Alexandria daily gazette, commercial & political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1808-1812, 1809-11-23
aleranurta patlp 6a;ette.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER %.

st..ing the re-capture of the ship Commerce
IS this port, from the French, and for which
salvage was paid--we make the following
statement of facts relative to the capture and
,.eapture of that ship, and at the same time
70 do j.ssssce to the generous conduct of
lord CoLLINGwooD, and the captain of the
3r.cate Fredericksradt.
In the month of July, last past, the ship
Commerce, capt. Burnham, was captured III
the Mediterranean by French privateer,
who took out the mate and crew, and put on
hoard prize master and sailors to carry
her into French or Italian port. The
prize master not being well acquainted With
navigation, found it necessary to consult
cart. Burnham, who contrived to steer for
Touion, where he knew an English squadron
MAS stationed and he managed so well,
that at break he found himself surround
ed by the British Fleet, and was retaken and
nut in possession of his vessel. He was
treated with the greatest kindness and at
,sn,ion bv the. British, admiral, who gene
rouslv gave up the ship without taxing or
claiming any salUGge, and also lent him sea-
men from his ship tonavigate the Commerce
to Mahon, on his pledging his honor to re-
,urn the men to any British ship of war he
might find in that port.
On his arrival at Mahon he found there
he British frigate Frederickstadt, to whom
he delivered the men. The above frigate
being bound to Malta with convoy, the
captain furnished him with other seamen
from his ship, (without any remnneratior)
and took him under his protection to NAL
ia, where he arrived in safety.
Freedom Of the sea,-A genera! and COM
pleie freedom Of the sea is ideal rather than
rsal; thing that would be just and desira-
BE, rather than actually attainable in the
present selfish and deprayed condition of
human nature. AS we observed before,
when commercial nations have no consider
! able armed fleets, the dominion Of the sea
is usurped by pirates. On the other hand,
] whenever any one nation to obtainan ascen-
dancy of power upon the ocean, such nation
has never failed to exercise kind of
sovereignty there, by claiming unequal pri-
vleges and withholding from others part
Of their just rights.
+ There is no kind of dominion that tends
so much to render a nation insolent and O.
verbearing, as the dominion of the sea; for
the nation that has this, can, by it's armed
vessels, carry death and destruction every
where it can suddenly extend its DESTROY
ing arm to the distance of thousands Of
miles from home; it can give blows, which
the sufferer, how powerful sosver upon the
land, is unable TO return.
saAlmost every maritime nation oil EHrope
has, in its turn, contended for the sovereign
tyo the sea; we say for the sovereignty
Of the sea, because, howsoeyer some of
them might have pretended at the begin
nlng OF the contest that they were fighting
Tor the freedom of the sea, they no sooner
had obtained the asccndancy OF power than
,hsy claimed to themselves unequal privi-
'Ses, and might overcame right.-Ihe
soversignty ofthe sea has passed from ma
non to nation. OF old, the Tyrians, the
Sarthagenians, the Grecians, Sicilians, and
ne Romans, had it each in their turn. In
modern ages II has shifted among the ma
ncms nations of Europe, from one to ano-
her, till for some considerable time past
Tc at present, it has been and is possessed
%,he English more fully and extensively
MAJ man perhaps by any natioa ever before
Wherever almost there is a navigable sea,
Il @fre their armed ships are found. They
.an annoy and hauass the sea coasts of all
We Tour quarters of the globe, and at the
'me time be secure at home. This is e.
lOOgh, as human nature is, to render them
a4uSh,y and insolent. They are SO and