Service Afloat; or, the Naval Career of Sir William Hoste.
(W. H. Allen.)—Sir William Hoste's naval career coincided with the long war with France. He entered the Navy as a midshipman on board the `Agamemnon,' and attracted the favourable notice of Nelson, who declared that he " would shine in the service." He was present at the battles of Cape St. Vincent and the Nile, and shortly after the latter battle, being then eighteen years of age, was put in command of the Mutine,' brig. In 1801, when he was not quite twenty-two, we find him extremely impatient for his post-rank. " I am the oldest Commander on the station," he writes, " and likely to continue so, under the present Commander•in-Chief." The promotion came next year. He continued to serve with but few intermissions of rest, finding his special opportunities of distinction in the campaign in the Adriatic, and especially in the capture of Cattaro and Ragusa. For these services he was made a Baronet. A very interesting book this, the record of a singularly blameless career.—To- gether with this may be mentioned Leaves from Memory's Log- Book. By " An Ancient Mariner." Compiled and edited by C. A. Montresor. (W. H. Allen.) —The career of the officer from whose diary these records are drawn began when that of Sir W. bode was drawing to a close. His first service was in the Cambridge,' and his early recollections take him back to the South American War of Independence. We find him, of course, impatient for promotion, bat much more modest in his expectations than the sailor of a previous generation. He does not give us exact dates, but we calculate that he was still a Mate when Hoste was a Post-Captain. The West Indies, the West Coast of Africa, and the Pacific Islands were suc- cessively the scenes of his service, active enough, and of course involving many dangers, but not bringing him into actual warfare. In fact, his was a typical naval career of the long peace, as Sir W. Hoste's was of the long war. In its way, it is equally worth reading.
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