Anonymous engraving of a
British press gang (1790)
Return to the Hydrarchy – Melville’s ‘Billy Budd’
“…the lieutenant pushed off from the Rights-of-Man. That was the merchant ship’s name…The hardheaded Dundee owner was a staunch admirer of Thomas Paine, whose book of rejoinder to Burke’s arraignment of the French Revolution had then been published for some time…”
“And good-bye to you too, old Rights-of-Man.”
-- Billy Budd