ge, but for the
confidence which their presence necessarily excites in their followers,
and the terrour which must always accompany success, and enervate those
who are accustomed to defeats; that our sailors are a race of men
distinguished by their ardour for war, and their intrepidity in danger,
from the rest of the human species; that they seem beings superiour to
fear, and delighted with those objects which cannot be named without
filling every other breast with horrour; that they are capable of
rushing upon apparent destruction without reluctance, and of standing
without concern amidst the complicated terrours of a naval war, is
universally known, and confessed, my lords, even by those whose interest
it is to doubt or deny it.

Upon the ocean, therefore, we are allowed to be irresistible; to be able
to shut up the ports of the continent, imprison the nations of Europe
within the limits of their own territories, deprive them of all foreign
assistance, and put a stop to the commerce of the world. It is allowed
that we are placed the sentinels at the barriers of nature, and the
arbiters of the intercourse of mankind.

These are appellations, my lords, which, however splendid and
ostentatious, our ancestors obtained and preserved with less advantages
than we possess, by whom I am afraid they are about to be forfeited. The
dominion of the ocean was asserted in former times in opposition to
powers far more able to contest it, than those which we have so long
submissively courted, and of which we are now evidently afraid.

For that we fear them, my lords, they are sufficiently convinced; and it
must be confessed, with whatsoever shame, that their opinion is well
founded; for to what motive but fear can it be imputed, that we have so
long supported their insolence without resentment, and their ravages
without reprisals; that we have fitted out fleets without any design of
dismissing them from our harbours, or sent them to the sea only to be
gazed at from the shores, by those whose menaces or artifice had given
occasion to their equipment, and in whom they raised no other emotions
than contempt of our cowardice, or pity of our folly?

To what, my lords, can it be attributed, that the queen of Hungary has
yet received no assistance from allies thus powerful; from allies whose
fleets cover the sea, whose commerce extends to the remotest part of the
world, and whose wealth may be justly expected to be proportionate to
their