What kind of a marine would obtain for us that consideration and respect which would give to our merchant ships unmolested admittance into the ports of Europe? Fifty ships of 80 guns each, and thirty thousand men, certainly could not guarantee to us such respect. Russia has a greater naval force, and dare not show a ship out of the Baltic. Yet fifty such ships would cost the United States twenty-five millions of dollars, and seven millions of dollars a year; which, added to repairs, dock-yards, arsenals, navy-boards, and agents, may be estimated at ten millions a year. But even could such a marine secure to us a reasonable liberty of commerce, America could not now bear such an expenditure; and where is the additional commerce to pay for ten millions a year, expended to protect it? Should our resources, in twenty years, enable us to support such a marine, I have shewn, that the British can augment their fleets also, and spare a force to meet us at sea. But were America to try her finances to the utmost, and establish a marine equal to fifty ships of 80 guns, it would be to us the greatest of misfortunes; for so many persons would become interested in obtaining a support from it, that, like England, we should continue adding, until our successors would find it a power superior to their liberty--one which would load them with taxes, press their children into senseless wars, nor leave them permission to complain. Should we ever be necessitated to have a marine of a force to be respected, such are the accumulated evils under which our posterity must suffer. But if science and energy should sweep military marines from the ocean, America will be the garden of the world--an example for Europe to imitate. When we contemplate the immense sums which are expended in European marine establishments, and calculate the infinite good which might have been done with the capital, we have to lament that man, instead of gratifying his ambition in wars and devastation, has not sought a more noble and lasting fame in promoting the arts, the sciences, and civilization. The annual expence of the navy of Great Britain amounts to upwards of thirteen millions a year; as long as war continues, the expence will not be diminished; but taking the chance of war and peace for the succeeding twenty-five years, and estimate that the marine will cost ten millions a year, the expenditure in twenty-five years will be two hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling. If driven to have a marine, such might be the expenditure of our successors; if we can avoid it, the capital might be expended in useful work. I will now give a short sketch of the improvements which might be made in America for such a sum: