,
they get through their work with fewer hands; that the activity on board
is followed up and supported by an equal activity on the part of the
agents and factors on shore--and you have the true cause why America can
afford to pay and secure for herself all our best seamen.

One thing is evident, that it is a mere question of pounds, shillings,
and pence, between us and America, and that the same men who are now in
the American service would, if our wages were higher than those offered
by America, immediately return to us and leave her destitute.

That it would be worth the while of this country, in case of a war with
the United States, to offer 4 pounds a-head to able seamen, is most
certain. It would swell the naval estimates, but it would shorten the
duration of the war, and in the end would probably be the saving of many
millions. But the question is, cannot and ought not something to be
done, now in time of peace, to relieve our mercantile shipping interest,
and hold out a bounty for a return to those true principles of naval
architecture, the deviation from which has proved to be attended with
such serious consequences.

Fast-sailing vessels will always be able to pay higher wages than
others, as what they lose in increase of daily expense, they will gain
by the short time in which the voyage is accomplished; but it is by
encouragement alone that we can expect that the change will take place.
Surely some of the onerous duties imposed by the Trinity House might be
removed, not from the present class of vessels, but from those built
hereafter with first-rate sailing properties. These, however, are
points which call for a much fuller investigation than I can here afford
them; but they are of vital importance to our maritime superiority, and
as such should be immediately considered by the government of Great
Britain.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

REMARKS--SLAVERY.

It had always appeared to me as singular that the Americans, at the time
of their Declaration of Independence, took no measures for the gradual,
if not immediate, extinction of slavery; that at the very time they were
offering up thanks for having successfully struggled for their own
emancipation from what they considered foreign bondage, their gratitude
for their liberation did not induce them to break the chains of those
whom they themselves held in captivity. It is useless for them to
exclaim, as they now do, that it was England who l