At first I thought it a press-gang, but seeing the corps so well-drest, like Hussars, in yellow with blue waistcoats and breeches, and high caps, I concluded it was some new body of our allies, or a regiment newly raised, and with new regimentals for distinction.

His parents were distracted; and the only conjecture which could be formed was, that as war had just broken out with America, he had been kidnapped by a press-gang for the sea-service.

The best proof of the national determination is to be found in the best hated of all the institutions of that time, the press-gang, a brutal and narrow-minded form of asserting the principle that a citizen's duty is to fight for his country.

V. FACTS AND FANCIES ABOUT THE PRESS-GANG.

It is assumed that compliance with those demands was as a rule not voluntary, but was enforced by the press-gang.

The popular idea of a man-of-war's 'lower deck' of a century ago is that it was inhabited by a ship's company which had been captured by the press-gang and was restrained from revolting by the presence of a detachment of marines.

The supposed ubiquity of the press-gang and its violent procedure added much picturesque detail, and even romance, to stories of naval life.

I am not acquainted with a single story of the press-gang which, even when much embellished, professes to narrate the seizure of more than an insignificant body.

In the great majority of cases, however, the belief above mentioned has no historical foundation, but is to be traced to the frequency with which the supposed operations of the press-gang were used by the authors of naval stories and dramas, and by artists who took scenes of naval life for their subject.

One press-gang entered the Dock [Devonport] Theatre and cleared the whole gallery except the women.'

Yet whilst the latter great increase was being obtainedfor obtained it wasthe reporters are virtually silent as to the action of the press-gang.

Of two John Westlakes, ordinary seamen of the Boadicea, oneJohn (I.)was 'prest,' but was afterwards 'taken out of the ship for a debt of twenty pounds'; which shows that he had preferred to trust himself to the press-gang rather than to his creditors.

It is not surprising that after this the proceedings of the press-gang occupy scarcely any space in our naval history.

This exhortation in favour of a press-gang,this wish that each man should become a spy upon his neighbour (he says it in so many words), fills me with anger and disgust.

The rapacity of a land steward, heavy agricultural losses, and finally the arrival of a press-gang had reduced him to misery.

By paying a certain sum of money he had been accepted by the press-gang instead of his son, and now old Edwards was returning home invalided from the army.

"Really, I cannot become the master of a press-gang, though the Speedy had to be worked by her officers.

About the middle of the last war, the Polly, tender, commanded by lieutenant Watts, came swooping up one evening to the small town of Auchinbreck, in Scotland, and, resolving to pounce, without warning, upon her prey, as soon as she had anchored in the roads, sent ashore the press-gang to pick up as many of the stout boat-builder lads as they could catch.

It scarcely protected its seamen from the English press-gang and the Algerine slave-driver; much less did it think of rescuing a solitary individual from a rock in the midst of the Pacific.

Instead of getting an appointment as surgeon's mate, I was seized, when I was crossing Tower Wharf, by a press-gang; and on my resistance, was disarmed, taken prisoner, and carried on board; where, after being treated like a malefactor, I was thrust down into the hold among a parcel of miserable wretches, the sight of whom well nigh distracted me.

To have the liberty of being seized by a press-gang, torn away from their wives and families, and flogged at the discretion of my lord Tom, Dick, or Harry's bastard.

Our press-gang, unlike the press-gangs of New York or Chicago, had nothing to do with morning publications, and would have failed to comprehend us had we ordered the preparation of a sensation leader, or a report of the last great meeting at Union Square.

Our press-gang devoted its time and energies to putting our cotton into bales of the proper size and neatness.

It was on Saturday, the 13th of February, that our press-gang completed its labors.

As they came into the harbor, being short of men, a press-gang landed from them, who impressed on board Massachusetts citizens.