Fleet of the Marmara

Encouraged by those circumstances, the fleet of the Marmora, supported, perhaps, by steam frigates, will debouch from the straits and hazard a general action.

Great as the numerical odds may be against us, they will be driven back under the guns of their castles, but after a heavy loss on our side. Bad weather comes on; our disabled ships must proceed to refit at Malta; the hostile fleet, being close to the amplest resources, will of course be ready for sea, and reinforced much quicker than ours can be.

They will again come forth from their strong hold. The small British squadron then remaining in the Archipelago, will make a daring effort, but, from total disparity of numbers, with ill success; they willful back, pursued by the enemy, upon Malta.

The ships repairing at that place boldly come out of the harbor, though but half refitted, and inadequately manned. An engagement ensues, indecisive in its results but owing to the previous condition of our squadrons, they are necessitated to return into port.

The British reinforcements and supplies for the Mediterranean will have been delayed or reduced in amount by the sinister, and finally hostile, conduct of Spain and the United States; and the consequent necessity of increasing the force in the Tagus, the St Lawrence, and the West Indies, and of blockading Cadiz, Corunna, New York, and the Havana, where a Russian squadron will, perhaps, have been stationed.

For the first time, during a long period of the naval history of this country, a British port (Malta) will be regularly invested by an enemy’s fleet, strengthened by the numerous frigates and lighter vessels from the Grecian islands and Moran

Peninsula. The Muscovite troops will now be rapidly brought over from Sicily, and the siege of Valetta commenced.

The Autocrat, promptly availing himself of his superiority in the Mediterranean, dispatches a land force to Spain, with the full concurrence of the Spanish monarch, long ere then a mere puppet in the hands of some predatory premier, Jesuit confessor, or dignitary of the Holy Office personal Istanbul tours, who will have readily sold himself to the Czar under the influence, perhaps, of a similar prospect, with that which swayed our own Wolsey to the views of Charles.

Descents threatened

The investing lines of Gibraltar will be reconstructed descents threatened from Algeciras,   and a petitguerre of privateers, steamboats and small craft, carried on from thence against the bay and mole.

Cadiz and Corunna (possibly even Lisbon) will then be crowded with Russian and Spanish troops, ostensibly for the succor of Ireland, to enable it to throw off, as it will be termed, the English yoke.