Among all the sea-tales that the last twenty years have produced, we know of none in which the evolutions of fleets have formed any material feature. The world has many admirably drawn scenes, in which pictures of the manoeuvres of single ships, and exquisite touches of nautical character, have abounded; but every writer of romance appears to have carefully abstained from dealing with the profession on a large scale. We have refrained ourselves from attempting such a subject, partly from a certain consciousness of incompetency; but more, perhaps, from a desire, in writing of ships, to write as much as possible under that flag to which we have been accustomed, and to which we properly belong. We would openly and loudly condemn the maudlin patriotism that is sensitive about the honour of cats and dogs; that fancies it nationality to extol inferior things, merely because they happen to be our own; that sets up the extravagant doctrine — one so new in the annals of literature as to find its only apology in the poor explanation of a miserable provincialism — that vice, folly, vulgarity and ignorance should not be rebuked because they happen to be American vice, folly, vulgarity and ignorance — the best possible reason why they ought to be rebuked by all American pens; and which reverses the liberality of Domitian, who tolerated even Juvenal, while he confined himself to satire on the public at large, and banished him from Rome, when he descended to private calumny. The idea, too, that works of fiction must be written solely in reference to the country of one's birth, is another provincial prejudice, that could not exist in a nation of confirmed character and enlarged views; for which we entertain as little reverence, as for the indiscriminate property-commendation just mentioned; but, our own feelings may fairly be adduced as a motive for doing that which, after all, must more or less depend on a writer's personal inclinations. We had a wish to attempt these pictures, and the disposition is a tolerably safe guide in matters of the imagination.
Nevertheless, the American who would fain write about fleets, must be content to desert the flag. An American fleet never yet assembled. The republic possesses the materials for collecting such a phenomenon, but has ever seemed to be wanting in the will. A strange and dangerous reluctance to create even the military rank that is indispensable to the exercise of a due authority over such a force, has existed in the councils of the state; and had the name of this work been "The One Admiral," instead of "The Two Admirals," we should have been driven abroad in quest of a hero for our tale. The legislators of the country apparently expect men will perform miracles without the inducements which usually influence human beings to perform any thing. How long such a policy can safely be adhered to, remains to be demonstrated.
While we assert our own independence, however, by claiming a right to select such scenes for our tales as may best meet our own impulses, we are ready enough to admit that, in this instance, we should gladly have selected the national flag to sail under, had the thing come within even the limits of fictitious probabilities. If not actually "native and to the manner born," we are certainly, in this particular, "to the manner bred," and confess our decided preference to the stars and stripes (tasteless as may be the emblems to the instructed eye) over the broad white field and George's cross of the noble English ensign; — the spotless banner of France, as it existed at the period of our tale, or that most beautiful of all the ensigns that wave at the gaff-end, the tri-color of our own time. Whenever the national councils shall give us admirals and fleets to write about, it will be our delight to aid, in our own humble way, in attempting to illustrate their deeds. Still, the colonists may claim an interest in all the renown of England which was earned previously to 1775; and we leave their descendants to dispute with the present possessors of the mother country, what portion of the fame earned by Oakes and Bluewater shall properly fall to the share of each. By applying to our domestic publishers, Lea & Blanchard of Philadelphia, the American can obtain all the evidence we possess on the subject; and, for the convenience of the English, Mr. Richard Bentley, of New Burlington street, London, is furnished with duplicates of every particle of authority on which this legend is founded. We beg the gentlemen connected with these two great publishing-houses, not to be backward or reluctant on the occasion; but to communicate freely whatever they may happen to know, to all applicants; and more especially to the critics, a class of writers who, in general, are singularly assisted by the aid of a little knowledge of the subjects on which they treat.
We hope the reader will do us the justice to regard the Two Admirals as a sea-story, and not as a love-story. Our Admirals are our heroes; and, as there are two of them, those who are particularly fastidious on such subjects, are quite welcome to term one the heroine, if they see fit. We entertain no niggardly love of exclusion, on this head, and leave the selection entirely to themselves.
With these brief explanations, we launch our fleets, committing them to the winds and waves of public opinion, which are not unfrequently as boisterous and adverse as those of the ocean, and sometimes quite as capricious.
