CAPTAIN MAItRYAT'S POOR JACK.

In the Second Part of his Diary in America, Captain MARRYAT turned aside from criticisms on American authors, to expound the gains of those iu England ; and, after a business-like analysis of the cost of the materisd-production and distribution, he came to the conclusion that ono good volume would pay better than three volumes expanded, provided a fivefold circulation could be made sure of This he proposed to effect by a previous subscription—a sort of public trade auction : but how the public at large were to be incited to put down their names for copies, did not appear, Perhaps this difficulty struck the author ; so he took to the plan of publication in shilling numbers, to enable hint to master his story, instead of letting three volumes master him, and to avoid that heaviness which he says will generally be found in the second volume of novels.

01 course it is impossible to decide upon the plan of a work

from a ii!w opening chapters; but if we guess rightly, Poor Jack is intended to exhibit life and character at sea, as regards the fore- mast men, rather than the officers, to which MARRYAT'S previous novels were chiefly limited. Not that the officers will be omitted now, any more than the men were omitted before, but they will be more painted by the judgment and in the lingo of the jack-tar;

• whose views of things will add a quaintness to the story. It is

possible, too, that the author's intention is to embrace all the va- rieties of nautical service by means of episodical narrations; for we have already a sketch of the dangers of the South Sea whale- fishing in a yarn of one Ohl Ben. We hope it will also involve • some expose of the insolence of office, the corruption of promo- tion, and, if the author's political prejudices will let him, of the effects of the " coll shade of the aristocracy" upon the service.

Of the probable merit. of the entire work, it is as difficult to speak

as of its plan, and a subject of more delicacy. We can vouch, however, for the Captain being as readable as ever, with much of his pointed style and wonted humour. But it strikes us that he is somewhat snore literal and prosaic ; perhaps it may be designedly so, for the Ilut88 of readers to whom he is writing. We also think that, unless very carefully managed, the narrative of a stirring event will be flattened if put into the mouth of what is under- stood by a real jack-tar ; as any thing of a comprehensive nature will most probably be rendered bald and narrow. Humour, satire, pathos, may frequently be made more effective by native shrewd- ness and a peculiar dialogue; but pares paribus, and elevated things require an elevation of narrative.

The form of the novel is autobiographical ; and No. I. is introduc- tory, describing Poor Jack's tlither, mother, and their matrinonial life, till the hero's eighth or ninth year. Mr. Saunders. the thther, was at the time of the marriage captain's coxswain to Sir Hercules llawkingtrefylyan, and the future firs. S. was a " lady's ladies maid," or in other words, waiting-v;oman to the captain's wife. This is the picture of the pair.

SDI HERCULES AND LADY HERCULES.

The friate. in which my falter eventually served as captain's coxswain was comniaae,1 by a Sir Ilerculos llawkingtrefylyan, Baronet. lie was very poor and very proud, thr baronets were not so common in those days. Be was a very large man. standing six feet high, and with what is termed a considerable bow-trim/ow in front : butt at the same time portly in his carriage. Ile wore his hair well powdered, exaeted the utmost degree of ceremony and respect, and considered that even speaking to one of his officers was paying them a very high compliment : as fir being asked to his table, there were but few who /mid boast of having had the honour, ruin even those few perhaps not more than once in the year. But be was, as 1 have said, very poor; and moreover he was a married man : which reminds me that I must introduce his lady, who, as the ship was on Channel service, had lodgings at the port near to which the frigate was stationed, and occasionally came on board to take a passage when tlbtf klutttifed 'bet ettatiou to the eastward or to the westward. Lady. Heirlttti;;14 lie were diVedted‘ to call her by Sir Hercules, was as large in- ditt4innons, an ten times more proud than her husband. She was an excessive finelady in every respects and.. whenever she. made her appearance on board, the ship's company looked upon her with the greatest awe. She had a great dislike to ships and sailors ; officers she seldom condescended to notice; and pitch and tar were her abomination. Sir Hercules himself submitted to her dictation; and had she lived on board she would have commanded the ship: fortunately for the service, she was always very sea-sick when she was taking passage, and therefore did no mischia

RATIONALE OF FRENCH NAUTICAL INFERIORITY.

" They stood a good tustle, I will say that, and so they always do: we may laugh at 'em, and call 'em Johnny. Crapows, but they arc a right brave nation, if they ar'n't good seamen ; but that 1 reckon's the fault of their lingo, for it's too noisy to carry on duty well with, and so they never will be sailors till they lava English." " I never heard them carryon duty in French," said Ben ; " it quite beats my comprehension how they can do it at all."

" Well, I have," replied my father ; " and every word they use is as long as the main-top bowling, and the mast is over the side behwe they can get them out. Why, would you believe it, I once asked one of those fellows what he called the foremast in his language; and what d'ye you think he said ? Why, I'm Mowed if he didn't call it a ilar-darty-marng'—and that's the only bit of French I know. But how is it possible to work a ship in such gibberish?"

"Quite impossible," replied Ben.

Old Ben, a Greenwich pensioner, has got his nose fixed " hard a- starboard ;" and he accounts for it in the tbllowing narrative, told to Mr. Saunders on his return from a six-years' voyage, whither his wife had been the means of sending him.

PERILS OF SOUTH-SEA WHALING.

" Well, we had waited about half an hour, when we saw a whiff at the mast- head of the ship : we knew that it was to direct our attention to some other point, so we looked round the horizon, and perceived that there was a school' of young bulls about three miles from us. We were four boats in all ; and the first mate desired my boat and another to go in chase of them, while he re- mained with the other two, for this old whale to conic up again. Well, off we went, and soon came up with the school : they are the most awkward part of whale-fishing; fir they are savage, and moreover easily ';;allied,' that is, frightened. I picked out one, and tried to come up with hint ; hut he was very shy, and at last he raised his bead clean out of the water, and set off at the rate of tell miles an hour : this showed that he was aware of danger. I bad just thought of giving him up and trying for another, when he suddenly turned round and came right towards the boats. That we knew meant mis- chief; but in coming towards us he passed close to the other boat, and the steersman gave him coming harpoon right well into him. This made him more savage, and he stood right for my boat, ploughing up the sea as lie rushed on. I was all ready in the bow with the harpoon, amid the meu were all ready with their oars to pull back, so as to keep clear of him. On he Caine; and when his snout was within six feet of us, we pulled sharp across him ; and as we went from him I gave him the harpoon deep into the fin. ' Stern all ! ' was the cry as usual, that we might be clear of him. He ' sounded' immediately, that is, down he went head-foremost; which was what we were afraid of, for you see we Lad only two hundred fathoms of line in each host ; and having both harpoons in him, we could not bend one to the other in case he' sounded' deep, for some- times they will go down right perpendicular, and take four lines, or eight hundred 'fathoms with them ; so we expected that we should this time lose the whale as well as our lines, for whets they were run out, we must either cut or go down with him. Well, the lines ran out so swift, that we poured water on them that they might not fire; and we thought that it was all over, for the lines were two-thirds out, and he was going down as fast as ever, when all of a sudden he stopped. We were hauling ill the slack lines, when we saw Lim rise again, about a quarter of a mile off. It was a hurrah, for we. now thought that we had him.. Off he set with his nose up, right in the wind's eye, towing the two boats at the rate of twelve miles an hour ; our stems cleaving through the sea, and throwing off the water like a plume of feathers on each side of the bows, While the sun's ray pierced through the spray and formed bright rainbows. We hoped soon to tire him, and to be able to haul in upon our hues, so as to get near enough to give him our lances ; but that was only hope, as you'll hear. Of a sudden, he stopped, turned round, and made right for us, with his jaws open ; then all we had to do was to baulk him, and give him the lance. lie did not seem to have made up his mind which boat he would attack ; we were pretty near together, and he yawed at one, and them at the other. At last he made right, for the other boat; and the boatsetter dodged him very cleverly, white we pulled up to him, and put the lance up to the stock into his side. lie made a plunge as if he were going to 'sound again; and as he did so, with his flukes he threw our boat into the air a matter uftwentv feet, cutting it dean in half; and one of the boat's thwarts came right athwart my nose, stud it never has been straight since."

Captain MAIIRTAT has inlisted STANFIELD in his service to illus- trate the descriptions. The artist, like the author, has had practi- cal experience of the vicissitudes of a sea life ; and the prose reality of his style of delineation is in unison with the literal truth of the writing; but how 1hr STANFIELD will fall in with the broad humour of .1,1ARRYAT, and succeed in embodying character at a succession of' adventures, remains to be seen. The figure of " Poor Jack," in this number, with bared legs and hand to forelock, is cleverly drawn ; and the whale-fishing incident of the boat

broken in two by a blow of the monster's tail, shows knowledge and technical skill; but in this last design there is a want of life and movement in the looks and action of the struggling men, that seems inconsistent with the sense of danger : this may be partly owing to the formality and hardness of the wood-engraving ; the rigid effect of which is also seen in the view of " Fisher's Alley." Spirit and freedom seem to have been sacrificed to elaborate finish, and an attempt to emulate the method of line engraving in the wood-cuts.