The pleasure and the pride shown by Englishmen of all
kinds in the Fleet is a very old as well as a very great tradition. That fierce old lawyer and in certain ways fierce Radical, Lord Chief Justice Coke, in one of his driest law books suddenly burst into an invocation to the British Navy. It sprang directly from thoughts like those which arose at Spithead last Saturday in so many hearts :- " The King's Navy exceeds all others in the world for three things, viz., beauty, strength and safety. For beauty, they are so many royall palaces; for strength (no part of, the world having such iron and timber as England hath), so many moving castles and barbicans ; and for safety, they are the most defensive walls of the realm. Amongst the ships of other nations, they are like lions amongst silly beasts, or falcons amongst fearfull fowle."
In a less magnificent vein is the reflection that follows :— " In the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1 being then acquainted with this businesse) there were 33 (ships), besides pinnaces, which so garded and regarded the navigation of the merchants, as they had safe vent for their conunodities, and trade and traffick flourished. A worthy subject for parliaments to take into consideration, and to provideremedy as often as need shall require. . . . A leak in a ship is timely to be repaired : for as it is in the naturall body of man, so- it is in the politick body of the commonwealth.".
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