The journal of a voyage to Lisbon / [Henry Fielding].

  • Henry Fielding
Date:
1755
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The journal of a voyage to Lisbon / [Henry Fielding]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    81/296 (page 67)
    It is true, perhaps, that there is more of oflentation than of real utility, in fhips of this vTl and unwieldy bur¬ then, which are rarely capable of. dting againd an enemy ; but if the building inch contributes to preferve, among other nations, the notion of the Rritifh fuperiority in naval affairs, the expence, though very great, is well incurred, and the oflentation is laudable and truly po¬ litical. Indeed I fbould be ferry to & allow that Holland, France cr Spain, poffefled a veffel larger and more beau¬ tiful than the larged and mod beautiful of ours 5 for this honour I would always adminifler to the pride of our failors, who fhould challenge it from all their neighbours with truth and fuccefs. And fare I am, that not our honed tars alone, but every inhabitant of this if]and, may exult in the comparifbn, when he confiders the king of Great-Britain as a maritime prince, in oppofition to •any other prince in Europe; but I am not fo certain that the fame idea of fu¬ periority will refult from comparing our land-