extending instead of diminishing her influence; although it may be hoped that they will be not wholly without advantage, to the unfortunate countrymen of Miltiades and Epaminondas. CHAPTER IX. The British Navy. NEXT to the Russian army, the British navy is the most remarkable engine of war now existing in Europe. It is not, however, like the former, of recent origin. England was always a considerable maritime power; and, since the decline of Holland, has reigned without a rival upon the ocean. For a short period, during the American war, the union of all the maritime states of Europe with her own colonies endangered her sovereignty. But in the late long struggles, she not only recovered all her former advantages, but carried her naval greatness to a point, which it had never reached before, and very probably will never reach again. At present, however, it is not threatened with any immediate danger. The United States exhibited, in the several actions of the late war, at least an equality of naval science in all its branches; but the nature of our political institutions does not permit us to aim at conquest by land or by sea. We have as little ambition to wield the sceptre of the ocean, as willingness to submit to the enormous burdens which it brings upon its possessor. Our permanent naval establishment will never be pushed beyond a very moderate point; and in the future struggles, which may be forced upon us by the aggressions of other powers upon our commerce, as in the last, we shall always depend mainly for the actual annoyance of the enemy upon our private armed vessels; while the gallantry and skill, displayed by our public officers in single actions, will serve, as they did then, to sustain and exalt the national character. It is only in the peaceful pursuits of commerce, that we shall ever contest the superiority of England; and as there is no European power, from which it appears to be in danger, she will probably remain in undisturbed possession of her watery empire, as long as the foundations of her power remain in other respects unshaken. 'The trident of Neptune,' says a French poet of the last century, 'is the sceptre of the world.' The power conveyed by it is, however, of a very peculiar kind. A great navy is not, like a great army, immediately dangerous to the liberties of the nation to which it belongs. The only inconvenience they can suffer from it arises from the immense expense, required for its maintenance, and for the conduct of the distant expeditions, which it tempts the government that wields it to undertake. It is, in like manner, not directly dangerous to the liberty and independence of other nations; unless, indeed, as has never yet happened, it should exist in connexion with a great development of military power. In general, it makes no attempt upon the territorial security of foreigners, but, like other sea monsters, waits for its victims upon its own element. Hence a great naval power is, upon the whole, much less formidable to other nations, than a great military one, which is sure, in the end, to destroy the independence of every thing weaker within its reach. Still, within the limits which the laws of nature assign to its exercise, the former is equally liable to abuse, and has, indeed, within these limits, been abused in all ages to a still greater extent. The abuse of military power has at all times and places, where there existed any pretension to civilization, been confined to invade the national rights and public property of foreigners; while the property and person of the peaceful private citizen have been left unmolested. The abuse of naval power, on the contrary, has always partaken, in a greater or less degree, of a piratical spirit; and has uniformly been exercised upon private property employed in lawful commerce. The remnant of professed piracy has in these latter times been dignified with the title of a rule of law; and while it is reckoned uncivilized, inhuman, and against the law of nations, for an army to plunder private property on land, it is thought perfectly consistent with the same law, as well as with the dictates of humanity and the usages of civilized society, for a ship of war to plunder private property at sea. Thus, what is a crime upon one element, becomes lawful and just upon another. In the wars of barbarous nations, there is no distinction between public and private property. Every thing, even to the persons of the conquered, becomes the prey of the conqueror. But it is one of the strongest inconsistencies among the many which disfigure the public law of Europe, that the milder spirit of civilization, which has introduced this distinction in military warfare, should have left in full force at sea the iron maxims of former times. The determination of the laws and usages of war by land and sea depends, in a great measure, on the disposition and character of the dominant powers upon these respective elements, and the superior inhumanity of the maritime code is, consequently, not very honourable to England. Ever since the spirit of civilization began to mitigate the ancient horrors of war, England has enjoyed an almost undisputed ascendancy at sea. Her influence and practice have, of course, regulated the laws of naval warfare; and to her must be mainly attributed the cruelty, by which it is still disgraced. England has not only continued with unrelenting rigour, up to the present day, the practice of plundering the private property of enemies at sea, but has pushed her pretensions to a most unwarrantable and vexatious extent, in regard to the private property of individuals of other nations, wholly unconnected with the quarrel. According to the maritime, which, as I have said, is in substance the British code of public law, two governments, by going to war, acquire a sort of superintending power over the lawful commerce of every other nation on the globe. The right of plundering the private property of enemies is, according to this system, so sacred and favourable, that it may be exercised upon such property, even in the hands of third persons; and although these persons, confessedly wholly innocent of the quarrel, may suffer very much by the operation. Hence arises the pretended belligerent right of searching the ships of every peaceful nation on the globe, to ascertain whether there is any private property of the enemy on board of them. These barbarous |