ain, and to Duncan's British Trident, or Register of Naval Actions, a brief and general summary may suffice to shew that the vial of the wrath of God continued to be poured out upon the sea; till far more than ever, at any time in the history of the world, it might well be said, in the same manner as previously, but only partially, illustrated under the second trumpet, that the sea became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea.

Number of ships captured, destroyed, wrecked, foundered, or burnt, from the year 1793 to 1801, inclusive.

In addition to these, from the commencement of the renewed war in May 1803, to its termination in July 1815, eighty-four ships of the line, and one hundred and fifty-seven frigates, besides a vast and indefinite number of inferior vessels, both of war and commerce, were, as in the former war, captured or destroyed.

The whole history of the world presents not such a scene and period of naval warfare, as that which took its rise from the French revolution, immediately after that noisome and grievous sore fell upon them that had the mark of the beast, and upon them that worshipped his image. Nor, perhaps, was any war on earth ever carried on at such an expense of treasure; the total supplies granted by the British

*

parliament, for the SEA-SERVICE, having amounted, during the period of its continuance, to three hundred and thirty-eight millions sterling. Yet, the whole naval glory of Britain is emphatically written in a verse-The sea became as the blood of a dead man. That murderous warfare on the sea was not overmatched by any on the land. The ferocity of a British tar in the hour of battle, was not surpassed by that of the most savage Turk; and might even be compared, as well as the fanatical fury of atheistic Frenchmen, "to the rabid fury of wild beasts." A vial of wrath was indeed poured upon the sea. Never had such a warfare been heard of, since the days of Genseric; and even then the trumpet sounded only over a third part of the sea. But the war-ships of Britain covered the ocean. The Mediterranean and the Baltic, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, the North and the South Sea, were all stained with the blood of the enemies of Britain; and British men-of-war were launched from harbours in America and India. The continental nations of Europe had colonies in every quarter of the globe, and thither the ravages of war were carried. Wherever the ships or the fleet of an enemy were to be found, "a close and decisive battle"† was the order of warfare that Britain maintained on the ocean, which she held as her dominion, and from

* See Tables for each year, in James' Naval History.

† James' Naval History, vol. iii. p. 527. Lord Nelson's plan of attack,-"The business of an English commander-in-chief," says his Lordship, "being to bring an enemy's fleet to battle on the most advantageous terms to himself,-I mean, that of laying his ships close on board those of the enemy as expeditiously as possible; and secondly, to continue them there without separating, until the business is decided. I am sensible, beyond this object it is not necessary that I should say a word, being fully assured that the admirals and captains of the fleet I have the honour to command, will, knowing my precise object, that of a close and decisive battle, supply any deficiency in my not making signals," &c.

which she finally swept, for a time, all the navies of the world. In achieving this conquest, and sustaining the empire of the sea, the blood of thousands, and of tens of thousands, was poured out like water, and their bleeding bodies cast into the deep. The tonnage, the rate, the calibre, the shot, the expenditure, may be reckoned; but who can tell the amount of the blood that was shed? The floor of a slaughter-house, and even the shambles, are not unsightly objects, compared to the deck and cock-. pit of a ship of war in the midst of battle, though the victims were human. The breasts of men were close before the muzzles of cannons, ranged in triple decks, and side by side. And what havock is involved in the one word boarding! Never on earth -the sites of guillotines excepted-were there such circumscribed spots so deeply defiled with human gore, or where it was poured so fast, or fell so thickly, as on the decks of the floating masses that were formed and fitted for destruction, the narrow death-fields of the sea, than which even Roman gladiators, though condemned malefactors, had more room for the work of slaughter. There the gunshot wounds, the cutlass slashes, the trunks from which limbs had been shot away, gushed freely. And even if we turn disgustingly from the sight of the manner in which the sea was dyed with blood, it would be enough to test the quality of such bloodbought glory, could but the eyes be unveiled of the magic of a name, to look on the scene when the battle was over, the spot on which a portion of that vial of wrath was poured out. Every reader has heard of the Bay of Aboukir, which may here supply a mournful illustration. In the battle of the Nile, "the British loss in killed and wounded amounted to eight hundred and ninety-five. Three thousand one hundred and five of the French, including the wounded, were sent ashore by cartel;

and five thousand two hundred and twenty-five perished. Long after the battle, innumerable bodies were seen floating about the bay, in spite of all the exertions which were made to sink them, as well from fear of pestilence, as from loathing and horror which the sight occasioned."* "Of thirteen sail of the line, nine were taken, and two burnt; of the four frigates, one burnt, another sunk."-How small a proportion, even after such a scene, of the hundred and eighty-nine sail of the line, and the three hundred and forty-eight frigates, besides an innumerable multitude of smaller vessels, which were taken and destroyed in the course of the war. The vial was poured upon the sea, and it became as the blood of the dead.

And every living thing died in the sea. Numerous and vast as were the national engines of naval warfare, and terrible as was the destruction which they wrought, other agents were called in to enter in the strife and to do the work of seizure and of slaughter, besides the navies of Britain and France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and Denmark. A system of privateering was established. A naval war became the trade of individuals as well as of nations. Letters of marque were issued; and the merchant could sit calmly at his desk, and under the sanction of human laws, fit out a privateer. The quarrel of nations was converted into the privilege of private plunder, or of sharing in the spoil. From being the high-way of the commerce of the world, which God had left open from shore to shore, the sea, whether for large fleets of ships of the line, or for the single two-gun privateer, became a field for the 'chace,' or the scene of battle, where warriors decided the controversy of kingdoms, and the licensed pirate went

* Southey's Life of Nelson, vol. i. pages 337, 338.

forth to capture or to slay: and hence, after the first few years of the war, the number of the smaller vessels that were taken or destroyed, cannot, from their multiplicity, be accurately ascertained. The ocean was never so polluted with blood. And interdicts and edicts, affecting commerce, or whatever pertained to the sea, were passed, such as had never before been heard of in the world; and such as, either on the earth or on the sea, there never was a power to enforce till then. On principles of reciprocal ruin, added to those of vengeance and plunder, the famous Berlin and Milan decrees, in the north and in the south of Europe, which shut all its harbours against Britain, were answered by Orders in Council; and the retaliation was seconded and enforced by more than a hundred thousand British seamen. France, during the war, lost every one of its colonies. But Europe was armed against Britain, or in alliance with her foe. And not a ship of Continental Europe could ride in safety on any part of the sea; an embargo was virtually laid along every coast and on every port, from the straits of the Dardanelles to the Gulf of Bothnia. as if the open sea had been the bare desert, which the wild beasts claim as their own and where not a living man could encroach without danger or death on their domain, the British lion trode unchallenged over it, and many a jackal watched for the prey. As pertaining to all the dominions in league with France, or in subjection to its power, it might well be said, as of no time beside, when the vial was fully poured out, every living thing died in the sea.

And

They that are of God, said he who came from God, hear God's words; and the cause why men do not hear them is, that they are not of God. The cares of this world, said he also who knew what was in man, the deceitfulness of riches, the pleasures of this life, and the care of other things, choke the