Is in a most deplorable state. The difficulty of reducing the Castle of
San Juan de Ulloa led to the collection of some gun-boats, a couple of
sloops of war, and two or three armed schooners. This number has since
received the addition of a line of battle ship, two frigates, and some
other vessels of war. Some English and American officers were engaged,
but we believe that all the former have left the service, and that very
few of the latter remain. Commodore Porter, of vain-glorious memory,
(who once wrote a book of Voyages,) was, and may be still, the marine
commandant, and distinguished himself by threatening to blockade Cuba,
and by being obliged to skulk at Key West, to avoid destruction by the
gallant Laborde. The Mexicans require no navy, and cannot maintain one;
the sooner, therefore, they restrict it to a very few revenue cutters
the better. The nature of the country and the destructive climate of
the coast, diminish greatly the necessity for keeping up a military
establishment for _external_ defence. Foreign invasion can do little;
more is to be dreaded from internal dissensions.--_Foreign Quarterly
Review_.
* * * * *
A prudent host, who is not in the humour to submit to an attack from
"staunch topers," "who love to keep it up" as _bons vivants_, whose
favourite song is ever "_Fly not yet_," will engage some sober friends
to fight on his side, and at a certain hour to vote for "no more wine,"
and bravely demand "tea," and will select his company with as much care
as a chemist composes a neutral salt, judiciously providing quite as
large a proportion of alkali (tea men) as he has of acid (wine men.)
To adjust the balance of power at the court of Bacchus, occasionally
requires as much address as sagacious politicians say is sometimes
requisite to direct the affairs of other courts.
To make the summons of the tea table serve as an effective ejectment to
the dinner table, let it be announced as a special invitation from the
lady of the house. It may be, for example, "Mrs. Souchong requests the
pleasure of your company to the drawing-room." This is an irresistible
mandamus.
"Though Bacchus may boast of his care-killing bowl,
And Folly in thought drowning revels delight,
Such worship soon loses its charms for the soul,
When softer devotions our senses invite."