Land. Cab. O, C of the BRITISH ADMIRALS, WITH AN Introductory view OF THE NAVAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORMF, BROWN, GREEN & MAN, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1833. PREFACE. In this Naval History of England, no more of our general history is included than was necessary for forming a connected narrative, and for tracing the causes and consequences of those events which are the proper subject of the work. After the accession of Elizabeth, it may best be continued in a biographical form; because there are then materials for such biography, whereby we are enabled to understand how much depended upon the character of individual commanders. It was not, indeed, till her reign that the military and naval services began. to be considered as distinct. The evils which maritime enemies have inflicted upon this country, and which we in return have inflicted upon others, may seem an unpromising and ungrateful subject. Yet such a history will not be without interest, while men retain their admiration for the great, their sympathy for the brave, and the love of their native land. Entertainment, therefore, it may be expected to afford; and the information which it may convey must be in proportion to the research that has been employed in collecting it; and a higher end will be attained, if the reader should feel that the sense of right and wrong, and the ways of Providence, have been borne in mind religiously throughout. KESWICK, Feb. 11. 1833. |