Hints on the Impressment of Seamen. 
amass of mankind. We find nothing 
to’ attract; nothing to keep our admira- 
tiohy trothing ‘to bind’ us down to this 
worlds Our intégrity ‘is “surrounded 
by temptations; and out’! séiisibility is 
wounded by a2'thousand ‘asperities, 
~whieliolessén' “the happiness’ of those 
whofeel ard thinkol¢ is natural, there- 
fore)to lodk forward ‘to # better inheri- 
tance, ingorruptible because immortal, 
and tanaffectéd ‘by sin and sorrow. 
eng@toniaies Olives 
Hints on the IMpntssment ef SEAMEN. 
hates" COonithided from p. 397.) 
‘Piiisno ‘excuse for the abominable 
osystem of impressment to allege its 
dong existence, or ‘that the Navy has 
flourished» under! it, “and cannot other- 
wise be supplied. If our Seamen were 
paid and°treated' as their’ hard duty 
deserves, those who are now reluctant- 
dy forced into’ the ‘service, would offer 
themselves as‘volunteers. No sophistry 
‘can warnish-over a ‘system loaded with 
injustice*and evil—a’ system by which, 
shouldia‘new war break out to-morrow, 
ora number ‘of ships of the line be put 
into active service, the whole line of the 
‘Thames, ‘and every port in the three 
kingdoms, would be swept by ferocious 
gangs, armed with despotic authority, 
to set the most common notions of free 
agency ‘at defiance; and myriads of 
industrious and hard working men 
would be ravished from the bosoms of 
their families, to be crowded in the 
holds ef tenders, or thrust on board 
king’s ships. What must the feelings 
of; a*man'be (provided he has any 
thing more than human shape), dragged 
into’ the service, perhaps, with a cutlass 
flourished over his head, perhaps con- 
demned:to foreign stations and all their 
hardship’ for years—with no hope of 
liberation except by disability or death. 
His feelings cannot be very satisfactory 
when he contrasts the days of freedom 
onshore with his constrained position 
in afloating prison—tied, perhaps, to a 
grating, «and mangled by a lacerating 
seourge, ‘at the Caprice of a'sea bashaw, 
forethe' slightest ‘murmur, or alleged 
neglectrof duty. [he records’ of ty- 
rammyin our navy are flagrant and num- 
berless" The uncontrolled power vest- 
edwiny captains of ships” should never 
bedlodgedin the haids of any individual. 
Tyrannygrows in the mind by habit : 
the*feelings become cruel and hardened 
byalegrees;and a king’s' ship, in lieu of 
beimig a’sacred precinct, devoted to the 
comfort and health of the defenders of 
their country, is converted into a float- 
ingeamp whence there is no exit: and 
499 
where a petty and almost irresponsible 
naval despot tasks, tortures and irons, 
according to the impulses of his ca- 
price. According to the present, sys- 
tem, the boatswain’s mate is much too, 
often in reguisition. Jack, as the. seac. 
man is called, may like his grog ;., but. 
he has no artificial taste for what be in. 
turn designates as “salt eel.” Slavery ig. 
slavery wherever it exists, and the only, 
difference between naval slavery and 
Algerine is, that the British seaman is 
better fed than the Christian captive, 
and the lash is employed instead of the 
bastinado, The subject of prize- 
money is another fertile subject of com- 
plaint; and the system of influence in 
promotion a crying grievance,; The 
younger sons of patricians, mere boys, 
who have never been out of harbour, 
have been often made captains; while. 
hosts of officers, who haye encountered 
hardships and perils in every quarter of 
the globe, are pining in obscurity and 
poverty. Is this justice? is it policy 2? 
Can the Navy be expected to maintain 
the ascendancy of its character under a 
system so every way disheartening ? 
Our seamen, it is true, under all these 
discouragements have always nobly up~ 
held the character of the country. 
Their native spirit, in the hour of peril, 
burst through the restraints of adverse 
circumstances, and maintained the as- 
cendancy of the trident of Britain over 
tlfe ocean. But had the system been 
different, the whole materiel of the 
crews would have been superior: we 
should not have, as in the last war, to 
encounter risk and shame with discon- 
tented crews—two thirds of them often. 
composed of aliens; above all, we should 
have been spared the deep humiliation 
inflicted on the alleged naval invin- 
cibility of Britain, in our latter conflicts 
with the precocious navy, of America. 
It is notorious that numbers of. our. 
best seamen are even now in foreign 
setvice. In short, no man who feels the 
value of common comfort and ordinary, 
liberty, and possesses the lowest ca-. 
pacity of choice, will, if he can possibly, 
avoid or evade it, submit to the tyranny, 
of 4 man-of-war. The subject is of the, 
most vital importance to the well-being, 
of the country; and will, we trust, be. 
brought forward with unrelaxed perse-. 
verance before the national legislature, . . 
till the evils we have pointed out are. 
remedied and the radical vices of the. 
system removed. In. this hope, and in, 
the satisfaction of having done our duty, 
we now leave the question in more effi. 
cient hands. 
3 52 THE 
