The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-23 00:00:00

We had always," said the Noble Lord, " a great num
her of merchant ships bringing over the riches of other
countries here, and all those ships with their cargoes would
be at the mercy of those who had possession of the seas.
If the ports were blockaded there could be no imports ;
and by a paper laid on the table of that House a few days
ago, relating to the duties paid on goods brought in by
navigation in 1838, it appeared, that the amount of duty
on import goods was very near 23,000,000/. a-lear. The
blockade for one month, therefore, would deprive the re-
venue of nearly 2,000,0001. That was not all—the export
of British manufactures amounted to about 45,000,0001.
a-year, which was about 3,600,000/. a month, and the
manufacturers would have that amount in goods thrown
upon their hands by a blockade of one month."
But the Noble Lord's statement, though it was
minute and touched many tender places, did not go
to the root of the evil. Naval Captains, however
humane and considerate, have been bred up too
long under the system, and they so firmly believe
that the victories which have been achieved in con-
junction with it and in spite of it, have been achieved
by it, that they never will radically and effectually
reform it. Injustice—glaring, outrageous, mon,
strous injustice—is the root of the evil,' and the
difficulty of getting seamen, the superabundance of
officers, the sons of the nobility pensioned on the
Navy, the neglect of old and deserving, but unfriended
officers, breaking their spirit and makine, them pine
and decay, the placing a landsman at the bead of the
Admiralty, are all but the off-sets of the system of
injustice acted on towards the seamen. That fur-
nishes a pretext for increasing the number of
officers to keep impressed men in order—that
makes the officers rely for the government of their
men on terror only—deprives them of those habits
of civil wisdom which would fit them to perform
civil duties as well as manage ships, and, by
making the generality of them mere fighters or
military martinets, places in most cases a civilian
at the head of the Admiralty. But this monstrous
system of injustice—so fraught as every one knows
with evils, of which we shall immediately give
one striking example—found advocates and de-
fenders last night amongst the saintly Peers. No.
doubt, too, there were Bishops in that House—the
Christian salt of corrupt human nature—who lis-
tened, without reproving to Lord RIPoN, defending
man-stealing, aye, and the stealing of brethren, not
black savages, and robbing them of their wages and
exposing them to pestilence, battle, and sudden
death. Impressment is a greater crime than steal-
ing Negroes, and Peers who have eternally profes-
sions of religion in their mouths, and Bishops who
claim power and honour for teaching men virtue,
sanction and practice this horrible atrocity. Here
is a proof of its immense injury to society.
The Times has published an extract from a forth-
coming work of Capt. MARRYATT on the
United States, in which he says TIIE
AMERICANS EMPLOY AT LEAST 30,000
OF OUR SEAMEN IN THEIR SERVICE." He
shows that the American mercantile marine
has many advantages over ours ; and as our
mercantile Marine has many advantages over our
ships of war, particularly now, when they are only
half-manned, and have plenty of work, our native
and best seamen prefer American ships to English
merchant ships, and keep away from English men-
of-war, as they would from a lazar-house or
a prison. They go thither when they cannot
possibly help themselves, or when they are
carried. Now, there is one peculiarity in the
life and condition of a seaman, which seems always
to have been overlooked by those who have had the
administration of our naval affairs. He can quit his
country with great facility. In fact, he is carried
away from it at the charge of the shipowner and
merchant, and if he find suitable employment and
better treatment in another country than in his own,
he can remain abroad. To those who have inquired
into this subject it is known that, prior to the
American war, our seamen were • accustomed on
the breaking. out of war and the beginning of im-
pressment, to take refuge in Holland. Since the
United States became independent they have
found a more agreeable and a safer asylum in that
free country. There their own language is spoken ;
there their own manners and customs prevail ;
there their own countrymen and relations are
established, and thither our ill-treated (by land-
lubbers), persecuted, impressed, and flogged
seaintes find a home and a refuge : and while
our Navy can scarcely get a man, thirty thousand
of our best seamen are serving in the American
merchant ships, and will, in case of war, serve in
her Navy. So it was during the war, and England
was then put to all the enormous expense, and she
suffered all the disgrace, of her last shameful con-
test with the United States, because she would
vilely and cruelly impress her own seamen, and would
not resign her barbarous claim of forcing them from
American ships into her own justly hated service. In
this short history, in these facts, that 30,000 of
our seamen are now to be found in American ships,
and that their former proper desertion from their
country led to the American war, we may behold
the march and the results of injustice. But the
Peers, lay and ecclesiastical, approve of this abomi-
nable system of slavery—for it still exists at sea, and
impressment still hovers over our Seamen—though it
inflicts such deep wounds on the national prosperity
and national honour.
This deep sons was no otherwise touched by the
Lords than for them to express a hope that it might
not be healed ; but as long as it continues, the Navy of
England will be rotten to the core. The Earl of
MINTO was able, by a comparison with Tory Ad ministra•
tions, to defend his own ; but this is not what the people
of England demand of a Whig and a Reforming Adminis-
tration. What merit can it he in them that they are not
quite as bad as the despised and condemned Tories ? The
Navy now, according to Lord MINTo, is in a better
state than it was in 1828. Why could he not say it