Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/68

 crowded with three hundred men, each of them, or nearly so, cohabiting with an unfortunate female, in the lowest state of degradation; where oaths and blasphemy interlarded every sentence; where religion was' wholly neglected, and the only honour paid to the Almighty was a clean shirt on a Sunday; where implicit obedience to the will of an officer, was considered of more importance than the observance of the Decalogue; and the commandments of God, were in a manner abrogated by the articles of war—for the first might be broken with impunity, and even with applause, while the most severe punishment awaited any infraction of the latter.

So much for the ship in the aggregate; let us now survey the midshipman's berth. Here we found the same language and the same manners, with scarcely one shade more of refinement. Their only pursuits, when on shore were intoxication and worse debauchery, to be gloried in and boasted of when they returned on board.