royal navy during the preceding year, at a medium of the several months, and specified to be under 32,000; yet, within a few pages of that very account on your Journals, you meet with a charge on the nation of near 2 millions sterling; being, if you allow for deaths and desertions, the full pay of 40,000 men at 41. per month each man: consequently, there is a complete embezzlement of above 480,000l. The truth is, that, in 1771, at a medium of the months, the number of seamen and marines in the actual pay of the public, fell short of 28,000 men, which proves that we were defrauded of more than 600,000/. in that year, upon this one article of expenditure, accounted for in the sea department; an earnest of the present first lord's integrity at his entrance into the naval direction. In November last, the numbers actually mustered upon all the returns throughout the globe, and which constitute the real force of your navy, were fewer than 44,500; and if you set off desertion, &c. against those who may be sick in hospitals, or absent with permission, or on the service of the ship, you will find the 47. per month each man, allowed by the nation, to be applicable but to few more than the numbers actually on the muster-roll. Let us now take under consideration the monies of late years granted by parliament, upon the ordinary and extraordinary estimates of the navy, delivered in by the Navy-office to the Board of Admiralty, and by them adopted and presented in detail, in compliance of an order of this House; with the several articles requisite to be provided for specifically represented therein. During the 8 years of last war, that is, from the commencement of the naval operations, early in 1755, to 1762, inclusive, the ordinary of the navy amounted in the total to 1,890,000l. and the extraordinaries to 1,500,000/. being on both estimates 3,390,000l. (independent of navy ordnance); and of this sum, the charge of building, rebuilding, and repairs, together with the preserving the men of war in ordinary, with extra stores, came to about 1,760,000l. Let us now take the eight years immediately following the peace; when in a high naval appointment the fleet might necessarily from the waste and destruction of your very extensive naval operations during the war, become in the utmost want of being improved and reestablished. Sir, in those eight years (from 1763 to 1770, inclusive) the ordi nary estimate was 3,222,1677. and the extraordinary 1,916,498. making together 5,138,6651, (over and above naval ordinance); and of which sum, the building, rebuilding, and repairing, and the preserv ing your ships out of commission, and extra stores, came to near 2,350,000l. In the last eight years (comprehending the grants of parliament for 1778) which takes in the whole of the earl of Sandwich's maritime administration, the ordinary of the navy has amounted to 3,232,693/. and the extraordinary to 3,239,3791. being in the whole 6,472,0721. of which, building, rebuilding, and repairs, preserving ships out of commission, and extra stores, come to about 3,500,000l. exclusive of ordnance, and sundry large sums, charged in the account of the annual navy-debt for foreign timber, freights, various naval stores, and exclusive of the considerable cost to the nation, for replenishing the stores, &c. consumed by fire in the dock-yard of Portsmouth. So that the expence to the public, on the ordinary and extraordinary estimates of the navy, has, within the eight years of lord Sandwich's wise and honest management of the marine-boards, more than doubled the 8 years of the last most glorious war; against the charges of which war to the British empire, so much has been repeatedly urged by the enemies to that illustrious statesman, and successful minister, the earl of Chatham. Of these sums granted by parliament since January 1771, it appears evidently from the official papers, that 2,560,000l. allowed for the building, repairing, and storing particular ships of war, named and reported by the navy-board, and expedient to have been repaired, and sometimes said to be actually taken in hand, has not been applied to the uses approved of by this House, and for which uses alone it could be understood to be voted. "But," say the gentlemen on the opposite benches, "If the money was not applied to the specific articles for which it was granted, still it has been duly laid out for other national purposes." Why, then, has parliament been denied the proper vouchers for the real expenditure of so enormous a sum? Why, Sir, when I took the liberty, a few days since, to move for an account of the application of that sum, so unwarrantably diverted into other channels, was I defeated in my purpose, by that usual cloak to the peculation and infamy of ministers, the previous question? If gentlemen will please to take the sioner of the Board of Admiralty, it was again brought within the compass of 100,000/.; after 1763, it from time to time very considerably increased; but during the present noble earl's administration (even previously to the breaking out of the American civil war) it fell not much short, communibus annis, of 400,000l. and is now augmented to so extravagant a height as 488,6951. The charges in the state of the navy debt, on the long list of sundries heretofore accounted for under wear and tear, and properly within the disbursements of 4l. per month, are a heavy additional burthen on the subject, and render the profligate dissipation of the public revenue still more glaring and notorious. By an estimate delivered to parliament of the probable expence of the naval department for 1772, it is computed that the wages of seamen and marines, taking officers into the reckoning, will demand, one with another, ll. 10s. per month; victualling 19s. per month; there must consequently remain 17. 11s. per month for wear and tear, &c. which, on 40,000 men provided for last year, comes to 80,600.; and on the 60,000 men for 1778 will not fall much short of 1,209,000l.; which ought to sup trouble of examining the nature and origin of these extraordinary estimates of the navy, they must be convinced that it has always been the intention of the Com. mons, and the indispensable obligation of government, to have the money given thereon expended towards the object for which ministers specifically required it. Annual allowances of this kind have been continued regularly for about 28 years. Previously to 1750, an article in the gross was usually inserted in the state of the navy-debt, for building, rebuilding, repairing ships and docks, &c. when the vigilant eye of parliament observing those demands unreasonably to accumulate, required that a satisfactory detail should be thenceforward produced of the several men of war necessary to be undertaken, and the work really meant to be done. Therefore an address was presented to the King for the proper officers to bring in an account of what might be requisite on these heads of building, repairs, &c. for the current year. The charges to this country on the several articles must of course be stated on a conjectural and unprecise valuation; for, till the work be completed, it were impossible to ascertain the exact expence of every ship built or repaired. But there is no power ever left by the legislature, nor in-ply hospitals, rigging, stores, and all other tended to be left, for ministers at their option to change the application of the public money, to other and very different services, without expressly having recourse again to the approbation and consent of this House. So unconstitutional, so daring and dangerous a licence, setting both law and decency at defiance, and unknown to former governments, was reserved for the present despotic rulers over an abused and a too patient people. Early in the last century, we find that the refitting of 8 ships of war for the narrow seas cost 5,761. 10s. and to completely repair 12 men of war with hulls, masts, and yards, came to but 8,000l. This appears by the extraordinary charge given into parliament for the years 1625, 1626, and 1627, wherein the names of the several ships are specified. The extraordinary of the navy 50 years ago (or articles usually comprised under that denomination) were from 40,000 to 60,000l. Till the beginning of the late war, the money annually expended for the extra services of the fleet rarely exceeded 100,000l. During the continuance of that war, it never went in any one year higher than 200,000l. and peace being concluded in 1763, when Mr. George Grenville was first commis contingencies, for the naval service, at the fullest demand, excepting ordnance, which is a distinct branch of business, and separately provided for. The navy debt is so modelled and manufactured, that I cannot but consider it as a mockery of all numerical investigation; for, upon consulting with very able accomptants, both commercial and professional, they agree but in one point, which is, that ministers have the particulars of the navy-debt thus contrived, for perplexity's sake, only to envelope in utter darkness the true appropriation of the immense sums they extort thereupon from the public. I shall just observe, in the gross, that the navy debt, at this day, amourts to as much as at the close of the last war, about three millions and a half. It increases two millions every year of the American war. When the noble lord in the blue ribbon came to the head of the Treasury, January 1770, the whole arrear due was but 1,070,000/. But, Sir, having now shewn at what an enormous charge your navy has stood since 1771, when lord Sandwich came to preside at the Admiralty, it will be proper that I proceed to consider, whether your fleet has or has not been improved under his management. When a very amiable and renowned naval commander, (lord Hawke) came to the head of that department, in 1766, he found 61 ships of the line fit for service, of which 19 were in commission, and 42 in ordinary, and 14 were upon the stocks that noble lord, during the four years of his naval administration, launched 14 ships of the line of battle, repaired 21, and left 15 upon the stocks. Lord Sandwich, in seven years (from January 1771, to December 1777) has built and rebuilt 21 of the line, and repaired 34. Fifteen are now building; but there are not near so many men of war in a condition to stand the seas, nor to perform service, in case of a foreign war, as when lord Hawke went out of office. The length of time that those men of war have been in employ, which were considered by lord Hawke to remain in a sound state, and the slender repairs they have since required, prove that the commissioners of the Navy-board were not mistaken in their various reports to the Admiralty respecting such ships; but that they were as serviceable and as perfect as lord Hawke understood them to be. It has been more than once suggest ed in another place, either through gross error, or a more reprehensible motive, that lord Sandwich had broken up 40 sail of the line of battle since he came into power. Of the 40 sail of the line alluded to, 28 were so far from being on admiral Hawke's list of ships in good condition, that they were not even on lord Egmont's list, whom admiral Hawke succeeded. They had long been sentenced to be either broken up, or cut down to a lower rate; seven out of the 40 were French or Spanish prizes, taken in the last war, and in a very doubtful situation; eight of the 40 were actually employed abroad or on home-duty, when lord Hawke resigned, and the remaining ship, the Africa, was shamefully sold for 800l. three years ago, though she might for 5,000l. have been made in the King's yard one of the best ships of 64 guns of the whole royal navy, and far preferable to many of her class, which have been repaired by the noble earl, at the charge of above 20,000/. each. The present board has possessed pecuculiar advantages in carrying on that line of business which respects the building and repairing of capital ships of war. They have had the use of the large bason at Portsmouth, and all the docks have been open; whereas that bason, and the two largest docks, were shut nearly the whole [VOL. XIX. ] of lord Hawke's time. It were to be wished that lord Sandwich had followed the example of his predecessor, in repairing such men of war only as would answer the labour and expence. We have now a nominal list of above 100 sail of the line, of which fifty are in commission. And what is the state of these men of war? The preamble to the report from the Admiralty relative to the store of timber in hand and contracted for sets forth, that his Majesty's ships in general launched in the course of the last war, having been constructed with extraordinary dispatch, and with green wood, a very rapid decay had been the consequence; adding, that the ships built immediately following the war, were but little better than the others: and, indeed, this is demonstrable from the repeated repairs those ships have already had, that were launched from the stocks after the year 1763, and which, though some of them have never been ventured out to sea, have been more than once repaired, at a very large expence. Now, Sir, of more than 100 sail of the line, how many were built in the last war, and have therefore a positive sentence of condemnation thus officially passed upon them? No less than one half: and of the remainder, several are reported, in your last extraordinary estimate, to want material repair. But it may be affirmed, that of those ships constructed last war, a great many have undergone a thorough amendment, and are now in good order. Sir, I am sorry to find, that so many as 18 of the line have been worked upon and patched with the very worst kind of wood that can be used for such purposes, namely, oak timber from Stetin. The foreign wood in general imported into your dock-yards (as well that of Rostock, and the several other ports of the Baltic, as from Bremen on the river Wesel) is of a bad quality, and has but little spine or rosin. The worst timber of all is that from Stetin; as it has every bad quality attending the rest, and is, besides, singularly spungy and porous; and though it has been often remonstrated against in the strongest terms, by some of the most experienced and honest shipbuilders in the royal yards; yet it is still a favourite wood with the reigning Admiralty Board, and the contractors for supplying it are much cherished, to the ruin of your fleet, and endangering the health of your seamen, who are frequently set afloat in their hammocks, from the water soaking in, over-head, through the planks. The [s L] Mars was repaired with this timber only | without expedients of art. We have two years and a half ago, and the nation lost or neglected the best method of seawas charged for that repair above 26,000l.; soning timbers, so as to render them duraas much as she would have cost building ble in the frames of ships. Our capital new from the stocks. Sir, the Mars is ships of war heretofore lasted near half a found to be totally unfit for future service; century. The Royal William, a first-rate, and therefore entirely struck off from the cut down to an 84, was, a few years ago, list of your fleet. The Yarmouth and the the favourite ship on service of the whole Prince of Wales were also lately repaired navy, either for working on the seas, or to with Stetin timber, so were many others encounter an enemy; she was built in of good exterior appearance, but which 1719: and I could name many others, can scarce be said to ride at anchor in within my observation, whose frames resafety. An hon. friend of mine near me mained sound and fit for service 35 or 40 is, I find, lately appointed to a 74 gun ship years, though in continual employ. Neirepaired with Stetin timber (captain Walther are the ships of war belonging to singham of the Thunderer) and built in the late war; I heartily wish him success with his command; but would not have him trust entirely to a report from those who commissioned her, of her fitness for the seas. On the account before us of the Jamaica squadron, he will meet with the Bute, reported by the admiral there to be fit for sea in November last; and within a month after she was found in so rotten a state on her passage home, that it was impossible, even with fair weather, to keep her above the waves: so she was scuttled and sunk: which, when the workmen of the commanding officer's ship (of the convoy) carried their tools aboard to effect, one of the tars saved them the trouble, by clenching his fist, and driving it, without much pain to his knuckles, clear through her hull. This Bute was, it seems, an old East India trader, totally unfit for the Company's service; but held at the Admiralty-board sufficiently stout and healthy for a public ship of war; and therefore contracted for at a high price. There is, I believe, another ship of a similar stamp, called the Andromeda, now going upon government employ; and I should be sorry to insure her existence for a twelvemonth, at 50 per cent. other maritime nations so bad, in these times, as those of the British navy. The Spanish two-deckers, of 80 and 74 guns, are the strongest and most durable in the world; not only those built in the island of Cuba, of cedar-wood and mahogany, but even such as have been constructed in the European ports of Spain, by English builders, and upon the same models with our own. We have few men of war on our list that have proved so lasting as the Centaur, Bienfaisant, and the ships of war in general that were taken from the French 20 years ago; they have stood us but in little for repairs, compared with others of the same class built in England; particularly, if we take into consideration, that they have been constantly kept in commission. The number and state of lord Howe's fleet in America has been greatly misunderstood by the House; of the 82 sail under his command in November last, two are hospital-ships, upwards of 30 are sloops of war, armed-merchantmen, and small-craft, and 11 of the rest carry but 20 guns. His frigates have many of them not been cleaned these three years, and one-third of the whole number were cleaned just two years ago; nine or ten are declared to be rotten or leaky; and almost every ship or vessel is reported, by his lordship's return, to want a supply of gunner's stores. In Great Britain, and for home-service, you have no more than 11 frigates in commission, and not six in tolerable condition, that remain to be equipped on an emergency. Sir, there has been a most criminal neglect in the navy department, relative to the seasoning and preserving ship-timber. I can prove, that a very excellent plan for this object of the first national importance, presented by a gentleman of very high de scription for his experience and industry, has not even been favoured with a perusal; Let us now consider the supposed danwhile futile projects are, through lazi-ger of an invasion from France, and the ness or partiality, very readily received and adopted. The real fact is, that in this climate your timber fit for ship-building, let it lay in store ever so long, and though in the most perfect natural state, cannot be depended on for durability, comparative force at sea of both nations, and how far we may be better or worse prepared to repel an attack, than on former emergencies. At the commencement of naval hostilities, in 1755, we seized, before a declaration of war, their very sion here. France has at this crisis 57 ships of the line, of which, 40, from 60 guns to 116, may be ready for sea, and completely manned with able mariners, by means of their register, in three weeks. Spain has a list of 61 of the line in Europe, and four more nearly built, in the port of the Havannah. They have 35 men of war, of very capital force, that can (I am confidently assured) go upon service immediately. I have already shewn to the committee the infirmity of our ships of war, neither have we any extensive means, at this conjuncture, of completing their establishment. I admit that a certain number of sea-faring persons now skulk within land, who might perhaps come forth, in case of a rupture with the Houses of Bourbon, though they keep aloof from the present unnatural quarrel; but these recruits could not exceed a very few thousands. You have lately drained the nation of that part of its inhabitancy to which you might have had an occasional recourse for this end. Your sup plies are exceedingly reduced; and we have voted for the current year more seamen than this country has ever yet been able to furnish for war, independent of her American colonies. You have voted above 48,200, besides marines. The most we could ever get, exclusive of marine soldiers, in the last, or in any former best sailors, to the amount of some thou- was 52,000; and of these, full 10,000 were natives of North America. Besides, till 1760, your number of European seamen were but 30,000; though after the unexampled triumph of the British flag over every part of the ocean, foreigners from almost every power were inclined to enter into our pay. At present there is neither the same credit stamped on your arms to induce such exotic supplies, nor have they equal lure of prosperous and profitable cruizes. Let those gentlemen who hug themselves with a comfortable persuasion of our entire security from invaders, because of our insular situation, and vigilance or superior dexterity of our fleet, recollect how many invasions of these islands stand recorded in history. There have been, since the Norman conquest, 24 invasions of Great Britain or Ireland, nine of which have been made good, without any molestation on the seas, and seven have proved successful. Between 1685 and 1689, four invasions were effectuated. In May, 1685, the duke of Monmouth sailed from the Texel with three ships, and landed with |