HERMAN MELVILLE'S REDBURN.* MR. MELVILLE'S present work is even more

remarkable than his stories "founded on fact" descriptive of native scenery and life in the islands of the Pacific. In Typee and Omoo there was novelty and interest of sub- ject. Everything was fresh and vigorous in the manners of the people, the character of the country and its vegetation ; there were rapidity, variety, and adventure in the story, with enough of nautical character to introduce the element of contrast. In Redburn his First Voyage there are none of these sources of attraction ; yet, with the exception or some chapters descriptive of commonplace things, the book is very read- able and attractive. It has not the reality or more properly the veracity of Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, nor the comprehensiveness and truthfulness of delineation which distinguish some of Cooper's novels that only aim at a simple exhibition of a sea life without strange adventures or exciting dangers : Redburn, though merely the narrAtive of a voyage from New York to Liverpool and back, with a description of the charac- ters of officers and crew, is, however, a book both of information and in- terest. We get a good idea of life at sea, as it appears at first to the boy novice and afterwards to the more experienced seaman. The hardships and privations of the crew, the petty tyranny, the pettier greatness with the tricks and frauds practised in a common merchant-vessel on the raw hands, are well exhibited, without exaggeration. As Redburn sails in a vessel that carries passengers as well as cargo, the evils resulting from the indifferent regulations of emigration-ships, and the practical disregard at sea of such regulations as exist, are exhibited in a scarcity among the poor emigrants, the effect of a slow passage, and in a fever produced by the scantiness and quality of the diet. Mr. Melville's character as an Ame- rican is also a source of variety. The scenes on shore at New York, in the pawnbroker's and other places, indicate that the Atlantic cities or the Union are not much freer from vice and profligacy, if they are indeed from distress, than the seaports of Europe. At Liverpool many things are fresh to the American that are common to us, or which we ignore without intending it,—as the low haunts and lodging-houses of sailors. The plan of the book is well designed to bring out its matter effectively; jhough the position and reputed character of Redburn as "the son of a gentleman,', contrived apparently for the sake of contrast and the display of a quiet humour, is not always consistently maintained. At the com- mencement of the book, Redburn's father is dead, the family reduced, and the hero is cast upon the world to choose a means of living. His father's travels some sea pieces, and a real glass ship in a glass case, (all rather tediously described,) combine with the enthusiasm and ignorance of youth to determine him to the sea; and he starts for New York, with enough money to pay his passage thither, a letter to a friend, and a gun the gift of his elder brother, who had nothing else to bestow upon him. The friend furnishes Redburn with a day's board and lodging, and gets him a ship, the captain taking him at low wages ; he vainly tries to sell his gun, and has at last to pawn it; his wardrobe is none of the amplest, and by no means adapted to marine work ; he is utterly ignorant of all that relates to the sea, the ship, or the service. The idea of throwing a simple and innocent-minded lad, just fresh from home, into the midst of the rough- ness, rudeness, and startling novelty of a ship, may be found in Peter Simple ; but the circumstances of poor Redburn are so different from those of the well-connected midshipman, and the nautical incidents and characters have so little in common, that the story has the effect of origi- nality. The quiet humour arising from the contrast between the frame of mind of the boy and his position and circumstances, as well as the sharp reflections his freshness and home education induce him to make, bear some resemblance in point of style to Marryat ; but it may arise from the nature of the subject. There is nothing very striking in the incidents of Redburn—notbing, in fact, beyond the common probabilities of the merchant service in almost every vessel that sails between Great Britain and America : the characters, or something like them, may doubtless be met in almost every ship that leaves harbour. Nor does Mr. Melville aim at effect by melodramatic exaggeration, except once in an episodical trip to London : on the con- trary, he indicates several things, leaving the filling up to the reader's • Redburn: his First Voyage. Being the Sailor-Boy Confessions and Reminiscences of the Son of a Gentleman In the Merchant Service. By Herman Melville, Author of " Typee," "Omoo," and • Mardi." in two volumes. Published by Bentley, imagination, instead of painting scenes in detail, that a vulgar writer would certainly have done. The interest of Redburn arises from its quiet naturalness. It reads like a " true story "—as if it had all taken place.

The beat idea of the book, however, is obtained by extracts. The following are among the hero's earlier experiences.

"By the time I got back to the ship, everything was in an uproar. The pea. jacketman was there, ordering about a good many men in the rigging; and people were bringing off chickens and pigs and beef and vep,etables from the shore. Soon after another man, in a striped calico shirt, a short blue jacket, and beaver hat, made his appearance, and went to ordering about the man in the big pea. jacket; and at last the captain came up the side, and began to order about Loth of them.

" These two men turned out to be the first and second mates of the ship.

" Thinking to make friends with the second mate, I took out an old tortoiseshell snuffbox of my father's, in which I put a piece of Cavendish tobacco, to louk sailor-like, and offered the box to him very politely. He stared at me a morne:t, and then exclaimed, ' Do you think we take snuff aboard here, youngster ? no, no, no time for snuff-taking at sea ; don't let the 'old man' see that snuffbox ; take my advice, and pitch it overboard as quick as you can.' " I told him it was not snuff, but tobacco; when he said, he had plenty of to- bacco of his own, and never carried any such nonsense abont him as a tobacco. box. With that he went off about his business, and left me feeling foolish enough. But I had reason to be glad he had acted thus; for if he had not, I think I should have offered my box to the chief mate, who in that case, from what I afterward learned of him, would have knocked me down, or done something else equally uncivil.

" As I was standing looking around me, the chief Mate approached in a great hurry about something; afl.cl seeing me in the way, cried out, Ashore with you. you young loafer! There's no stealings here; sail away, I tell you, with that shooting-jacket!'

" Upon this I retreated, saying that I was going out in the ship as a sailor.

" 'A sailor!' he cried; ' a barber's clerk, you mean: you going out in the ship! what, in that jacket ? Hang me, I hope the old man hasn't been shipping any more greenhorns like you—he'll make a shipwreck of it if he has. But this is the way nowadays; to save a few dollars in seamen's wages, they think nothing of shipping ar parcel of farmers and clodhoppers and baby-boys. What's your name, "17 lieldburn; said 1.

" A pretty handle to a man, that!--scorch you to take hold of it: havn't you got any other?'

" Wellingborough,' said I.

" Worse yet. Who had the baptizing of ye? Why didn't they call you Jack, or Jill, or something short and bandy ? But ni baptize you over again. Dye hear, sir, henceforth your name is Buttons. And now do you go' Buttons, and clean out that pig-pen in the long boat; it has not been cleaned out since last voyage. And bear a hand abnut it, d'ye hear ; there's them pigs there waiting to be put in: come, be off about it, now.'

" NI"its this then the beginning of my sea career? set to cleaning out a pig-pen the very first thing !

"But I thought it best to say nothing: I had bound myself to obey orders, and it was too late to retreat. So I only asked for a shovel, or spade, or someth:Lg else to work with.

"'We don't dig gardens here,' was the reply; 'dig it out with your teeth.' "After looking around, I found a stick and went to scraping out the pen; which was awkward work enough. •

"The pig-pen being cleaned out, I was set to work picking up some shavings which lay about the deck, for there had been carpenters at work on board. The mate ordered me to throw these shavings into the long-boat at a particular place between two of the seats. But as I found it bard work to push the shavings through in that place, and as it looked wet there, I thought it would be better for the shavings as well as myself to thrust them where there was a larger open- ing and a dry spot. While I was thus employed, the mate, observing me, ex- claimed, w,th an oath, 'Didn't I tell you to put those shavings somewhere else? Do what I tell you, now, Buttons, or mind your eye!' "Stifling my indignation at his rudeness which by this time I found was my only plan, I replied, that that was not so good a place for the shavings as that which I myself had selected; and asked him to tell me why be wanted me to put them in the place he designated. Upon this he flew into a terrible rage, and without explanation reiterated his order like a clap of thunder. "This was my first lesson in the discipline of the sea, and I never forgot it. From that time I learned that sea-officers never give reasons for anything they order to be done. It is enough that they command it; so that the motto is, 'Obey orders, though you break owners.'"

This account of a first adventure aloft is a piece of truthful and power- ful description.

"It happened on the second night out of port during the middle watch, when the sea was quite calm and the breeze was mild, "The order was given to loose the main-skysail, which is the fifth and highest sail from deck. It was a very small sail, and from the forecastle looked no bigger than a cambric pocket-handkerchief. "Now, when the order was passed to loose the skysail, an old Dutch sailor came up to me and said, 'Buttons, my boy, it's high time you be doing something; and its boy's business, Buttons, to louse de royals, and not old men's business like me. Now, d'ye see dat leetle fellow way up dare? dare, just behind dem stars dare? well, tumble up now, Buttons, I zay, and loose him; way you go, Buttons:

"All the rest joining in and seeming unanimous in the opinion that it ass high time for me to be stirring myself and doing boy's business as they called it I made no more ado, but jumped into the rigging. Up I went, not daring to look down, but keeping my eyes glued, as it were, to the shrouds, as I ascended. "It was a long road up those stairs, and I began to pant and breathe hard be- fore I was half-way; but I kept at it till I got to the Jacob's ladder,—and they may well call it so, for it took me almost into the clouds; and at last, to my own amazement, I found myself hanging on the skysail-yard, holding on might and main to the mast, and curling my feet round the rigging as if they were another pair of hands.

"For a few moments I stood awe-stricken and mute. I could not see far out upon the ocean, owing to the darkness of the night; and from my lofty perch the sea looked like a great black gull; hemmed in all round by beetling black cliffs. I seemed all alone ; treading the midnight clouds; and every second expected to find myself falling—falling—falling, as I have felt when the nightmare has been on me. "I could but just perceive the ship below me' like a long narrow plank in the water; and it did not seem to belong at all tothe yard over which I was hang- ing. A gull, or some sort of sea-fowl, was flying round the truck over my head, within a few yards of my face ; and it almost frightened me to hear it, it seemed so much like a spirit, at such a lofty and solitary height. "Though there was a pretty smooth sea and little wind, yet at this extreme elevation, the ship's motion was very great; so that when the ship rolled one vial', I felt something as a fly must feel walking the ceiling;

and when it rolled the other way, I felt as if I was hanging along a slanting pine-tree.

"But presently I heard a distant hoarse noise from below; and though I could not make out anything intelligible, 1 knew it was the mate hurrying Me. S° a nervous, trembling desperation, I went to casting off the gaskets or lines tying velniCall was read sun -o-u-Fas I fiadheen told to hois w ' tip d g. t 4 ai- And heist theidld,a,id mi too along with the ytuid stud Sail; for I had to time to get off, they Were so unexpectedly itiiek about -it. It seemed like magic: there I was going up higher.and-higherr thwyard• rising under me as if it were alive, and no soul in sight. Without knowing it at the time, I was in a good deal of danger; but it was so dark that I Could not see well enough to feel afraid—at least on that account; though I felt frightened enough in a promiscuous *ay. I ally held on hard, and Made good the saying of old sailors, that the last person to fall overboard from the rigging is a landsman, because he grips the ropes so Eeecely; whereas old tars are less careful, and sometimes pay the penalty.

"After this feat I got down rapidly on deck, and received something like a compliment from Max the Dutchman."

Some of the occurrences give rise to reflections or suggestions on nau- tical matters ; and there are some terrible pictures of vice and poverty in Liverpool, pointed by contrast with the American's experience at home, where absolute death by hunger and privation (the Americans say) can- not occur. We will, however, take a different sample to close with,—a case of spontaneous combustion.

"Of the three newly-shipped men, who in a state of intoxication had been brought on board at the dock-gates, [at Liverpool,] two were able to be engaged at thew duties in four or five hours after quitting the pier; but the third man yet lay in his bunk, in the selfsame posture in which his limbs had been adjusted by the crimp who had deposited him there. 'His name was down on the ship's papers as Miguel Saveda ; and for Miguel Saveda the chief mate at last came forward, shouting down the forecastle-scuttle, and commanding his instant presence on deck: but the sailors answered for their new comrade, giving the mate to understand that Miguel was still fast locked in his trance and could not obey him; when, muttering his usual imprecation, the mate retired to the quarter-deck.

This was in the first dog-watch, from four to six in the evening. At about three bells in the next watch, Max the Dutchman, who like most old seamen was something of a physician in cases of drunkenness, recommended that Miguel's clothing should be removed, in order that he should lie more comfortably: but Jackson, who would seldom let anything be done in the forecastle that was not proposed by himself, capriciously forbade this proceeding. "So the sailor still lay out of sight in his bunk, which was in the extreme angle of the forecastle behind the bowsprit-bitts—two stout timbers rooted in the ship's keel. An hour or two afterwards, some of the men observed a strange odour in the forecastle, which was attributed to the presence of some dead rat among the hollow spaces in the side planks; for some days before, the forecastle had been smoked out, to extirpate the vermin overrunning her. Atmidnight, the larboard watch, to which I belonged, turned out; and instantly, as every man woke, he exclaimed at the now intolerable smell, supposed to be heightened by the shaking up of the bilge-water from the ship's rolling. ''Blast that rat!' cried the Greenlander.

" 'He's blasted already,' said Jackson, who in his drawers had crossed over to the bunk of Miguel. It's a water-rat, shipmates, that's dead; and here he is '; and with that he dragged forth the sailor's arm, exclaiming, Dead as a timber- head !'

"Upon this the men rushed toward the bunk, Max with the light, which he held to the man's face.

"'No, he's not dead,' he cried, as the yellow flame wavered for a moment at the seaman's motionless mouth: but hardly had the words escaped, when, to the silent horror of all, two threads of greenish fire, like a forked tongue, darted out between the lips; and in a moment the cadaverous face was crawled over by a swarm of wormlike flames.

"Time lamp dropped from the hand of Max, and went out; while, covered all over with spires and sparkles of flame that faintly crackled in the silence, the un- covered parts of the body burned before us, precisely like a phosphorescent shark in a midnight sea.

"The eyes were open and fixed, the mouth was curled like a scroll, and every lean feature firm as in life; while the whole face, now wound in curls of soft blue flame, wore an aspect of grim defiance and eternal death—Prometheus, blasted by fire on the rock.

"One arm, its red shirt-sleeve rolled up, exposed the man's name, tattooed in vermilion, near the hollow of the middle joint; and as if there was something peculiar in the painted flesh, every vibrating letter burned so bright that you might read the flaming name in the flickering ground of blue.

'Where's that damned Miguel?' was now shouted down among us from the scuttle by the mate, who had just come on deck, and was determined to have every man up that belonged to his watch. 'He's gone to the harbour where they never weigh anchor,' coughed Jackson. Cmie you down, Sir, and look.' Thinking that Jackson intended to beard him, the mate sprang down in a rage; but recoiled at the burning body, as if he had been shot by a bullet. 'My God!' he cried, and stood holding fast to the ladder.

"'Take hold of it,' said Jackson at last to the Greenlander; it must go over- board. Don't stand shaking there like a dog; take hold of it, I say! But stop '; and smothering it all in the blankets he pulled it partly out of the bunk. "A few minutes more and it fell with a bubble among the phosphorescent sparkles of the damp night sea, leaving a corruscating wake as it sank. "This event thrilled me through and through with unspeakable horror; nor did the conversation of the watch during the next four hours on deck at all serve to soothe me.

"But what most astonished me, and seemed most incredible, was the infernal opinion of Jackson' that the man had been actually dead when brought on board the ship; and that knowingly, and merely for the sake of the month's advance, paid into his hand upon the strength of the bill he presented, the body-snatching crimp had knowingly shipped a corpse on board of the Highlander under the pre- tence of its being a live body in a drunken trance. And I heard Jackson say that he had known of such things having been done before: but that a really dead body ever burned in that manner, I cannot even yet believe. But the sailors seemed familiar with such things; or at least with the stories of such things having happened to others."