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Untitled Article
were inexhaustible , and accessible at an outlay almost as nothing in comparison with the mighty swallowing up of means to which England was liable . For every new vessel that was launched in each of the enemy ' s ports in the Mediterranean and Adriatic ,
and on the Atlantic and channel boards of France , an equality of strength must necessarily b& kept up in front of it by the English , at all the vast expense to the nation which was thereby incurred : while , lying snugly in harbour , Napoleon ' s fleets were maintained at less than one-third of the cost which was
sustained , and remains to be felt by England ; and had the war continued but a few years longer , it is not very foolish to suppose that Napoleon ' s lie-still manoeuvres would have mastered our activity and vigilance , —that our resources would have been crippled , and the French sufficiently strong to cope with us on
our own element . Sometimes , for several days , the fleet was out of sight of Cadiz : but the inshore squadron was left to look into the harbour , and to pick up , occasionally , any bold , but unlucky adventurer , who might take that opportunity of running towards Cadiz ; for , in nine cases out of ten , he , that is she , was almost
certain of being chopped up by the wary and watchful dragons . These matters rendered our inshore station in the A , one of constant excitement and alert occupation ; and many were the instances of cruelty , for the paltry purposes of gain , and private
injury of individuals , which we thus perpetrated according to orders , and under the sanction of the honourable laws of war . When will nations abandon the practice of piracy and robbery on the high seas ? Never while war is the trade of honour . Justify , if you will , the custom of seizing and destroying vessels armed for the purpose of conflict and depredation ; but oh ! remove that foul stain from the name of enterprize , which eagerly seeks and fattens on the ruin of the dofenceiess , merely because they belong to a nation against the power of which the madness of our rulers has issued its murdering ban . What ! forego
our prospects of prize -money and booty ? Forego your silly boast of belonging to an honourable profession , then ! No , no ; for such is the honour that is linked with the profession—• fake away the magnets of prize and booty , and how wonderfully will the profession of arms diminish in ita attractions ! Oft enlimes the capture of a small craft , carrying crockery-waif or vegetables to the market , has been purchased by the loss of
many lives and mangled limbs ; and the seamen engaged in the ' noble land perilous adventure/—for these captures were made within range of the forts and musketry on the beach , —were remunerated by a sixpence , as their share of the proceeds of prize-monoy . I did not think , thon , so closely on the subject , when I was , with so many others , mingled in these truly disgraceful and inhuman acts . I had caught the excitement which was so general , and . Lot me say , it waa soul-stirring , The foul-
Untitled Article
4 t 818 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 218, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/62/
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