy one; on the contrary, it will require not only considerable abilities, but high attainments, and no inconsiderable degree of good taste, together with a long apprenticeship of self-discipline, and an exclusive application to these arduous duties, as the grand object and business of the instructor’s life.
There really appears, however, to be no situation but that of a clergyman which offers any reasonable chance of these conditions being fulfilled. And as the education of such a person is necessarily expensive, and the double office which it is proposed he should fill, one of great responsibility, labour, and difficulty, as well as one of peculiar and irremediable discomfort and privation, without any of those energetic excitements which stimulate every other class of officers to exertion, the remuneration ought clearly to be very considerable, otherwise no set of properly qualified men will engage permanently in its pursuit.
A distinct class of officers, of this sacred character, although as yet they do not exist, might be readily created. If the emoluments of the chaplain of a man-of-war were respectable, the situation rendered as agreeable, in point of comfort, as the nature of the elements will admit of, and if the prospects of future provision be made certain, or contingent only upon a right performance of duty, there cannot, I think, be a doubt that, in ashort time, there would be an ample and steady supply of chaplains, as highly qualified, in point of attainments, as the Admiralty might choose to fix on the scale.
If this important professional object were once fairly carried into effect, we should probably soon discover an improvement in the whole system of naval discipline, the best evidences of which would be, the increased efficiency of the whole service, arising out of the gradually ameliorated habits and higher intellectual cultivation, as well as improved tastes and more rational happiness, of every class of the officers, from the oldest captain down to the youngest first-class boy, just untied from his mother’s apron-string.
In all that has been said, I have taken into view almost exclusively the advantages which would accrue to the officers from the adoption of this plan of uniform instruction. It is to them, individually as gentlemen, and collectively as a body, upon the certainty of whose hearty exertions the government can at all times depend, that the country mustever look for that energetic momentum in our naval strength, upon which the national power, in this department, essentially rests. Surely, however, it is not too much to say, as a matter of experience, that the influence of a resident clergyman on board ship, wherever there is one, over the minds of the crew, is felt to be quite as salutary, when properly exercised, as it is to the labourers in any parish of the empire.
It signifies nothing to say that the structure of naval discipline is widely different from the civil administration of the land; for the very same principles, and, more or less, the very same motives to right or wrong action, must always be in play in both cases. A judicious chaplain, therefore, who shall have become acquainted by personal experience with the habits, tastes, feelings, and pursuits of the seamen, may undoubtedly contribute an important share to the efficiency of the whole of our naval system. So far from interfering with, or in any way checking the strict course of nautical affairs, I conceive that the chaplain’sinfluence, rightly exercised, acting in cordial understanding with the captain, and sanctioned by his authority, might advance the best interests of the service by greatly diminishing offences, and thus lessening the melancholy necessity of punishments. Whenever this benevolent purpose can be effected, in a greater or less degree, both those who obey and those who command are sure to be better pleased with one another, and, it is reasonable to suppose, far more desirous of co-operating heartily in the accomplishment of the common purpose for which they are brought together.
END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.
LONDON:J. MOYES, TOOK’S COURT, CHANCERY LANE.
FOOTNOTES:[2]I quote from a paper on the State of Education in the British Navy, printed in the United Service Journal, Part XI. for October 1830. The performance and the promise of the very rising officer, who wrote this article, help to furnish the fairest practical answer to those who object to the early advancement of young men of rank in the Navy.
[2]I quote from a paper on the State of Education in the British Navy, printed in the United Service Journal, Part XI. for October 1830. The performance and the promise of the very rising officer, who wrote this article, help to furnish the fairest practical answer to those who object to the early advancement of young men of rank in the Navy.
[2]I quote from a paper on the State of Education in the British Navy, printed in the United Service Journal, Part XI. for October 1830. The performance and the promise of the very rising officer, who wrote this article, help to furnish the fairest practical answer to those who object to the early advancement of young men of rank in the Navy.