Ghita laughed, in spite of the fears she entertained, for it was one of
the most powerful of the agencies the sailor employed in making others
converts to his opinions, to cause them to sympathize with his
light-hearted gayety, whether it suited their natural temperaments or
not. She knew that Raoul had already been a prisoner in England two
years, where, as he often said himself, he stayed just long enough to
acquire a very respectable acquaintance with the language, if not with
the institutions, manners, and religion, when he made his escape aided
by the American called Ithuel Bolt, an impressed seaman of our own
Republic, who, fully entering into all the plans imagined by his more
enterprising friend and fellow-sufferer, had cheerfully enlisted in the
execution of his future schemes of revenge. States, like powerful
individuals in private life, usually feel themselves too strong to allow
any considerations of the direct consequences of departures from the
right to influence their policy; and a nation is apt to fancy its power
of such a character, as to despise all worldly amends, while its moral
responsibility is divided among too many to make it a matter of much
concern to its particular citizens. Nevertheless, the truth will show
that none are so low but they may become dangerous to the highest; and
even powerful communities seldom fail to meet with their punishment for
every departure from justice. It would seem, indeed, that a principle
pervades nature, which renders it impossible for man to escape the
consequences of his own evil deeds, even in this life; as if God had
decreed the universal predominance of truth and the never-failing
downfall of falsehood from the beginning; the success of wrong being
ever temporary, while the triumph of the right is eternal. To apply
these consoling considerations to the matter more immediately before us:
The practice of impressment, in its day, raised a feeling among the
seamen of other nations, as well as, in fact, among those of Great
Britain herself, that probably has had as much effect in destroying the