Note 60 — CHAP. XXIII. LORD GAMBIER’S DESPATCH.

There is something very revolting to a truly religious mind in these derogatory phrases, which couple the beneficent Author of our being with the butcheries of war. Under no circumstances are they defensible. But when the name of the great and merciful Creator is made subservient to an attempt to palm off as a great victory that which, in reality, was a great disgrace even to the human means available, there is something shocking in the perversion of language which should only be uttered with the profoundest reverence, and on occasions in strict coincidence with the attributes of the sacred name invoked. In this case fireships had been denounced as horrible and antichristian, yet explosion vessels—engines of destruction tenfold more diabolical—had, “by favour of the Almighty,” succeeded!