ENGLISH UNDEFILED.
[To MR EDITOR OF TIM " &ROTATOR:1 SIR,—Knowing your zeal for the preservation of English undefiled, I venture to ask you to lend your influence in suppressing the word " warship,"—a raucous Americanism which has crept into the language, not of naval men, but Of armchair naval experts. A still more horrid monster- "gunship"—has recently been created by a writer in the Nineteenth Century,—which is old enough to know better. Why should the good old term " man-o'-war " be replaced by there hideous inventions ? "Man-o'-war" is a dignified and high-sounding phrase, endeared by old associations, and beautiful in itself. Moreover, it is known all over the world, in places where the White Ensign flew long before the days of warships and gunships ; the East Coast and West Coast African knows well the " maniwiri," and the native of Ceylon hails the advent of the " minowah." While on this tack, I should like to call attention also to the fact that a man-o'-war is a ship, not a boat ; and that naval men do not live on their ships, like flies clinging to a wall, but in them. " What boat are you on ? " is a question very often addressed to officers serving in some gigantic battleship or cruiser, a question only outdone by that of a young subaltern who once came en board a ship at Malta and asked the officer of the watch: " Who is the O.C. your boat? "—I am, Sir, &c.,
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