All this looks simple enough on paper; and a moment’s reflection shews that such must ever be the consequence of a similar state of things. For when shrewd nations, like the United States, have the art to keep out of the fight in which others are engaged, they will, of course, be able to play into the hands of the different parties whose whole thoughts are occupied in injuring one another, instead of interchanging benefits. The adroit neutral, by watching his time, can always minister to the several necessities of the combatants, sometimes to one, sometimes to the other, according as the payment is good or bad, and in such a manner as to be sure of his own profit, reckless at whose cost. At the same time, he must naturally lay his account with provoking the displeasure of the powers at war, who, in their turn, will, of course, do all they possibly can to prevent the neutral from lending assistance to their opponents respectively. Conflicting nations, accordingly, have always claimed, and, when they can, will never cease to enforce, this right of searching neutral ships, in order to discover whether or not there be enemy’s property on board. But the practice, it may easily be imagined, is full of many sore heart-burnings, and all kinds of “hard words, jealousies, and fears,” which often, as old Hudibras has it, “set folks together by the ears,” who ought, perhaps, never to have become foes. Every morning, at daybreak, during our stay off New York, we set about arresting the progress of all the vessels we saw—firing off guns to the right and left, to make every ship that was running in, heave to, or wait, until we had leisure to send a boat on board, “to see,” in our lingo, “what she was made of.” I have frequently known a dozen, and sometimes a couple of dozen ships, lying a league or two off the port, losing their fair wind, their tide, and, worse than all, their market, for many hours, sometimes the whole day, before our search was completed. I am not now inquiring whether all this was right, or whether it was even necessary, but simply describing the fact. When any circumstance in the ship’s papers looked suspicious, the boarding officer brought the master and his documents to the Leander, where they were further examined by the captain; and if any thing more important was then elicited, by an examination of the parties or their papers, to justify the idea that the cargo was French, and not American, as was pretended, the ship was forthwith detained. She was then manned with an English crew from the ships of war, and ordered off to Halifax, to be there tried in the Admiralty Court, or adjudicated, as the term is; and either released with or without demurrage, if proved to be truly neutral property, or condemned, if it were shewn to belong to the enemy.