much contemned.

It was when the news reached England that the _Java_ had been destroyed
by the _Constitution_ that indignation found a climax in the outcry of
the _Pilot_, a foremost naval authority:

The public will learn, with sentiments which we shall not presume
to anticipate, that a third British frigate has struck to an
American. This is an occurrence that calls for serious
reflection,--this, and the fact stated in our paper of yesterday,
that Lloyd's list contains notices of upwards of five hundred
British vessels captured in seven months by the Americans. Five
hundred merchantmen and three frigates! Can these statements be
true; and can the English people hear them unmoved? Any one who
would have predicted such a result of an American war this time
last year would have been treated as a madman or a traitor. He
would have been told, if his opponents had condescended to argue
with him, that long ere seven months had elapsed the American flag
would have been swept from the seas, the contemptible navy of the
United States annihilated, and their maritime arsenals rendered a
heap of ruins. Yet down to this moment not a single American
frigate has struck her flag. They insult and laugh at our want of
enterprise and vigor. They leave their ports when they please and
return to them when it suits their convenience; they traverse the
Atlantic; they beset the West India Islands; they advance to the
very chops of the Channel; they parade along the coasts of South
America; nothing chases, nothing intercepts, nothing engages them
but to yield them triumph.

It was to be taken for granted that England would do something more than
scold about the audacity of the American navy. Even after the
declaration of war her most influential men hoped that the repeal of the
obnoxious Orders-in-Council might yet avert a solution of the American
problem by means of the sword. There was hesitation to apply the utmost
military and naval pressure, and New England was regarded with feelings
almost friendly because of its opposition to an offensive warfare
against Great Britain and an invasion of Canada.

Absorbed in the greater issue against Napoleon, England was nevertheless
aroused to more vigorous action against the United States and devised
strong blockading measures for the spring of 1813. Unable to operate
against the ene