supposed that the natives cannot use firearms. To my certain knowledge many of them can shoot just as well as we can, and they only require a small amount of practice to make them good marksmen. There is nothing so dangerous as to place a firearm in the hands of a native, with their ignorance and fanaticism. It is as dangerous to place a musket in the hands of a native as it would be to put a firebrand in the hands of a child, and leave him in his bedroom.

As to the future government of this country, it would be injudicious for me to say more than a word. As long as Great Britain has anything to do with the annexation of a country it is always guided by the most honourable principles. It has been assured to that country by Sir Theophilus Shepstone that they will have their parliamentary Government, but he has not said when. Things must develop themselves, war must cease, and other circumstances happen before such an enlightened institution can be put into their hands; and before we feel sure that they are able to use it for their own benefit, as well as for the benefit of South Africa. Everywhere it is the endeavour of Her Majesty's Government to send officers to those countries whom they can trust, and in their selection of Sir Bartle Frere, they could not possibly have made a better. In Sir Theophilus Shepstone they have one whose perfect knowledge of the country and whose judgment will bring them through the difficulties, if any one can. As to the Transvaai itself, I consider that by a judicious Government, and by the support of Great Britain, it will become in time one of the most valuable of our colonies; it has all the conditions of greatness, and owing to its climate, its natural position, and its fertility, I believe it has a future not to be exceeded by that of any one of Her Majesty's colonies.

I am sure you will all agree with me in passing a vote of thanks to Mr. Moodie for his very excellent paper.

LECTURE.

Friday, May 24th, 1878.

ADMIRAL HUGH DUNLOP, C.B., in the Chair.

FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE NAVAL OPERATIONS DURING THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES.

By Rear-Admiral R. V. HAMILTON, C.B.

Ar the present time, when our country may soon be involved in a war in which the Navy will have an important part to perform, and with ships and weapons as yet almost untried in actual warfare, I trust that the following facts that I shall place before you, connected with the very important work performed by the American Navy during their Civil War, may not be uninteresting, and that some information may also be derived from them, as, owing to the exigencies and peculiar nature of that war, a very great portion of the naval work was done by ships and guns invented or adapted to meet novel modes of warfare. And I have no hesitation in saying, it was their naval superiority which enabled the Northerners to penetrate through the various rivers, creeks, and bayous into the heart of the Southern Confederacy, whereby the Armies were able to advance, when, owing to physical obstacles, they must have been arrested in their onward march. The Navy also, in several instances, decided the fate of battles by the protection afforded by its fire to the wing of the Northern Army resting on a river, as at Pittsburg-landing and at Vicksburg; and the escape of Morgan's expedition in Indiana and Ohio, across the river into Kentucky, was prevented by a gunboat, which arrived at different fords in time to stop his men crossing. On the Navy, in a great measure, also depended the supplies and transport of the Army, but, as these services were not as showy and interesting as the numerous battles between the conflicting armies, they were but little known or appreciated by the general public; a complaint, I need scarcely say, not peculiar to the American Navy.

Those who have read the history of the Paraguayan War will also know that, but for their Navy, it is very doubtful whether the Brazilians would have conquered the Paraguayans, at all events not for many

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more years than the war lasted. I, therefore, infer that in a war between two countries, if either or both are intersected by rivers, the victory will rest with the one possessing the most powerful Navy, supposing they are in other respects tolerably equally matched, as was the case in these wars, where, owing to the long distance from their bases of operations and other obstacles, the numerical superiority of Federals and Brazilians would have been neutralized but for their Navy.

Although I was on the North American Station during the greater portion of the Civil War, I must confess to great ignorance in nearly all relating to the naval operations; and presuming many of my hearers and future readers are not much better informed than I was, will, I trust, be my apology for bringing before them the information I have but lately acquired, and also the hope that valuable information may be obtained, in discussion, from those who have read up the subject more completely than I have done.

It is unnecessary to enter into the reasons for secession, observing, however, that by April, 1861, all the slave States had seceded except Maryland, which, being a border State, would have felt the whole brunt of the war at first, but their feelings were, beyond question, undoubtedly with the South, although, fortunately for herself, Maryland was kept down by force of arms. The Civil War commenced on April 12th, 1861, when the Southerners fired the first shot at Fort Sumpter, in Charleston Harbour, which speedily surrendered, when the Confederacy possessed all the forts, except Fort Pickens, near Pensacola, and the whole sea-board from the mouth of the Chesapeake round by Florida to the Rio Grande, the boundary between Mexico and Texas. They also commanded that important artery, the Mississippi, from its mouth to its junction with the Ohio, the northern boundary of the eastern slave States.

The warlike stores in the country were probably about evenly divided between the belligerents, as the Confederates had seized all the Southern forts and navy yards.

The guns consisted of 10 and 8-inch Columbiads, 42, 32, and 24pounders and under; no rifled pieces had been introduced into the Army or Navy. The North, however, retained the fleet, then consisting of 42 vessels, steam and sail, carrying 550 guns, manned by 7,600 seamen and marines. It was at once seen that this force was totally inadequate to maintain a blockade of over 3,000 miles of coast, to provide for the wants of the Army, and to obtain command of the inland waters. By December, 1861, the number was increased to 264 ressels; December, 1862, to 427; December, 1863, to 588; December, 1864, to 671; manned by 51,500 men; most of these vessels were, of course, not fit to encounter hostile fleets at sea, but they were adapted to the peculiar work required of them, which is saying quite enough. Nearly all the Monitors were built by contract, the original "Monitor," built by Ericson, was completed in four months, and, as is well known, arrived in Hampton Roads, March 8th, 1862, just in time to prevent the " Merrimac" completing her work of destruction on the wooden fleet laying off Hampton Roads.