First Sentence

"WHEN the navies of Europe, opposed to us in the late war, had been swept from the face of the ocean by the gallant achievements of the British marine, a period of triumphant, undisputed dominion ensued, during which our seamen were not, in general, sufficiently practised in the exercise of those weapons by which that dominion had been gained; but, in the pride and ease of conquest, were suffered, in many instances, to lose much of that proficiency in warlike practice which had been acquired in a long series of arduous service."