BONE MODEL OF H.M.S. _PRINCE OF WALES_ MADE BY PRISONERS OF WAR _To face p._ 416 _Now in the United Service Museum, Whitehall._ LA TOUR D’AUVERGNE DEFENDING HIS COCKADE AT BODMIN 443 _From Montorgueil’s ‘La Tour d’Auvergne’._ CHAPTER I INTERNATIONAL RECRIMINATIONS He who, with the object of dealing fairly and squarely with that interesting and unaccountably neglected footnote to British history, the subject of prisoners of war in Britain, has sifted to the best of his ability all available sources of information both at home and abroad, as the present writer has done, feels bound to make answer to the questions: 1. Did we of Britain treat our prisoners of war with the brutality alleged by foreign writers almost without exception? 2. Did our Government sin in this respect more than did other Governments in their treatment of the prisoners taken from us? As an Englishman I much regret to say in reply to the first question, that, after a very rigorous examination of authorities and weighing of evidence, and making allowance for the not unnatural exaggeration and embellishment by men smarting under deprivation of liberty, I find that foreigners have not unduly emphasized the brutality with which we treated a large proportion of our prisoners of war, and I am fairly confident that after a study of the following pages my readers will agree with me. Between our treatment of prisoners on parole and in confinement on land, and foreign treatment of our countrymen similarly situated, the difference, if any, is very slight, but nothing comparable with the English prison-ship system existed anywhere else, except at Cadiz after the battle of Baylen in 1808, and to the end of time this abominable, useless, and indefensible system will remain a stain upon our national record. In reply to the second question, the balance appears to be fairly even between the behaviour of our own and foreign Governments—at any rate, between ours and that of France—for Britain and France practically monopolize the consideration of our subject; the number of prisoners taken by and from the United States, Spain, Holland, Denmark, and other countries, is comparatively insignificant.