Sir Edward Pellew deeply lamented the submission of the Government.  He was satisfied that a proper firmness would have quelled the present, and prevented the future evil; and he was strengthened in his opinion by the circumstances of the mutiny on board one of the ships at Spithead, in which one of his own officers was a principal actor.  Captain Williams, of the marines, formerly lieutenant in the Arethusa, applied to his captain for authority to act, assuring him of the good disposition of his own men, and pledging himself by their means to save the ship.  But his captain, though one of the bravest and best men in the service, shrank from committing the marines to a possible conflict with the sailors, and recommended a little delay.  In a few minutes the marine officer returned:  it was not yet too late, but not another moment could be spared.  The humane feelings of the commander impelled him still to temporize, and when the marine officer returned, it was to say that his men must now save themselves, and the ship was lost.  The more desperate mutiny at the Nore was not quelled by submission.

Afterwards, when mutinies were continually occurring among the ships at Plymouth.  Sir Edward proposed a very decisive measure to stop the mischief.  He recommended that a ship, manned with officers, and with volunteers who could be fully trusted, should attack the next that mutinied, and, if necessary, sink her in the face of the fleet.  The officer who takes the first step in any measure must feel himself committed decisively to all possible consequences; but the mere display of such a resolution, with the knowledge that an officer of unflinching determination commanded the attacking ship, would most probably spare the necessity of firing a shot.  Lives are commonly sacrificed only when a mistaken humanity shrinks from duty till the proper time for action has gone by.  The disposition of the crews was not generally bad, but they were misled by example, and encouraged by impunity.  When the Greyhound mutinied, and Captain Israel Pellew demanded if he had ever given them cause for dissatisfaction, if he had not always been their friend, they admitted that they had nothing to complain of, but said they must do like their friends around them.  They would have landed him with every mark of respect; but he declared that, after such conduct, not one of them should ever row him again, and he hailed a waterman to put him on shore.  Still, though he had reproached them in no measured terms, they manned the side, and gave him three cheers when he left the ship.

Even Sir Edward Pellew, popular as he was, and though he might well expect that a crew which had fought with him two successful actions within the past year would be too proud of their ship and commander ever to fail in their duty, yet felt it necessary to take precautions, when mutinies were occurring around him without the smallest reasonable cause.  Determined to maintain his authority at all hazards, he prepared