PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH VOLUME

Summary

The period of which this volume treats, and the events which it records, though less brilliant and interesting than those that occupied our preceding volumes, are yet calculated to afford much rational entertainment. The long and splendid series of victories and achievements which the late war has added to the Naval Annals of England, must ever be matter of generous exultation to many of our readers, and a subject on which all of them will dwell with an enthusiastic delight. But the solid and permanent advantages resulting from those victories, have hitherto been lost in the blaze of glory, by which they have been surrounded, and which, while the war continued, was every month rendered more dazzling by new triumphs. The re-establishment of Peace will enable the nation justly to appreciate, by actually feeling, the lasting benefits which have been derived from the invincible bravery of our seamen. These benefits will be felt in the increased respect entertained for the English character by foreign nations; in the additional facilities which our commercial intercourse with them will thereby derive; and in the strengthened confidence with which our merchants may augment the external trade of the empire, and carry it on in perfect security, from any the slightest aggressions of rival States. Such are the advantages accruing from our Naval Victories, which will be the most immediately and universally felt.