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IMPRESSMENT

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 347 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IMPRESSMENT , the name given in See also:

English to the exercise of the authority of the See also:state to " See also:press"' or compel the service of the subject for the See also:defence of the See also:realm. Every See also:sovereign state must claim and at times exercise this See also:power. The" drafting " of men for service in the See also:American See also:Civil See also:War was a See also:form. of impressment. All the monarchical, or republican, governments of See also:Europe have employed the press at one See also:time or another. All forms of See also:conscription, including the English See also:ballot for the See also:militia, are but regulations of this sovereign right. In See also:England impressment may be looked upon as an erratic, and often oppressive, way of enforcing the See also:common See also:obligation to serve in " the See also:host " or in the posse comitatus (power of the See also:county). In See also:Scotland, where the feudal organization was very See also:complete in the Lowlands, and the tribal organization no less complete in the See also:Highlands, and where the state was weak, impressment was originally little known. After the See also:union of the two parliaments in 1707, no distinction was made between the two divisions of See also:Great See also:Britain. In England the See also:kings of the See also:Plantagenet See also:dynasty caused Welshmen to be pressed by the Lords Marchers, and Irish kerns to be pressed by the Lords See also:Deputy, for their See also:wars in See also:France. Complaints were made by See also:parliament of the oppressive use of this power as See also:early as the reign of See also:Edward III., but it continued to be exercised. Readers of See also:Shakespeare will remember See also:Sir See also:John Falstaff's See also:commission to press soldiers, and the manner, justified no doubt by many and See also:familiar examples of the way in which the See also:duty was performed. A small sum It is now accepted generally that " to press " is a corruption of prest," as " impress " is of " imprest," but the word was quite early connected with "press," to squeeze, crush, hence to compel or force.

The " prest " was a sum of See also:

money advanced (O. Fr. prester, See also:modern paler, to lend, See also:Lat. praestare, to stand before, provide, become See also:surety for, &c.) to a See also:person to enable him to perform some under-taking, hence used of See also:earnest money given to soldiers on enlistment, or as the " coat and conduct " money alluded to in this See also:article. The methods of compulsion used to get men for military service naturally connected the word with " to press " (Lat. pressare, frequentative of premere)to force, and all reference to the money advanced was lost (see See also:Skeat, Etym. See also:Diet., 1898, and the See also:quotation from H. See also:Wedgwood, Dict. of Eng. Etym.).called- imprest-money, or coat and conduct, money, was given to the men when pressed to enable them to reach the appointed See also:rendezvous. Soldiers were secured in this way by See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth, by See also:King See also:Charles I., and by the parliament itself in the Civil War. The famous New See also:Model See also:Army of See also:Cromwell was largely raised by impressment. Parliament ordered the county committees. to select recruits of " years meet for their employment and well clothed." After the Revolution of 1688 parliament occasionally made use of this resource. In 1779 a See also:general press of all rogues and vagabonds in See also:London to be drafted into the regiments was ordered. It is said that all who were not too lame to run away or too destitute to bribe the See also:parish See also:constable were swept into the See also:net. As they were encouraged to See also:desert by the undisguised connivance of the See also:officers and men who were disgusted with their See also:company, no further See also:attempt to use the press for the army was made.

A distinction between the liability of sailors and of other men See also:

dates from the 16th See also:century. From an See also:act of See also:Philip and See also:Mary (1556) it appears that the watermen of the See also:Thames claimed exemption from the press as a privileged See also:body. They were declared liable, and the liability was clearly meant to extend to service as a soldier on See also:shore. In the fifth See also:year of Queen Elizabeth (1563)- an act was passed to define the liability of the sailors. It is known as " an Act touching politick considerations for the See also:maintenance of the See also:Navy." By its See also:term all fishermen and mariners were protected from being compelled " to serve as any soldiers upon the See also:Land or upon the See also:Sea, otherwise than as a mariner, except it shall be to serve under any See also:Captain of some See also:ship or See also:vessel, for landing to do some See also:special exploit which mariners have been used to do." The operation of the act was limited to ten years, but it was renewed repeatedly, and was at last indefinitely prolonged in the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles I. (1631). By the See also:Vagrancy Act of the See also:close of Queen Elizabeth's reign {1597), disorderly serving-men and other disreputable characters, of whom a formidable See also:list is given, were declared to be liable to be impressed for service in the See also:fleet. The "Takers," as they were called in early times, the Press Gang of later days, were ordered to See also:present their commission to two justices of the See also:peace, who were See also:bound to pick out " such sufficient number of able men, as iq the said commission shall be contained, to serve Her See also:Majesty as aforesaid." The justices of the peace in the See also:coast districts, who were often themselves concerned in the See also:shipping See also:trade, were, not always zealous in enforcing the press. The pressed sailors often deserted with the "imprest money " given them. Loud complaints were made by the See also:naval officers of the See also:bad quality of the men sent up to serve in the king's See also:ships, On the other See also:hand, the Press Gangs were accused of extorting money, and of making illegal arrests. In the reign of Queen See also:Anne (1703) an act was passed "_for the increase of See also:Seamen and the better encouragement of See also:navigation, and the See also:protection of the See also:Coal Trade." The act which gave parish authorities power to apprentice boys to the sea exempted the apprentices from the press for three years, and until the See also:age of eighteen. It especially reaffirmed the See also:part of the Vagrancy Act of Elizabeth's reign which See also:left rogues and vagabonds subject to be pressed for the sea service.

By the act for the " increase of Mariners and Seamen to navigate See also:

Merchant Ships and,other trading ships or vessels," passed in the reign of See also:George II. (1740), all men over fifty-five were exempted from the press together with lads under eighteen, foreigners serving in See also:British ships (always numerous in war time), and landsmen who had gone to sea during their first two years. The act for " the better supplying of the cities of London and See also:Westminster with See also:fish " gave exemption to all masters of fishing-boats, to four apprentices and one mariner to each See also:boat, and all landsmen for two years, except in See also:case of actual invasion. By the act for the encouragement of See also:insurance passed in 1774, the See also:fire insurance companies in London were entitled to secure exemption for See also:thirty See also:water-men each in their employment. Masters and mates of merchant vessels, and a proportion of men per ship in the colliers trading from the See also:north to London, were also exempt. Subject to such limitations as these, all seafaring men, and watermen on See also:rivers, were liable to be pressed between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five, and might be pressed repeatedly for so See also:long as their liability lasted. The See also:rogue and vagabond See also:element were at the See also:mercy of the justices of the peace. The frightful epidemics of See also:fever which desolated the navy till See also:late in the 18th century were largely due to the infection brought by the prisoners drafted from the See also:ill-kept jails of the time. As service in the fleet was most unpopular with the sailors, the press could often only be enforced by making a See also:parade of strength and employing troops. The men had many See also:friends who were always willing to conceal them, and they themselves became See also:expert in avoiding See also:capture. There was, however, one way of procuring them which gave them no See also:chance of evasion. The merchant ships were stopped at sea and the sailors taken out.

This was done to a great extent, more especially in the case of homeward-bound vessels. On one occasion, in 1802, an See also:

East Indiaman on her way See also:home was deprived of so many of her See also:crew by a See also:man of war in the See also:Bay of See also:Biscay that she was unable to resist a small See also:French See also:privateer, and was carried off as a See also:prize with a valuable See also:cargo. The press and the jails failed to See also:supply the number of men required. In 1795 it was .found necessary to impose on the counties the obligation to provide " a See also:quota " of men, at their own expense. The See also:local authorities provided the recruits by offering high bounties, often to debtors confined in the prisons. These desperate men were a very bad element in the navy. In 1797 they combined with the See also:United Irishmen, of whom large See also:numbers had been drafted into the fleet as vagabonds, to give a very dangerous See also:political See also:character to the mutinies at the See also:bore and on the See also:south of See also:Ireland. After the conclusion of the great See also:Napoleonic wars in 1815 the power of the press Was not again exercised. In 1835 an act was passed during Sir See also:James See also:Graham's See also:tenure of See also:office as first See also:lord of the See also:admiralty, by which men who had once been pressed and had served for a See also:period of five years were to be exempt from impressment in future. Sir James, however, emphatically reaffirmed the right of the See also:crown to enforce the service of the subject, and therefore to impress the seamen. The introduction of engagements for a term of five years in 18S3, and then of long service, has produced so large a body of voluntary recruits, and service in the navy is so popular, that the question has no longer any See also:interest See also:save an See also:historical one. If compulsory service in the fleet should again become necessary it will not be in the form of the old See also:system of impressment, which left the sailor subject to compulsory service from the age of eighteen to fifty-five, and flooded the navy with the scum of the jails and the workhouse.

AuTxoRlrIES.—See also:

Grose's Military Antiquities, for the general subject of impressment, vol. ii. p. 73 et seq. S. R. See also:Gardiner gives many details in his See also:history of James I. and Charles I., and in The Civil War. The acts See also:relating to the navy are quoted in A Collection of the Statutes relating to the Admiralty, &c., published in 181o. Some curious See also:information is in the papers relating to the See also:Brest See also:Blockade edited by John Leyland for the Navy See also:Record Society. Sir James Graham's speech is in See also:Hansard for 1835. (D.

End of Article: IMPRESSMENT

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