Show OP OF THU SEA theoretically the me of the volunteer sea or pr privateer IS at least as honorable as that ot of the land volunteer and equally deserving of pir praise piralee alse and encouragement coura gement rt it is i s true says the british naval and military magazine that tile the land volunteer like the flie regular soldier would fight for fahne alone whereas the privateer private ew fights for fame and filthy lucre but there the advantage van tage of the landsman ends theoretically CallY in ume time of peace the volunteer at very little cost to de votes 9 a modicum of at his time to being tr trainee Alfted i as a aw baldier sAl dier aadil aad in the went vent of CC woe war he h would draw W hia R bof and no doubt merit aad va re wardy wurdy md destinations ditth gamm inart hia ahr br brott tw off of 42 aar atrit eft wt glorious spectacle theoretically of the patriotic patriot lc citizen who at his own proper charges and without hope of official recognition equips and mans a vessel and with the sanction of his sovereign inflicts as much injury on the enemies of his country as ae in him lies heis by cutting up their commerce and in some instances by capturing their ships of war true he often realizes a a considerable sum by the scale of his prizes but a portion of this at any rate must go toward recouping him for the initial expenses off at the venture and also toward maintaining the ship and the ships company in a state of efficiency the amount of damage which can by this means be inflicted on a naton which depends largely dargoy on its imports for its very existence is enormous for instance in m the long wars with france during the latter part of the eighteenth and the commencement of the nineteenth centuries the french appear to have realized that in spite of tm the preponderance of our power at sea our navy was quite inadequate for the pro of our commerce in the ebay days of the war the number of english merchant vessels captured by french privateers privateer 9 or corsairs cor as they were called was very great indeed and the total for the entire period of 0 hostilities amounted to no fe fewer than of which were taken during days when the loss of ships cargo aAdi money signified by these figures 16 lwft into consideration it will be seen that the fhe damage inflicted on our nation att it this way was well night in calculate and it ft Is not surprising that our golej ment should have made efforts toward the suppression of these destructive agencies one thousand and sixteen french privateers were aft c aured by her maje otys ships during that period twelve by our own 4 va two by shore boats and oliby two In diamen A com comparison paxison ot of thew these figures figure s with the number of our mer chantlen chant men captured by the enemy shows that the activity of the french in two this direction must have been very great tn in indeed in fact not only the channels ut the high seas literally swarmed with their corsairs cor in practice privateer ing has proved an intolerable evil inso I 1 much that the provi provision slon of the declaration of at paris 1856 which lays laya down that private ering Is abolished has now beatt acceded to by all civilized nations boft the exception of the united drw satt spain and mexico |