THE PRESS GANG, OR NAVAL CONSCRIPTION

NZ Truth, Issue 540, 23 October 1915, Page 8

THE PRESS GANG, OR NAVAL CONSCRIPTION

No. n.

In a preceding: article something has been said respecting Magna Chartaand Conscription. So far as the poorer classes were concerned, that famous Charter was no protection for them against injustices inflicted by the Impress. It was a charter of freedom for the armed aristocratic few who were courageous and capable enough to coerce' a; coward King. But for the feeble, unarmed, servile multitude, the powerless poor majority, Magna Charta was then a mockery and delusion. * * * Such as it was m the days of the tyrant John, it continued to be on Into the days of Henry VIIL, of those of his Jezebel of a daughter, Elizabeth; and thence onward down to our own days, a fraud and a false pretence and a

incestuous intercourse which that cuckold compelled the Church to have with the State. The robbery of the Monasteries and Church and Trades Guilds bred tens of thousands of paupers, who roved about the country m starving bands, begging or stealing to keep themselves alive. * * * Bluff and bloody King Hal resorted to whipping, branding, burning, and hanging to stamp out the pauperism which his Protestant plunderings had made a menace to the State. Ket's Rebellion and the Pilgrimage of Grace were popular protests against the plunder of the Guilds and enclosure of commons. Unfortunately, the vast majority of modern Englishmen know

The original of this picture is a painting by Alexander Johnson. It is m the Art Gallery m the City of Hull (England); and is the property of the Corporation of that city. The picture nopesents a likely young countryman being seized by tho Press Gang, m spite of his own and his bride's protestations.

swindle. So fax 'as serving to secure the individual liberty of the poorer classes of Englishmen was concerned, Magna Charta might never have existed. Hutchinson, an author and authority quoted m a preceding article, referring to the nullity, of that muchmouihed of "palladium of British freedom," m so far as it failed to protect from oppression and misrule tho worthiest among the poorer classes, viz., sailors and fishermen, emphatically declares: Tho mariner was the bondsman of the sea, and to him the "Nullus liber homo capiatur" clause of the Great Charter was never intended to apply. * * * It, did not apply to the satlortnan any tnoro than the latidsm&n, Without

money or friends to buy or enforce by Influence ut headquarters his freedom from the Press. lx>ntr prior to the bo£Tinniii(r of the elghtfeonth century the moro modorti form of the Press began to be developed. The modern form of Iho Presß Uanj? \v«« conci-lvod Jn Die relKrn of Henry VII I., 'Defender of tha Fftlth," the "Favorite and Firstborn Son of ll»«» Glorious Reformation." It was the lc£ltlmat« offsprlnp of the

but little, and care less, about the real history of their race and nation. To most of them, history, like the Bible and Shakespeare, is a closed book for them, only to bo igrnorantly and hypocritically boasted about, but never read or studied. The betting-book and shilling shocker are more m their way of mental pabulum. * * ♦ When these are not absorbed In sports, they're imbibing social and political and industrial superstitions and anonymous "'Wo" columns and censored cablegrams of the cheap pouny papers, like babes at the breast sucking m their mothers' milk. To quote history to most of these is, indeed, casting pearls before swine, and lucky be they that be not r<md<sd for so ddi.bg. To till an ig-

nornmus that he's Itrnorant la as offensive to him aa It- 1h to a snob to lot him boo that you see h& Is a snob and no Rontlenmn. While certain sortK of fools can soraetlmoa, for 9. short time, ba suffered sadly, if not gladly, impudent ignoramuses and Insolent snoba are unendurable at all times and under all eircuimtnneoii, and to ha withstood, "per fas ot natiia," mid put down, aa it were, "with a strong hand."

Thus. thi>n. to such us llu*.«o historical heathens, or Ignorant worshippers of unknown Rods, or of Reformation Idols, the following precious piece of i.tatoricul Information Is offered. It In offered not as ft placatory pulliatlvu of their piigan superstitions, but an a punitive ptirKu to their purblind per-vi-rsity concerning the political and social and Industrial effects ut the jroodiy godly gospel- work of Ui:U puiron saint of the Glorious Uospt-I KoformuUou In KnglanU. Henry thy VIII.: Th« destructive inrtueni*«>M which lho.se ch.wiK^H brought to biar upon the piilrlurrhui ivlailotitthip bo-twtii-n tlu« low* r ami tin? hiifluT ordt-rK ~- a ri:!utio:i- hlji which, though it wiuh iX'Vi'r complete or liwu'ty, and uov<>r wurki-d «niootlily, at \'i\,H\ bud <juaJitii-ft inilnin-ly Mtjix-iicr tv llm^"' <if t lv' ijt;\v rt--j.riijii' t}ii>; d'-jUrui'lU'K Itului-n^i' InK>-th<-f With I ll»» UtrolHll>!» i,f >(j,. moinutii-rifS. and ihut still mor«* li«-in-»u> ■•iliui'. th" upf'n«iiJ"lMli>n an-! runtlMt-allon of tli<- CuiUl finnls and hitjdw. k'u'.i' ri.«" t.i t! <■ widr- • ■{>(■' i I rli;-.i-'.*Ul«-IJi Ul'.il i <■■'.'. -iA'V.ibt<-u:ir'-l!«-v«-.| j>ovi*r'.y, T!;«* ta<-; U..t !l< !jiy Sill al"tu« jm<! T;',tH'O 11-.lrVf'H t'< <j«-Hili ,U hlf» t'Wn I'fJijn. hhows (h« s vsticjnrs {•• %vl;ich d<-?t-|H-nt!" indis«?nt-t» had bton tlrlvon «>vvn Id hln tinu», Kdwurd VJ_ nr.it i:i!?.at.<-tJi u.i<i innnUc trouUto wiili jl:c nit-r. nnil ivc huvo only to <•*, • a.i»ltic lht> numnguii »latute.i U«?ttl-

ing with the problem of poverty, passed m the hitter's reign, m order to realise the extent to which i the evil must have been increasing. * * # j Of course, here was material for th? i Press Gang to work upon. We find ! this system of KTaval Conscription m full swing under that "Defender of the Faith," and "Father of his People," Henry VEX:— Thus when, m 1545, there was reason to fear a French invasion, pressing, of the most violent and unprecedented character was openly resorted to, m order to man the fleet. The class who suffered most severely on that occasion were the fisher folk of Devon, "the most part of whom" were "taken as marryners to serve the King." * * * The chief Ganger on this occasion was a notorious Reformation renegado robber, Sir John Cavendish, who, for his services m looting sacred shrines and robbing and outraging helpless nuns, the nurses of the sick poor, had been granted large estates out of the Church and Guild lands, and created Ix>rd Russell. Thus it was that the same man who had been prominent m manufacturing paupers, was equally prominent m either hunting them down with the Press Gang, as thieves and rogues, beggars and vagabonds, and giving them a choice of being hanged, or of serving m the King's ships. Thousands m this and preceding reigns preferred hanging to serving — such were the hardships and privations to be endured m the Navy by the kidnapped crews then and onwards into the nineteenth century. * * * The state of a Navy so recruited must have been deplorable for the efficiency of the Service, and dangerous to the country. The survival of such a system for so long, made the British navy hated at home and abroad. In it originated the British claim of the Right of Search, so vexatious and humiliating to foreign nations, concerning which Hutchinson remarks: Prom the British point of view the "Right of Search" was an eminently reasonable thing. Here was an Island people to whose keeping Heaven had by special dispensation committed the dominion of the seas. To defend that dominion they needed every seaman they possessed or could produce. They " could spare none to other nations; and when their sailors, who enjoyed no rights under their own flag, had the temerity to seek refuge under another, there was nothing for it but to fire on that flag if necessary, and to take the refugee by armed force from under Its protection. This In effect constituted the time-honored "Right of Search," and none were so reluctant to forego the prerogative, or so keen to enforce it, as those naval officers who saw m it a certain prospect of adding to their ships' companies. The Right of Search was always good for another man or two.

But this abominably bad system of Naval Conscription lasted long enough to not only embroil Britain In maritime wars with foreign nations, including the newly emancipated United States of North America, but to become a damnable disgrace and positive peril to the nation. Not only were the crews often physically unfit, but they were often nothing better than coffles of slaves afloat, "cribbed, cabined, and confined," often m chains, and frequently flogged with the cat-o'-nine-tails with frightful severity. Then British seamen were beaten' almost daily, brutally beaten about the head and body with tho "rattan." a heavy cane then carried by all the quarter deck officers, and even by tho warrant officers. During Nelson's time these barbarities shocked nobody. Everybody knew the lot of a common sailor aboard tho King's ships m. those dark days was often as bad, if not worse, than that of the chained convicts aboard tho Convict Hulks, awaiting transportation to Botany Bay — as will bo shown m a further article this cruel and callous system of Naval Conscription, JOHN NORTON. Sydney, Wednesday, September 29. 1915.