$6 TRAVELS IN U?PE» 



CHAP. IV. 



Maritime honours — English travellers — Palermo and 



its environs. 



It was an affair of no slight importance to settle 

 the manner in which ships of war were to give 

 and receive salutes in the ports of foreign nations. 

 Every commander had particular instructions on 

 the subject ; and if it was recommended to them 

 to support the glory of their flag in battle, it was 

 no less expressly prescribed not to let it down in 

 the form of the honours which they paid, or had a 

 right to demand. This idle ceremonial frequently 

 became the source of serious disputes, and dis- 

 turbed the tranquillity of nations. Punctilious 

 officers gravely employed themselves in a minute 

 detail of this weighty business. Some of this de- 

 scription have been known at Smyrna, the most 

 frequented port of the Levant for European vessels, 

 to claim and appropriaie to themselves, exclusively, 

 the discharge of cannon, by which merchant-ships 

 are accustomed to express their respect for men of 

 war, of whatever kind, on entering a harbour, and 

 to hasten the return of the salute, even before it 

 was finished, for fear that the ships of other powers § 

 should anticipate it as their due. As if the glory 

 of arms could consist in such frivolous emulation, 

 4 the 



