I recollect a very fine young seaman whom we took out of an American ship at Messina in Sicily, when I was a lieutenant of the Melpomene frigate. On being brought on board he produced his United States’ protection, and requested to be sent back to his ship. He wrote to the American consul to claim him, and the master of his ship came on board to demand him as an American citizen. Having strong suspicion that he was an English subject,—notwithstanding the clamour raised by the Yankee master and consul, and the production of his protection; yet, from his not having any nasal twang when he spoke, and not using the general slang words of that country, such as “I guess,” “I calculate,” etc.,—we kept him on board that night. The next morning he came on the quarter-deck of the frigate, and gave up his American protection and said, “I will not deny my country—I am a native of Swansea, in Wales, and I got that protection when I sailed last voyage in a merchant ship from Liverpool to New York, in the following manner. On my arrival at New York I was told that by paying two dollars I could get a protection of citizenship, which would prevent my being pressed on board an English man-of-war. The way it was managed was this:—I was put into a large cradle made on purpose to hold men; I was then rocked by them for a minute or two, and afterwards taken before the proper authorities by the old couple, who made oath they had known me ever since I was in my cradle—no further questions were asked, the matter being quite understood between the parties,—I paid the fees, the protection was granted, and, having given the old folks two dollars for their trouble, I became a ‘registered American citizen,’ and that, sir,” he said, “is the way British seamen are kidnapped in the States—in short, it is a regular trade, and hundreds of seamen that have protections got them in the same manner.”
A knowledge of the various tricks played on the other side of the Atlantic to entice away our seamen, made the officers of the British navy more anxious to recover their sailors, which of course at times caused some irritating disputes with the masters and skippers of the American vessels. These magnified every trifle, and reported all the circumstances to people who were paid by that part of the press in the French interest to make the worst of everything, in order to inflame the public mind against this country, particularly after the affair of the Leopard (50), taking our deserters out of the American frigate Chesapeake (48), and the unfortunate event of H.M.S. Leander, when a man was killed by accident by her firing to bring-to a vessel under the United States’ flag off New York for the purpose of examining her.
The Americans acted with great wisdom and foresight previous to their declaration of war, by putting on the embargo and passing the “Non-intercourse Bill” with England two years before. By that wise act they were enabled to get home their trade from all parts of the world, and having done this, they insulted our flag by sending a 58-gun ship, commanded by Commodore Rogers, to fire into the Little Belt corvette of 18-guns, commanded by Captain Bingham, cruising near their coast, and killing several of her men and wounding others. This affair had two meanings. First to revenge the death of their citizens slain in the Chesapeake frigate, and on board the merchant ship off New York; and secondly to induce us to declare war against them, to make it more popular with the generality of the people of the States, that the Government might be able to throw the blame upon England. Britain having her hands full in other places, fighting for the liberties of the world, making at the same time a desperate struggle for her own existence, and most nobly striving to liberate other powers from the grasp of Bonaparte, was not willing at this most critical period to have another foe; she therefore tried something in protocol fashion of the present day, but it failed as all half-measures generally do.
America laughed at it, and commenced biting our heels, while John Bull was tossing the dogs in front. They had the wisdom to perceive the great error England had committed in not seeing that war was inevitable, and that she ought to have declared it two or three years before, and not have allowed her to get the whole of her vessels safe into port. Our politeness and good breeding enabled them to secure all or most of their shipping, in order to enable them to man their ships of war and privateers with picked sailors. Their seamen being thrown out of employ, were glad to enter on board their men-of-war and privateers for the almost certain chance of a rich harvest, by capturing our East and West Indiamen.
This was the great mistake England committed; for had we gone to war at an earlier period when the seas were covered with American merchant ships, they would have been swept into our harbours, and she would have been completely at our mercy, and twelve months at that time would have settled our disputes far more amicably than the unsatisfactory method adopted in the year 1815.
Natural affection, intimate connections with this country, a common language, and a wish to incline to a reasonable adjustment of claims, would probably have settled our quarrel, and not have left the boundary line as a further bone of contention. But we were unfortunately so delighted with the success of our allies and our own gallant army, by the capture of Paris, and other deeds in Europe, added to the abdication of Napoleon, that American matters were left nearly in the same state as before the war, although we had the means at that period to have settled everything in a most satisfactory manner. The country was like,—or might be compared to,—soldiers and sailors who had received so much pay and prize-money that they got drunk. Great Britain was intoxicated with the honour and renown which their countrymen in the army and navy had gained for them, and never thought of the morrow. Indeed, up to the present time, 1839, they have been living upon the principal of credit, for we have put, I fear, very little by or out to interest which was then gained, and which has been most woefully frittered away ever since, until the country has at last almost run bankrupt: for we are spit upon in Spain, treated with contempt in Portugal, despised in France, laughed at in Russia, kicked in Canada, and in a fine olla podrida in India and China.
FINIS.
Note.—Vice-Admiral William Stanhope Lovell, R.N., K.H., was born September 15th, 1788. Married, 2nd January, 1822, Selina, youngest daughter of Sir Henry Crewe, Bart., of Calke Abbey, Derby, and by her, who died on the 30th March, 1838, had issue one son and three daughters, who survive him. Vice-Admiral Lovell died in 1859, “sans peur et sans reproche.” Was buried at Bexley, Kent.