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We shall introduce a similar catalogue of the Transactions of those kindred associations, known under the name of Societies, when we come to give the necessary additions to that article. For an account of the Institute of France, see in this Supplement. ACADEMY is also a term applied to these royal collegiate seminaries in which young men are educated for the navy and army. In this country there are three seminaries of this description: The Naval Academy at Portsmouth; the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich; and the Royal Military College at Farnham and Sandhurst.

I. The Naval Academy at Portsmouth was founded by George I. in 1722; but the official warrant for its establishment does not appear to have been issued till the 21st of February 1729. This warrant bears, that the academy was instituted for the education of forty young gentlemen, fifteen of whom were to be sons of commissioned officers in the navy. The commissioner of the navy at Portsmouth was, ex officio, to be governor; and there were to be two masters for the instruction of the students in navigation and the sciences introductory or auxiliary to it, besides a master for writing and drawing. The annual expence was about L. 1169.

In the year 1773, his present Majesty, during a visit he paid to Portsmouth, suggested the extension and improvement of the Naval Academy; but no steps were taken towards this object till the year 1806, when an order in council was issued for a new and enlarged establishment. By this order it was henceforward to be called the Royal Naval College at Dock-yard, Portsmouth, and the following officers were appointed: 1st, a Governor, who was to be the First Lord of the Admiralty for the time being; and, 2d, a Lieutenant-Governor and inspector, who was to be a post-captain in the navy. As the course of education which the students were to follow necessarily embraced the mathematical sciences, the order directed that the University of Cambridge should recommend three of its graduates, who were able mathematicians; one of whom the first Lord of the Admiralty, as governor, was to nominate Professor. In order to incite him to the regular and faithful discharge of his duty, he was to receive no fixed salary, but to be paid L. 8 annually by each student attending the Academy. The next in rank and authority under the professor is the preceptor, or head master, who must be a graduate of one of the universities; he has the control of the students at all hours, and is to instruct them in the classics, moral philosophy, geography, history, and general literature.

The order in council also appointed a writing-master, who, besides giving instructions in his own immediate line, was to prepare the students for the lectures of the professor, by teaching them arithmetic, fractions, algebra, and geometry. There are, besides, masters for drawing, French, dancing, and fencing. The surgeon of the deck-yard gives his professional advice and assistance. The domestic economy of the establishment is entrusted, by the order in council, to a disabled and meritorious half-pay lieutenant.

The peculiar advantages of this academy, however, consist in the practical knowledge which it is intended and calculated to bestow on those who are admitted. For this purpose, the master attendant of the dock-yard gives weekly lessons on the management of ships afloat, in one of the cruizing sloops; and likewise lessons in rigging, and preparing ships for sea, on board such vessels as are preparing to sail from Portsmouth harbour. Forty seven lessons are given in each of these branches annually, five weeks being allowed for holidays.

The master shipwright of the dock-yard instructs the students in the principles on which ships of war are built; and in the mode of putting the several parts together—making masts, and all other branches of naval architecture, by attending them one day in the week, during the six summer months, through the dock-yards. The gunner of marine artillery also instructs them in the practical knowledge of gunnery, and in the use of the firelock.

The number of scholars, by the order in council of February 1806, was increased from forty to seventy: of these, thirty might be indiscriminately sons of officers, noblemen, or gentlemen; but forty were invariably to be sons of commissioned officers in the naval service. None are admitted under thirteen, nor above sixteen years of age: those are preferred to fill vacancies who have been previously at sea, provided they are of the proper age. No student can remain at the academy longer than three years; and the whole period of his residence is to be reckoned as two of the six years, which it is necessary for a midshipman to serve, before he can obtain a lieutenant’s commission. Each student, while actually at the academy, that is, during three hundred and thirty days in the year, receives four shillings daily; out of which he pays L. 8 annually to the professor. The annual expence of the establishment, as fixed by the order in council of 1806, is about L. 6363.

In order to secure to the country the services of the students in that line, for which they have been educated, the parents of all of them, except such as have been previously at sea, grant a bond of L. 200, which is forfeited, in case they do not enter into the naval service. The first year they are at sea, they are rated as volunteers, on able seaman’s pay; the second year, they have the rank and pay of midshipmen. They are directed to keep journals; to draw head-lands, &c.; and when the ship comes into port, they are to attend the professor, who is to  Rh