The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-01 00:00:00

UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.

This is the best number we have yet seen of
this Miscellany, it is full of stirring incident,
description, and animation, and is characterised
by an easy unambitious vein of writing. We
subjoin as a favourable sample of the number
the description of a frigate reposing, as the late
Mr. Canning eloquently observed, " on its own
shadow :" •

"Being detained on leaving the Tulloch Castle. in
examining other ships of the convoy, we. did not reach the
frigate until near midnight. On mounting the quarter-
deck of this superb ship, I could not help being struck by
the coup which even then I snatched previous to
being ordered below for the night. An unclouded autum-
nal moon rendered the effect snore striking, and -while its
dubious light left a range for the imagination, produced an
impression not readily to be effaced. In spite of the
fatigues of the day, the novelty of my situation and tone
of feeling, to which might be added the position, not
one which invited to soft repose,' of my couch, on the
bare deck, squeezed pell well with sundry other ' strange
bedfellows" with which, according to the old adage, ad-
versity made us acquainted,' among chests and bedding,
left me little disposition to court that first of Nature's
kind restorers, balmy sleep ;' and I well remember, that
with a curiosity excited by the cursory glance I had just
snatched, when all was hushed, I arose, and stole on deck
to examine, more at leisure, the theatre to which chance
had so unexpectedly transferred me.
'6 'Twas past midnight; the moon neatly at the full,
was still shining brightly. Not a breath of air rippled
the translucent wave which reflected her beams, and not
a sound was heard save the rippling of the tide against the
bows of the ship, or at intervals the ' all's well' of the
sentinels of some distant vessel. All was repose above and
below. Our sentries, as will now and then be the ease
in harbour in the best regulated ships, appeared to be
nodding on their posts, and the officers and mids of the
watch had either stolen below to solace themselves with
the customary refreshment of a middle watcher, or were
tranquilly coiled between the carronades stealing a nap, or
listlessly lounging over the gangway or hammock 'settings,
absorbed in those waking dreams which the hour and the
scene wrs so calculated to engender. With emotions
strongly excited by the events of the last twenty-four hours,
I contemplated with admiration the arrangement which
characterized the ' tout ensemble'—the' white and amp'e
decks ; those proudly towering colossal masts, the trimness
of the rigging, the symmetrical files of those ponderous en-
gines of destruction, bristling forth from her varnished
sides;—and, when to all this was associated the halo which
gave the magic gilding and secret charm to the whole,—the
proud pre-eminence and well-earned fame of the British
Navy,—a thrill of enthusiasm made me forget the humble
part I was filling in the scene, and dissipated for the mo-
ment the depression which my present circumstances were
so well calculated to occasion. The M— was a crack
frigate, and one of the largest in the service,—she was in
.full cruising trim, and a perfect model of her classl.need I
say that the effect upon me was proportionate."•. •.