LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 71 



asking of that honourable body to give you a new hearing. Tell 

 them that, from the vast demand the exploring squadron will make 

 upon the specie ; the exposed condition in which it will leave our 

 commerce in the Gulf of Mexico ; the utter derangement into 

 which it will throw the whole naval service of the country, which 

 may go far towards breaking up all our foreign naval stations, 

 and on numerous other grounds, you think you can make one 

 more hard battle against the " whole concern." I will help you, 

 as far as in me lies, to get this new trial. 



The column of extracts from your reports republished by " A 

 Friend to the Navy" requires no further notice from me. The 

 sections quoted have all been examined in my preceding letters, 

 and the public will judge between us. 



A " Citizen" does not think that the vessels of the " squadron 

 should have been sent out long since, fit or unfit ;" but he does 

 think they should, and, with good faith in the department, he is 

 quite sure they might, have been long since despatched to sea, 

 completely equipped ! 



I cannot forbear to notice a paragraph at the close of " A Friend 

 to the Navy's" first article. It reads thus : " Now, although it is 

 very pleasant weather here in June and July, it is quite the reverse 

 at Cape Horn ; it is winter there, and the oflScers of the navy 

 would prefer a different season for doubling the cape, if a ' Citizen' 

 will permit them." 



This Addisonian sentence was doubtless intended as a pungent 

 or witty retort, I do not know which, to my remark that, had you 

 done your duty, the expedition, to say the least, would " now be 

 doubling the cape, and every one engaged in the enterprise full of 

 hopes of having immediate opportunities of fulfilling their country's 

 expectations." Truly, you pay a high compliment to the nautical 

 skill and disregard of personal exposure which I had hitherto 

 supposed a characteristic of-the ojfficers of the navy, and which, I 

 presume, is characteristic of them, unless they have lost all such 

 qualities since you have been the ofiicial head of the service. 

 You will learn, on inquiry, that the bugbear of doubling Cape 

 Horn has passed away in the minds of all whose reading has come 

 down to a later date than the days of Magellan, Anson, Davies, 

 Schoten, and Le Maire, and that this passage is fearlessly encoun- 

 tered by our whale fleet, on their outward and homeward passages, 



