199 hopes had been disappointed. Why had he not taken Sweaborg and Cronstadt? Why had he not battered Sebastopol, and crushed its defenders in its ruins? Nay, why had he not sailed right on to St. Petersburg, and by its capture brought the war to a glorious close ? Even the leading statesmen who had cherished the popular hallucination, and endeavoured to make political capital out of it, had now arrayed themselves against Sir Charles Napier, and were ready to become his accusers. But, after all, had Sir Charles done nothing? This comparatively blood- less campaign was not unproductive of important results, which are thus summed up by his cousin, Sir William Napier:—"He caused the thirty sail com- posing the powerful Russian fleet to shrink like rats into their holes; he took Bomarsund, caused Hango to be blown up, interrupted the Russian commerce, and for six months kept in a state of inaction certainly 80,000 or 90,000 good troops. He restored and en- larged the knowledge of the Gulf of Finland to navi- gation; ascertained what large vessels can do there, and what they cannot do; when they can act alone, when with troops, and when gun-boats can be used with effect. He carried out an ill-manned undisciplined fleet; he brought back unharmed a well-organized, well-disciplined one, with crews exercised in gunnery and seamanship—in fine, a fleet now really what it was falsely called when it started—that is to say, one of the most irresistible that ever floated on the ocean for all legitimate purposes of naval warfare." Of the prudence with which Sir Charles saved his fleet from inevitable destruction, in spite of the popular urgency and the condemnation with which he would be visited, a single testimony which we now adduce is sufficient to outweigh a whole nation of clamour and complaint. It is that of the Earl of Dundonald—of our own gal- lant sea-king Lord Cochrane—than whom no man ever lived who combined such chivalrous daring with so much prudent skilful calculation, and who there- fore was not only the boldest but the most successful of all our British admirals. Writing to Sir Charles Napier on his return to England, the brave old earl thus alludes to the Baltic campaign of 1854:— "Those who are acquainted with the difficulties you have had to surmount, and the nature of the ob- stacles assigned you to encounter, can appreciate the perseverance and moral courage requisite to over- come the one and endure the other. My anxiety lest your zeal should induce you to yield your judg- ment to the notions of the uninitiated is now quite relieved, and the noble fleet you command is safe from the consequences of red-hot shot and incendiary missiles propelled from granite fortresses situated out of point-blank range of combustible ships. Be- lieve me that I sympathize with you, but do not envy the exalted position in which you have been placed, knowing that my remaining energies are incapable of effecting objects which you have already accom- plished." On returning home Sir Charles Napier was uncere- moniously dismissed by the admiralty from the com- mand of the Baltic fleet, and Admiral Dundas ap- pointed in his room. But although the new admiral succeeded to the command of a fleet now raised by Napier's exertions to a high state of efficiency, and supplied moreover with a large flotilla of gun-boats which his predecessor had applied for in vain, he did not take Sweaborg, attack Cronstadt, or accomplish anything memorable. Soon after his return the Aberdeen ministry retired, and their successors offered to Sir Charles the grand cross of the Bath, which he refused, and demanded an inquiry into his conduct. At length in November, 1855, on being returned M.P. for Southwark, he brought the ac- count of his proceedings before the House of Com- mons, and so complete was his justification, that even his political opponents acknowledged he had been unjustly used, and attributed the whole blame of his failure to the admiralty. Thus satisfactorily justified at last, he turned his attention to his favour- ite subject—the improvement of the navy; and al- though he did not accomplish in parliament all that he sought, he effected much in behalf of our British seamen, in which punctuality in their payment, and the means of promoting the comforts of their wives and families, were not of least account. Speaking of his exertions in behalf of our seamen, a naval officer thus writes: '' He was always fighting the admiralty, and they were too strong for him; yet he was always working them up to something, and it was his agita- tion that was the means of getting all the good that has been done for the last twenty years. He cer- tainly might be justly styled the sailor's friend, the sailor's advocate, and the sailor's defender, for he was always at his post when there was any move on the board about them, and always looking out sharply after their interest." On the 6th of March, 1858, Sir Charles in the course of seniority was promoted from the rank of vice-admiral of the Red to admiral of the Blue, Onward until 1860 he continued his labours in par- liament, and although he had now reached the age of seventy-four years, he was still so ready for action, that he offered to contribute his aid in upsetting Bomba, the King of Naples, as he had formerly done in dethroning Don Miguel of Portugal. He there- fore proposed to Garibaldi, if he could obtain the command of the Neapolitan fleet, to appear off the coast of Naples, with which he was well acquainted, and secure the capital by a short and sudden blow. But Napier's last fight had been already fought, and the iron constitution, which seemed only to grow stronger amidst storms, and wounds, and perilous victories, at length yielded to insult and ingratitude. A change in his health had occurred before his return from the Baltic, and the labour of vindicating his character from the misrepresentations of his ene- mies had broken a constitution which otherwise old age alone would have exhausted. He sickened on the 28th of October, and died at Merchiston Hall, Horndean, Hants, on the 6th of November, 1860, only seven days after the decease of the illustrious Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald. Thus a single week sufficed to deprive us of the two greatest heroes of the British navy. The literary works of Sir Charles Napier, besides numerous contributions to the newspapers and the United Set-vice Magazine, consisted of his histories of the war in Portugal and the war in Syria. It was a curious distinction of the "fighting Napiers," that they wrote almost as ardently and ably as they fought. Sir Charles was no exception to the general rule; and although he was too straightforward and impa- tient to study the graces of composition, he showed that he had the power to become an eloquent writer. Independently of his British titles of honour, he was a knight of Maria Theresa of Austria, knight of St. George of Russia, knight of the Red Eagle of Prussia, grand cross of the Tower and Sword of Portugal, a grandee of the first class, and Count Cape St. Vincent in the peerage of that kingdom. NAPIER, JOHN, of Merchiston, near Edinburgh, the celebrated inventor of the logarithms, was bom in the year 1550- He was descended from an ancient race of land proprietors in Stirlingshire and Dumbartonshire. His father, Sir Alexander Napier of Edinbellie, in the former county, and Merchiston,