hudders to contemplate, and always finds it
difficult to conceive; yet, such are the preventive men who line our
coast--melancholy examples of the truth stated at the outset of this
paper. Occasionally, however, the good traveller will, much to his joy,
meet with an exception to this sad rule, in the person of an old
tar, whom necessity has pressed into the service, and who from long
acquaintance with the pleasures of traversing the mighty ocean, feels
little pleasure in staring at it like an inactive land-lubber, a
character which he holds in hearty contempt; besides, to fire at a
fellow Briton is against his nature; thief or no thief it crosses his
grain, and he looks at his pistols and hates himself. His situation is
miserable; he is truly a fish out of water; he loves motion, but is
obliged to stand still; his glory is a social "bit of jaw," but he dares
not speak; he rolls his disconsolate quid over his silent tongue, and is
as wretched as a caged monkey. Poor fellow! how happy would a companion
make you, to whom you could relate your battles, bouts, and courtships;
but mum is the order, and Jack is used to an implicit obeyance of
head-quarter orders. The sight of an outward bound vessel drives him
mad.

On the appearance of a suspicious sail, the blockader, all vigilance,
(Jack excepted) awaits in silence the _running_ of the devoted cargo,
when suddenly discharging one of his pistols, the air in a moment rocks
with a hundred reports, answered successively by his companions. This
arouses those in the cottages off duty; the cliffs instantly teem with
life; all hurry to the beach, by slanting passages cut in the rocks for
that purpose, and a scene of blood and death ensues too horrible for
description. Thus are sent prematurely to their graves, many poor
fellows, who, had brandy been a trifle cheaper, might have lived bright
ornaments of a world they never knew.

After leaving Dover, the scene changes very materially in its appearance;
the regimental cottages have vanished, and in their places are found
strong brick towers, placed at short distances from each other,
containing each a little garrison, over which a lieutenant presides;
from the abundance of these towers, and their proximity to each other,
the men are numerously scattered over the bleak sands, and living more
together, are a social set of creatures, compared with those westward
of Dover. The towers very much resemble the Peel Houses which, "lang
syne