a vice-admiral's command, with a rear-admiral at Chatham, further up the latter river. The Mediterranean, the North American, and West India Stations, and China are also vice-admiral's commands. There are also two rear admiral's in the Mediterranean, one of whom is superintendent of Malta dockyard. There is further an additional rearadmiral commanding the detached squadron in the China Seas; one commanding at Queenstown (Cork); one in charge of the Channel Squadron; one commanding in the Pacific; and one in the East Indies. There is also a commodore in charge at Jamaica, and one at Hong Kong. The Cape of Good

Hope and West coast of Africa and Australia are likewise commodore's commands. The service thus employs afloat 2 admirals, 4 vice-admirals, 10 rear-admirals, and 4 commodores.

The flag of a British admiral is white, with a red cross, corresponding with the ensign; that of a commodore is similar in colour, but swallow-tailed, and is called a broadpendant. There is no sea in which they, or the long "coach whips" of the ships under their command, are not to be encountered, ever on the cruize for the protection of an empire on which the sun never sets. G. W. G.

I

N these days, when strenuous efforts are being made by the advocates of "Temperance" to curb, and even to suppress utterly, the use of alcoholic liquors, we not unfrequently hear it stated that such avowed philanthropists, by the very activity and uncompromising nature of their efforts, are defeating the ultimate object which they have in view that is, the amelioration of the condition of the human race; that in throwing obstacles in the way of indulgence in alcoholic drinks, whilst leaving the appetite for such stimulants uneradicated, these wellmeaning people only drive the objects of their solicitude to the use of opium, hasheesh, hydrate of chloral, and other such still more noxious substances, capable of temporarily banishing pain or producing pleasurable sensations. I believe I may safely say that I know this statement to be well founded, at least so far as concerns North America. How I know, may be guessed by the reader of the following pages. Partly through my own experience and direct observation, partly through the enquiries which that experience has induced me to make, I am aware that the substances just named, and especially opium, are indulged in upon this continent to an extent of which those who have not themselves been within the inner circle of its votaries have no idea. It is scarcely possible to procure statistics in

support of this-as I allege-fact. The very secrecy with which opium can be procured and indulged in, seems almost to preclude such a possibility. At the same time, the possibility of maintaining this secrecy, suggests some conception of the vast evil which must ensue from the prevalence of the drug in question.

It is not my purpose, in this paper, to enter upon any discussion of the question how far the fact, or alleged fact, just stated should, if at all, modify or change the action of the Alcoholic Liquor Prohibitionists. The whole subject is one which demands the earnest consideration of the genuine philanthropist. What I really propose to do in the following pages, is to submit some of my own experiences in the use and in the disuse of opium, in the hope that the effort may not be without effect in deterring others, who may be that way inclined, from ever tampering with opium, and, at the same time, be of service to those who, having become enslaved, are sincerely desirous of freeing themselves from its trammels. In doing this, I must necessarily make frequent use of the first personal pronoun singular; but it is hoped that anonymous egoism may not prove unendurable. I shall, then, treat in succession of the steps by which I became addicted to the use of opium; of some of the effects which it produced upon me; and

several causes which conspired to make them so. I was over a thousand miles away from my own home, and among strangers who did not even know of my habit of taking opium; and who would be quite unable -perhaps unwilling to aid or sympathise with me in the trial which, it seemed, must be endured. Then my occupation at the time was one demanding great toil of brain -requiring of me every day, as unfailingly as the rising of the sun, whether well or ill, whether in or out of spirits, the performance | of a large amount of mental labour. In fact my brain was overworked at the time, and could not have maintained the struggle but for the daily use of opium; for I may here say that, in my case, however it may be in others, opium, down to within a few months of my final discontinuance of its use, operated as a powerful stimulant to the intellectual powers. This it did, not in that vehement and spasmodic action which alcohol exerts upon the brain, but with a sustained power, giving great clearness to the conceptions, and nerving especially the higher faculties of the intellect to a more than normal energy. Thus I was not only in no condition to battle against my enslaver, but the circumstances in which I found myself placed seemed to demand of me to hug the chains more closely. During the summer and autumn of this last year of its use, and only whole year of its uninterrupted use, my daily dose of laudanum had got up to rather more than three ounces. It must be remembered that on each resumption of the use of the article I had found it necessary, in order to experience any effect from it, to recommence with as large a daily allowance as that with which I had last left off. This mention of what had become my daily portion, will, perhaps better than anything else I could say, enable those having some knowledge in such matters to know at what stage I had now arrived in the use of opium.

reader may naturally expect to hear something of opium dreams. The fact is that, up to this time, when I was taking three ounces of laudanum each day, I had no dreams. The use of the drug never had the effect of even making me sleep more than I otherwise would.. Quite the reverse, indeed. One effect of it was to make me especially wakeful. As that effect wore off, I would sink into a deep sleep, but not more profound, or of longer continuation, than would have been the case if I had lost sleep from any other cause than taking opium. I may here observe that I am naturally a light and brief sleeper. What my system seems to require when in ordinary health is from three to-at most— six hours sleep out of the twenty-four.

I found, however, during the summer of this, my last opium year, that the continuous use of the drug was rapidly exhausting my forces, both mental and physical, and apparently sapping my very life. I am somewhat of an athlete, and am naturally fond of, and, when in health, have always been accustomed to, much physical exercise. Now I found myself devoid of either power or inclination to indulge in anything of the sort. My inclination to take food gradually lessened until it almost entirely ceased. First, I dispensed with the formality of breakfast ; then, of luncheon; until eventually and during many months I never approached the table except once a day, at the six o'clock dinner hour, and even then I but minced over a few bites of some light dish, or ate a very little fruit. Meanwhile my perspirations-especially night perspirations-were most profuse, so much so as to be alarming to those with whom I was in daily intercourse.

vousness which proceeds from any other cause. This seemed rather the manifestation of the combined yearnings of every single and separate organ in the system for something which was not. Combined with this was a most depressing sadness. Even the most agreeable emotions derivable from the use of opium had already, in my case, a certain dash of melancholy about them, but

At length, in the course of the autumn of the year already so often referred to. I had an opportunity of suspending my close application to business duties, and, at the same time, of returning again to the shelter of my own roof-tree. Now, too, I thought to set myself deliberately to the task of breaking off this opium habit. Although apprehensive that the task would be a severe one, I soon found that I had too lightly estimated it. Again and again I made the attempt, but in each instance, after three or four days of struggling through downright torture, I ignominiously, but in intensely conscious self-abasement, stole back to the old comforter, to enjoy its seductions more delightedly than ever.

About this period I began, for the first time, to have opium dreams. I have already intimated that heretofore there was nothing whatever remarkable in my sleep whilst habitually taking opium. I omitted to state that oftentimes, whilst lying wakeful in consequence of having taken it, I became aware, or methought I was aware, of a sort of double existence. It seemed that my soul, or a part of it, would become quite disembodied, and would composedly contemplate the body still lying there, noticing its breathings and its every motion; or it would, from some distant room, cogitate upon how that body was now comporting itself. I mention this as a sample of the vagaries which opium may put into the human brain even in waking hours.

But now a new and terrible dream-world was suddenly opened up to me. Why it was that I now commenced to dream, and not before, is a mystery which I can in no way account for. Other opium-eaters, and notably the celebrated De Quincey, have told of the grandeur of their opium dreams, but they have also given us to understand that at least up to a certain point-there was an enjoyable charm about these sleeping visitants. My experiences were different. My dreams were grand enough, indeed; but they were always so pervaded with the element of the terrible as to make them a perfect hell of torture. A few such would, I think, suffice to drive any mortal man to burst away from the chains of opium, or to put a termination to his existence. I can still recall these dreams in all their grand

and terrible vividness; and I do not believe that any one of them will ever fade from my memory whilst memory itself endures. The recording of dreams at all is doubtless a vain-perhaps a very silly-thing to do. Nevertheless, I will venture to recount, as a sample, one of these visions of sleep, re marking, at the same time, that no language which I can command could describe it even as it remains graven on my memory ; much less can words describe the harrowing terror which accompanied that dream.

I dreamed that certain friends of mine who are interested in manufacturing operations wherein machinery is largely employed, invited me to look at some new machinery which they had just got into operation in an establishment of theirs. I may here premise, as a fact accounting in some degree for the tone of the earlier part of this dream-the later portion I find it more difficult to account for-that powerful and complicated machinery in motion has always had a sort of awful charm for me. I remember, early in life, on my first visit to an extensive colliery, being impressed with downright awe at the appearance of a great pumping-engine working away mysteriously in its towerthere being no human being visible in the vicinity-quivering, groaning, and heaving up a great stream of water from a depth of some four hundred feet. The recollection of its seeming life and consciousness, and of its lonely, infernal energy, haunted me for a long time afterwards. Later in life, I had often experienced a sort of fascination, not unmixed with awe, when gazing at vast systems of complicated machinery in motion -as, for instance, in regarding the ponderous engines of the Great Eastern steamship. Then I had myself had much to do with the direction of certain works in which machinery was employed on a somewhat large scale. Thus there must have been, packed away in the archives of my mind, the records of many sensations connected with the subject of ponderous machinery in motion-records in great measure forgotten until opium rummaged them out and reproduced them with hyperbolical vividness.