“‘Poor fellow!’ said I; ‘this is the hardest part of a British captain’s duty, and so he feels it.’ “‘Duty!’ exclaimed the count--‘Duty! pardon me for repeating your word--but can it be his duty? I hope I did not pass proper bounds in speaking to him; but now he is gone, I may say to you, sir--to you, who, if I may presume to judge from your countenance, sympathize in my feelings--this is a fitter employment for an African slave-merchant than for a British officer. The whole scene which I have just beheld there on the river, on the banks, the violence, the struggles I have witnessed there, the screams of the women and children,--it is not only horrible, but in England incredible! Is it not like what we have heard of on the coast of Africa with detestation--what your humanity has there forbidden--abolished? And is it possible that the cries of those negroes across the Atlantic can so affect your philanthropists’ imaginations, whilst you are deaf or unmoved by these cries of your countrymen, close to your metropolis, at your very gates? I think I hear them still,’ said the count, with a look of horror. ‘Such a scene I never before beheld! I have seen it--and yet I cannot believe that I have seen it in England.’ “I acknowledged that the sight was terrible; I could not be surprised that the operation of pressing men for the sea service should strike a foreigner as inconsistent with the notion of English justice and liberty, and I admired the energy and strength of feeling which the count showed; but I defended the measure as well as I could, on the plea of necessity. “‘Necessity!’ said the count: ‘Pardon me if I remind you that necessity is the tyrant’s plea.’ “I mended my plea, and changed necessity into utility--general utility. It was essential to England’s defence--to her existence--she could not exist without her navy, and her navy could not be maintained without a press-gang--as I was assured by those who were skilled in naval affairs. “The count smiled at my evident consciousness of the weakness of my concluding corollary, and observed that, by my own statement, the whole argument depended on the assertions of those who maintained that a navy could not exist without a press-gang. He urged this no further, and I was glad of it; his horses and mine were at this moment brought up, and we both rode together to town.