the English then resident in France, that served to
excite additional distrust. Whatever may be said of the comprehensiveness
and vastness of the genius of Napoleon, as a soldier and statesman, I
presume few upright and enlightened men can now be found to eulogize his
respect for public law. At any rate, I began to have lively misgivings on
the subject; and the consultation between my mate and myself terminated in
our coming to a resolution to serve the French prize-crew substantially as
we had served the English prize-crew, if possible; varying the mode only
to suit the new condition of things. This last precaution was necessary,
as, in the fulness of my confidence, I had made Mons. Gallois acquainted
with all the circumstances of throwing the fender overboard, and the
manner in which we had got possession of the ship. It was not to be
expected, therefore, that particular artifice could be made to
succeed with him.

It must have been the result of prejudice, and of constant reading of
articles extracted from the English journals, that influenced me; but I
confess it seemed a much easier matter to re-take my ship from seventeen
Frenchmen, than from twelve Englishmen. I was not so besotted as to
suppose surprise, or artifice, would not be necessary in either case; but,
had the issue been made up on brute force, I should have begun the fray
with greater confidence in the first than in the last case. All this would
have been very wrong in our particular situation, though, as a rule and as
applied to sea-faring men, it might be more questionable. How often, and
how much, have I seen reason to regret the influence that is thus
silently obtained amongst us, by our consenting to become the retailers of
other people's prejudices! One of the reasons why we have so long been
mere serviles on this point, is owing to the incompleteness of the
establishments of the different leading presses of the country. We
multiply, instead of enlarging these enterprises. The want of
concentration of talent compels those who manage them to resort to the
scissors instead of the pen; and it is almost as necessary for an American
editor to be expert with the shears, as it is for a tailor. Thus the
public is compelled to receive hashes, instead of fresh dishes; and things
that come from a distance, notoriously possessing a charm, it gets the
original cookery of London, instead of that of their own country.

Prejudice or not, confidence is not a bad t