AT the dispersion of the children of Israel in the land of Canaan, it had been predicted by Moses that Zebulon would dwell upon the coast, and suck of the abundance of the seas. Thus the tribe of Zebulon became a purely mercantile and maritime one, and trading along the shores of the Mediterranean, it sucked, as it were, of the wealth of Greece and Rome and their tributaries, which was brought back to the land of Canaan, where it was interchanged for the commodities of the other tribes.

If there be one people on the face of the earth who have more than another inherited the predilections for the sea of the tribe of Zebulon for maritime and mercantile pursuits, it must be admitted that it is the British people, whose supremacy on the seas is unrivalled, as the following facts disclose:— Last year, the ships, of all classes which entered inwards and cleared outwards were 413,972, representing a tonnage of nearly sixty-two millions! The estimated amount of imports and exports was four hundred millions sterling, collected and dispersed, not only along the shores of the Mediterranean, but in every clime where the foot of the civilized man has trodden.

These facts show clearly our national aptitudes, which are wisely subordinated in the providence of God for great and wise purposes.

We have made these few preliminary remarks on observing the following appropriate Article in a number of the Examiner, on the subject of our Nautical Aptitudes:— " The New York correspondent of the Times observes of the nautical capabilities of America:— " ' The fact seems to be that the United States, on the conclusion of peace, may be a great military, but never can become a great naval nation. Their territory by its very vastness is inland, and must breed an inland, not a maritime, population. It requires the sea to beget a love of the sea. The boy that is to be a sailor when he is a man must sport upon the shore when he is a child, and this can -be the destiny of but few Americans.' "' It seems to us that something more than a coast is necessary to a turn for the sea. There are nations that take to water like ducks, and people with a repugnance to it which can never be thoroughly conquered. The necessity of getting a living, or a conscription, may make seamen of them, but it is against the grain, and they are never at home on shipboard, always yearning for the shore. We question the position of the writer in the Times, that " it requires the sea to beget a love of the sea, and that a boy to be a sailor must sport on the shore when a child." Inland, in the very heart of the country, as indeed all through the country, may be seen the propensities which, favoured by opportunity, make the sailor. Wherever there is a pond, urchins will be found dabbling in it. To get into water, even though it may happen not to be clean, is as natural to them as to get into mischief. If there be no pond within reach, they will amuse themselves with the gutter, and send walnut-shell boats over the rapids. But the love of water so displayed does not extend to its uses for purification, and it is evident that the washing is quite incidental, and the delight confined to mimic nautical appliances, swimming boats, or constructing moles and docks. Now nothing of this sort is to be seen in the neighbouring country. The French boy would as soon put his hands in the fire as his feet in water for sport. His first amusement is to play at soldiers. He shoulders a broomstick, goes through his facings, and performs the manual and platoon exercise with his comrades. The type of the nation is most appropriately the cock, and the cock is very shy of water. We, on the contrary, are a web-footed people, and all aquatics come naturally to us. It is so, too, with the Dutch, the Swedes, the Norwegians, and perhaps the Danes.

To most other people the sea is always irksome.' ".