racing
the service by making it the avowed punishment of crime, and corrupting
it by their example, nothing can appear more natural than that mutiny
should at length display itself in a darker character, and proceed in
some unhappy instances to murder and treason.

Sir Edward Pellew deeply lamented the submission of the Government. He
was satisfied that a proper firmness would have quelled the present, and
prevented the future evil; and he was strengthened in his opinion by the
circumstances of the mutiny on board one of the ships at Spithead, in
which one of his own officers was a principal actor. Captain Williams,
of the marines, formerly lieutenant in the _Arethusa_, applied to his
captain for authority to act, assuring him of the good disposition of
his own men, and pledging himself by their means to save the ship. But
his captain, though one of the bravest and best men in the service,
shrank from committing the marines to a possible conflict with the
sailors, and recommended a little delay. In a few minutes the marine
officer returned: it was not yet too late, but not another moment could
be spared. The humane feelings of the commander impelled him still to
temporize, and when the marine officer returned, it was to say that his
men must now save themselves, and the ship was lost. The more desperate
mutiny at the Nore was not quelled by submission.

Afterwards, when mutinies were continually occurring among the ships at
Plymouth. Sir Edward proposed a very decisive measure to stop the
mischief. He recommended that a ship, manned with officers, and with
volunteers who could be fully trusted, should attack the next that
mutinied, and, if necessary, sink her in the face of the fleet. The
officer who takes the first step in any measure must feel himself
committed decisively to all possible consequences; but the mere display
of such a resolution, with the knowledge that an officer of unflinching
determination commanded the attacking ship, would most probably spare
the necessity of firing a shot. Lives are commonly sacrificed only when
a mistaken humanity shrinks from duty till the proper time for action
has gone by. The disposition of the crews was not generally bad, but
they were misled by example, and encouraged by impunity. When the
_Greyhound_ mutinied, and Captain Israel Pellew demanded if he had ever
given them cause for dissatisfaction, if he had not always been their
friend, they admitted that they had nothing t