210 
them; and until they have been found 
to fail, we should pot again have re- 
course to Impressment. ~ 
No one alec that this system is 
capable of much modification ;\ that any 
modification would be an imprpyement; 
_and that it might, in many respects, be 
made more analogous to the practice 
ossible, and while there appeared the 
dustrioys and Ueemiscai: occupations of 
disperses his hopes, para- 
On the Impressmenj of Seamen. 
[Now 1, 
lizes his endeavours, steps between him 
and every feeling of family affection, 
and finally obliges him to curse the ser- 
vice—that of his country! into which 
he is forced, an unwilling victim, and 
which he cannot quit without a crime! 
His father, mother, wife, or children, 
may be in distress, in extreme misery, 
from which the high wages he could earn - 
are sufficient to remove them; he knows 
this, and he deserts that service. into 
which he was unjustly dragged;> no 
man, with the common feelings of huma- 
nity, can biame him; and where is the © 
man, with a spark of freedom in his com- 
position, that would not do the same ? 
This picture is not fancy ; such events 
were but too common during the late 
war: we recollect an instance of a sea- 
man belonging to one of his Majesty’s 
ships (we believe a pressed man), who 
happened after some years’ absence to 
touch at the port where he was born; 
his aged father and mother and his 
sisters came alongside the ship to see 
him, with all the eagerness of family 
affection, heightened by long separa- 
tion: unluckily, however, an order had 
been issued ‘to prevent any woman from 
coming on board—it was not relaxed 
in their favour; he thén asked permis- 
sion to go on shore with his family for 
a few hours, as he was on the eve of a 
long voyage; this too was refused: 
upon which the poor man, at all risks, 
determined to pay a last visit to his 
friends, and swam on shore that night. 
He returned, however, in the morning, 
but not before his absence was taken 
notice of. 
The captain, who was one of those 
that think the cat-o’nine tails a so- 
vereign remedy, determined to try him 
by a court-martial, in order to make a 
severe example ; he was sentenced to— 
we don’t know how many lashes, by the 
court ; but as few as could wellbe given 
for the offence, .all circumstances’ con- 
sidered ; and’ the commodore, a man of 
humanity, ordered the prisoner on 
board his own ship, where the sentence 
never was put in execution. This man’s 
behaviour was invariably good while he 
remained on beard the commodore, a 
petiod of some years; and he had a 
careless sort of galety and ready wit, 
particularly in situations. of danger, 
that always made him a great favourite 
with both officers and ship’s company. © 
It will be readily admitted, that the 
competition for labour should be as 
free with regard to seamen, as itvis in 
any other trade or. profession's’ and 
_ eyen 
