MARINES, or MARINE Forces, a body of soldiers raised for the sea-service, and trained to fight either in a naval engagement, or in an action ashore. The great service of this useful corps was manifested frequently in the course of the late war, particularly at the siege of Belleisle, where they acquired a great character, although lately raised and hardly exercised in military discipline. At sea they are incorporated with the ship's crew, of which they make a part; and many of them learn in a short time to be excellent seamen, to which their officers are ordered by the admiralty to encourage them, although no sea-officer is to order them to go afloat against their inclination. In a sea-fight their small-arms are of very great advantage in scouring the decks of the enemy; and when they have been long enough at sea to stand firm when the ship rocks, they must be infinitely preferable to seamen if the enemy attempts to board, by fraising a battalion with their fixed bayonets to oppose him. The marine forces of Great Britain in the time of peace are stationed in three divisions; one of which is quartered at Chatham, one at Portsmouth, and another at Plymouth. By a late regulation, they are ordered to do duty at the several dock-yards of those ports, to prevent embezzlement of the king's stores, for which a captain's guard mounts every day; which certainly requires great vigilance, as so many abuses of this kind have been committed, that many of the inhabitants, who have been long used to an infamous traffic of this kind, expect these conveyances at certain periods as their due, and of course resent this regulation in the highest degree as an infringement of their liberties as British subjects.