QOTD

In the late 18th and early-mid 19th Centuries, the British Naval Chronicle featured many letters published under the name "Albion," thought to be a half-pay Post Captain or a career Admiralty/Parliamentary official who told uncomfortable truths anonymously. When the Treaty of Ghent ended the war of 1812, Albion wrote:

Thus has ended in defeat all our attempts on the American coast, and thus have the measures and inadequate force provided by our government brought disgrace. . .for assuredly we have now done our worst against this infant enemy, which is already shown a giant's power. Soon will the rising greatness of this distant empire. . .astonish the nations who have looked on with wonder, and seen the mightiest efforts of Britain, at the era of her greatest power, so easily parried, so completely foiled. Lamenting the fallen fortunes of my country, and the unavailing loss of so many brave men, I now take my leave of the American contest. It is to all appearance over, but history will record our defeats, and posterity will see and appreciate their consequences. Sic transit Gloria mundi.

(quoted in Ian W. Toll, Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy (2006).)