reason why so simple a rule should not be established
imperatively upon every captain without exception.

It is important, in discussing the subject of naval discipline, to
recollect under what peculiar and trying circumstances the captain of
a man-of-war is placed, and how much he stands in need not only of
every assistance that can possibly be afforded to guide his judgment,
but of every artificial check that can be devised to control his
temper. As he is charged with the sole executive government of the
community over which he presides, he is called upon to exercise many
of the legislative, as well as the judicial functions of his little
kingdom. Having made laws in the first instance, he has to act the
part of a judge in the interpretation of those laws; while, in the
very next instant, he may stand in the place of a jury to determine
the facts of the case, and of a counsel to cross-question the
witnesses. To this strange jumble of offices is finally added the
fearful task of allotting the punishment, and seeing it carried into
effect! If ever there was a situation in the world, therefore,
requiring all the aids of deliberation, and especially of that
sobriety of thought which a night's rest can alone bestow, it is
surely in the case of a captain of a man-of-war. And if this rule has
been found a good one, even by prudent and experienced officers, who,
it appears, never trust themselves to punish a man without twenty-four
hours' delay at least, how much more important might not such a
regulation prove, if less discreet persons were compelled to adopt
invariably a similar course of deliberation? Nor does it appear
probable that, in the whole complicated range of the service, cases
will often occur when its true interests may not be better answered by
punishments inflicted after such delay, than if the reality or the
semblance of passion, or even the slightest suspicion of anger, were
allowed to interfere with the purity of naval justice. It is so
difficult, indeed, to detach the appearance of vindictive warmth from
punishments which are made to follow quickly after the offence, that
in all such cases there is great danger incurred of inflicting much
pain to little or no purpose.

In the first place, therefore, I consider it might be very
advantageously established, by a positive order from the Admiralty,
that one whole day, or twenty-four hours complete, should, in every
instance, be allowed to elapse between the i