1 827.] Letter on Affairs in general. 293 



seems to be the very worst that could be used upon the subject ! " Govern- 

 ment" must not be " outbid" by the merchant ships. On what principle 

 should the labour of a sailor, more than that of any other artisan if the 

 question is to be one merely of money be seised at a lower rate of payment 

 than he can obtain for it in the market ? The argument is precisely that 

 which would justify a colonist in retaining his slaves to wit, " that he 

 believes it to be manifestly to his interest to do so." 



In fact, however, A never could since the world was created possibly 

 get on without the power of tyrannising over B and C, until D, E. and F, 

 agreed that he should do so no longer the difficulty of the case is not half 

 so great as persons are pleased to suppose. We have twenty-one thousand 

 seamen, enlisted, and paid, and maintained upon the peace establishment. 

 These men, taking them all to be able seamen, joined to an equal number 

 of landsmen (who constitute always full one-half and often more of a 

 ship of war's complement) would give us, if a war were to break out to- 

 morrow without the necessity of competing with the merchant ships at 

 all (who cannot employ any landsmen) a force, at starting, equal to 

 forty thousand men. And to say that this supply, or even an unlimited 

 supply, could not be obtained, under a more just and humane system of 

 regulation in the Navy, without coercion, is just to assert that there is 

 something about the Navy which distinguishes it from every other 

 pursuit in the world. Every military man knows what it is that enlists 

 two-thirds of the recruits for the army; it is not a preference (upon 

 reflection) for fourteen pence a day and a musquet, before five shillings 

 a day and a loom ? And, of all men in existence, sailors from every 

 circumstance about their tastes and habits would be the least proof 

 against such attractions, as bring in our soldiers the " Grog Good 

 usa^e and Ten guineas of gold in hand!" 



The truth is, my case of A and B explains the real difficulty. In the 

 days of Elizabeth and James, when bear-baiting was a court diversion, 

 the master of the royal bears was authorised to " impress dogs, bulls, and 

 bears/' for the king's diversion, all over the country. I have no doubt 

 that if Edward Alleyne had been asked whether bear-baiting could bo 

 maintained without the power of " impressment," he would have declared 

 that it was impossible for a week. I hope, however, that before parliament 

 separates, this subject will receive the serious consideration which its im- 

 portance deserves. And, at least if we forbear to strike, at once, at the 

 ultimate power of Impressment there can be no excuse for suffering that 

 practice systematically to be resorted to, while all the more just, constitu- 

 tional, and equitable modes of manning our Navy, remain out of operation, 

 and even untried. 



Qualification for a Juror. In consequence of the operation of Mr. 

 Peel's Bill, which makes every man possessed of a certain property liable 

 to be summoned on juries, a chimney sweep presented himself a few days 

 since on the tally at the Westminster Sessions. John Bull says that he 

 ought to have been admitted, and that he would have sooted his fellow- 

 jurymen to admiration. I think John is wrong, and that he was properly 

 rejected; because it is a principle that every juror should "come into court 

 with clean hands" 



The simplicity of the following description, in an advertisement of to- 

 day's Herald, is admirable. " Wanted Two Reporters for Newspapers. 

 The Situations to be filled are not of a reporting nature," &c. The con- 

 clusion of the " Want" is excellent except that it seems lamentably in 

 the teeth of the proverb that " Learning is better than House and 



