Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/350

 their liberation, the whole number of Americans in the British navy could not have exceeded from sixteen to seventeen hundred, and it cannot be supposed that England should have involved herself in a new war with a view to retain the services of such an inconsiderable number of reluctant hands.

Indeed the fact cannot be questioned that the English government had invariably given directions to the officers of her navy not to press seamen, professing to be American born, who were found on board American vessels with certificates signed by the collector of customs of an American port, even though it was well known that these certificates were easily obtained in the United States, the American government making no effort to check their fraudulent emission. In the port of New York the system of obtaining false certificates had become so disgracefully open, that in one day, ludicrous as it may appear, an old woman was allowed by the collector to qualify a whole host of seamen by swearing she knew them to be American citizens; and when the clerk remonstrated against its impropriety, and appealed to the collector with regard to the credibility of the witness, he was told by his superior that it was no business of his, for that he only acted ministerially in the affair; so that this old woman continued during the entire day to receive her two dollars for every seaman who, through the oath administered to her, obtained his certificate. The same system prevailed at Philadelphia; certificates were also frequently transferred from one individual to another, and became as much a matter