ldiers a sum of money and keeping them ready to serve.
Dr. Murray's 'New English Dictionary,' now in course of publication,
gives instances of the confusion between imprest and impress. A
consequence of this confusion has been that many thousands of
seamen who had received an advance of money have been regarded
as carried off to the navy by force. If to this misunderstanding
we add the effect on the popular mind of cleverly written stories
in which the press-gang figured prominently, we can easily see
how the belief in an almost universal adoption of compulsory
recruiting for the navy became general. It should, therefore, be
no matter of surprise when we find that the sensational reports
published in the English newspapers in 1803 were accepted without
question.

Impressment of seamen for the navy has been called 'lawless,' and
sometimes it has been asserted that it was directly contrary to law.
There is, however, no doubt that it was perfectly legal, though its
legality was not based upon any direct statutory authority. Indirect
confirmations of it by statute are numerous. These appear in the
form of exemptions. The law of the land relating to this subject
was that all 'sea-faring' men were liable to impressment unless
specially protected by custom or statute. A consideration of the
long list of exemptions tends to make one believe that in reality
very few people were liable to be impressed. Some were 'protected'
by local custom, some by statute, and some by administrative
order. The number of the last must have been very great. The
'Protection Books' preserved in the Public Record Office form no
inconsiderable section of the Admiralty records. For the period
specially under notice, viz. that beginning with the year 1803,
there are no less than five volumes of 'protections.' Exemptions
by custom probably originated at a very remote date: ferrymen,
for example, being everywhere privileged from impressment. The
crews of colliers seem to have enjoyed the privilege by custom
before it was confirmed by Act of Parliament. The naval historian,
Burchett, writing of 1691, cites a 'Proclamation forbidding pressing
men from colliers.'

Every ship in the coal trade had the following persons protected,
viz. two A.B.'s for every ship of 100 tons, and one for every 50
tons in larger ships. When we come to consider the sensational
statements in _The_Naval_Chronicle_ of 1803, it will be well to
remember what the penalty for infring