traders, foundered or were wrecked, and the lives lost were estimated at 20,000 or even 30,000."

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"The Russia fleet," says Defoe, near a hundred sail, which happened to be then upon the coast, was absolutely dispersed and scattered, some got into Newcastle, some into Hull, and some into Yarmouth roads; two foundered in the sea; one or two more run ashore, and were lost; and the reserve frigate, their convoy, foundered in Yarmouth roads, and no boat from the shore durst go off to relieve her, though it was in the day time, but all her men perished.

"In Yarmouth roads there rode at least 400 sail, being most of them laden colliers, Russia-men, and coasters from Lynn and Hull. In the River Thames, at the Nore, lay about twelve sail of the Queen's hired ships and storeships, and two men-of-war. In the Downs 160 sail of merchant ships outward bound, besides that part of the fleet which came in from the Mediterranean with Sir Cloudesley Shovel, eighteen men-of-war, with tenders and victuallers.

"At Portsmouth and Cowes, there lay three fleets; first a fleet of transports and tenders, who with Admiral Dilks, brought the forces from Ireland that were to accompany the King of Spain to Lisbon; secondly, a great fleet of victuallers, tenders, store-ships, and transports, which lay ready for the same voyage, together with about forty merchant-ships, who lay for the benefit of their convoy; and the remainder of the grand fleet; in all almost 300 sail, great and small.

In Plymouth Sound, Falmouth, and Milford Havens, were fleets of merchant ships, driven in for shelter and harbour from the storm, most homeward bound from the Islands and Colonies of America. The Virginia fleet, Barbadoes fleet, and some East India-men, lay scattered in all our ports, and in Kinsale, in Ireland, there lay near 80 sail, homeward bound and richly laden. At Bristol, about 20 sail of home-bound West India-men, not yet unladen. In Holland, the fleet of transports for Lisbon waited for the King of Spain, and several English men-of-war lay at Helvoet Sluice; the Dutch fleet from the Texel lay off of Cadsandt, with their forces on board, under the Admiral Callenberge. Both these fleets made 180 sail.

"I think I may very safely affirm, that hardly in the memory of the oldest man living, was a juncture of time when an accident of this nature could have happened, that so much shipping, laden out and home, ever was in port at one time. No man will wonder that the damages to this nation were so great, if they consider these unhappy circumstances; it should rather be wondered at, that we have had no more disasters to account to posterity, but that the

navigation of this country came off so well. Yet it is said that 30,000 seamen were lost in the several parts of England, and 300 sail of ships; which was a probable conjecture, considering the multitude of shipping, the openness of the roads in the Downs, Yarmouth, and the Nore, and the prodigious fury of the wind.

"In short, horror and confusion seized upon all, whether on shore or at sea: no pen can describe it; no tongue can express it; no thought conceive it, unless some of those who were in the extremity of it; and who, being touched with a due sense of the sparing mercy of their Maker, retain the deep impressions of His goodness upon their minds, though the danger be past; and of those I doubt the number is but few."

"If the records could be given of the wrecks upon one little region of our home seas, the Goodwin Sands, what a huge volume of woe and of death they would make! The numbers of those that perished in the great storm of 1703 may be exaggerated, but it is a sadly true fact that every year many hundreds of lives are lost off our British coasts. Still more sad is it to think that in times not very remote, at least on some parts of our coasts, little was done for trying to save lives in peril, but that ships were even lured to destruction by false lights and signals, for the sake of wrecking and plunder! We have fallen on better times, and there is no beneficent agency in a land where kind feelings and charitable deeds abound, more popular than the Royal National Life Boat Institution.

After the storm, calm is pleasant; and there are few who do not prefer smooth to rough waters. Yet a sea ever waveless, tideless, and motionless, would be not only doleful, but dangerous. Just as the atmosphere if always at rest would become charged with disease and death, so the ocean would lose its salubrity, if never disturbed by the winds and the waves. The storm and the tempest may bring danger and disaster, but greater would be the destruction and death if either the air or the sea were never cleared and purified by change and motion. But for this, the very deep would rot, and death would brood over a putrid and slimy sea. 'Water, water, everywhere,' but it would be like that in which the Ancient Mariner' found himself:

·

"Happily for man, and for the greatest good of the greatest

THE DUKE OF ALBANY.

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number of living creatures, whether on the land or in the water the ocean is not in perpetual rest; and, while even the hurricane is better than the pestilence, storms are comparatively rare on land or sea, both of which are, nevertheless, kept in constant and wholesome motion. This movement is produced and maintained principally by the action of waves, tides, and currents."

N an eloquent and most able speech at the Mansion House the Duke, with much force, proposed a memorial to Archbishop Tait. No royal son has yet arisen to do this for Tyndale. The time shall come, however. And "the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall bring presents." What His Royal Highness said of Tait is much more true of Tyndale :"English history, which records so many heroes of duty, can scarcely point to any purer instance of the single-mindedness which forgets self in great public objects, or of the conscientiousness which makes a man refuse, under any pressure of temptation or weariness, to do less than his utmost, or to be less than his best. He has passed, indeed, from our bodily sight. He has gone-to use his own words, which I just quoted-to fuller light and higher liberty.' But we are met here to-day to show that, although he is no longer visibly present with us, his spirit is felt in our midst, more powerfully, perhaps, than ever before. We are here to show that England is not the less ready to honour her worthiest sons because it has never occurred to them to imagine that they have achieved any special title to honour by doing what was no more

than their duty. We may be thankful that in England, amidst all our speculative differences of opinion, we have so little of that fierce antagonism which rages in some other countries— that false opposition between reason and reverence—as though in this world of awful mysteries a spirit of arrogant irreverence were not the very maddest unreason."

WRECK OF THE "NORTH AMERICA" STEAMER. (WRITTEN FOR "CHART AND COMPASS.")

E have received very sad accounts of the complete wreck of the steamer "North America" off Carthagena, having foundered on the sunken rocks so numerous near Cape

Palos, fifteen miles to the east of Carthagena. She was on a return voyage from Buenos Ayres to Genoa, with 100 passengers and a crew of 68 men, together with a valuable cargo of coffee, wool, and maize, We learn from the account of one of her passengers, that the steamer had made a most prosperous voyage from the time of her leaving Buenos Ayres, on the 7th December, till she entered the Straits of Gibraltar on the 1st of January, 1883. New Year's Day enveloped the steamer in a thick fog, during which she neared the shore. On the morning of the 2nd the mist gave place to a fine, clear sunshine and a breeze worthy of a spring day. Shortly after 10 a.m., the passengers being on deck, having just risen from breakfast, a hollow grating sound and smashing like the violent crashing of timbers was heard; this was occasioned by the vessel passing rapidly over one of the sharp submerged rocks, making a deep fissure in her bottom, which was prolonged by the velocity of her onward motion until it reached near the centre of the ship. In vain the brave young captain shouted to back the engines, for neither machines nor rudder were any longer able to obey his commands. The confusion now became general, some understanding that a catastrophe was imminent, others desirous to know what had happened; but again, overpowering all, the gallant captain immediately ordered five boats to be lowered, in the first of which the women and children were placed, while some men lowered themselves without ropes, clinging to each other in the wildest despair, leaving all they had to save their lives, thus verifying the words,-"All that a man hath will he give for his life." The fearful shock was as sudden as it was unlooked for, and barely gave time to save the valuable lives on board; some were picked up in the water after the vessel sank, which she did in the space of fifteen minutes after. Thus all were saved, with the exception of one woman, who, turning back again to the third-class