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the Speaker's notice, had he not been called upon by his hon. and gallant Friend (Admiral Pole), and by fome evident iniftatements which had been made by the right hon. Gentleman (Mr. Tierney). To the firft he should reply that he was not aware of the jobs which had been made of gun-boats last war, but certainly could fay that the gun veffels which his right hon. Friend alluded to in his motion were not of that defcription, but were of a clafs which he fhould have occafion to mention hereafter. With respect to the triumphant fort of flourish, which had been made ufe of by Mr. T. who faid that no ground of complaint had been made out against the Admiralty, and that he expected to hear of convoys being cut off, and veffels taken; he should only ftate that fomething of that fort might have been alleged with juftice, which he fhould likewife allude to by and by. But when he heard him state, that the care and providence of the Admiralty had been fuch as to raise the whole extent of the vote of feamen except 1700, he muft fuppofe that he was fo newly come into office, and as yet felt himself so little at home in it, that he had neither examined the truth of his affertion, nor afked any profeffional perfon if it could poffibly be the cafe. The fact was, that he had taken the whole of the returns of the Navy Office from the monthly books of the fhips, which amounted to 76,000 men, in which the marines were included; and had added the 15.000 marines which were returned to the Admiralty from the head quarters. Did he mean to fay, that there were 15,000 marines at this time, who were not embarked? because certainly the fact was not fo; there was hardly a marine at any of the head quarters, they were all embarked on board of the fleet, and included, as well as the 6oco impreffed feamen, in the returns at the Navy Office, and confequently included in the 76,000 men; which brought the question (if it had any reference to the motion before the Houf,) to a state much nearer the truth, viz. that instead of the feamen being equal to the vote, which was 100,000 men, inftead of being only 1700 fhort of that vote, it would be found that there were nearly 20,000 short of that number. With respect to the number of gun vessels which the right hon. Gentleman had chofe to ftate, and amongit which he claffed the launches and cutters, which he chofe to say were better than the gun brigs alluded to by his right hon. Friend (Mr. Pitt), he mutt pofitively deny both the one and the other, the number and the quality. If he chofe to call every cockle fhell into which a gun was placed, a gun veffel, he certainly might make them out; but of thofe he had feen, fome were unable to go out even to Spithead, unless it was in a

calm. And as for the comparison, it was too trifling and too ridiculous ever to enter into the head of a profeffional man ; but as the right hon. Gentleman was not fo, he perhaps might be excused for making it. He should now come to the motions made by his right hon. Friend, which he must think not only proper but neceffary, as they would not only put all queftions upon the conduct of the Admiralty at reft in future, but tend to fhew if they had done every thing in their power, and whether they had made every preparation for the defence of the coaft which they ought to have done. In his opinion they had not. It might perhaps be again asked by fome perfons, Where he had gained his experience in the fervice to form fuch an opinion? How proper, how juft, how wife, or how decent fuch a queftion, coming from fuch a quarter, might be, he certainly fhould not think of faying, but fhould leave to the judgment of the House. But it was not to his own experience, it was to the experience of much older and more experienced officers than himself he would appeal, and if every officer of high rank and knowledge in the navy were called to the bar of that Houfe, they would corroborate what he fhould advance. He averred this, he averred that if a fufficient number of gun vessels of a proper conftruction had been built and manned, which they could have been by this time, to have affifted the frigates and fhips which the Admiralty fay they have in the Channel, the junction of the enemy's flotilla at Boulogne would have been prevented; and this he would prove not by his experience, but by facts and documents furnished to the public by the Admiralty themflves. Look at the Gazettes, in which the gal lant young officers who commanded the frigates had told you, "we have taken one, two, or three gun boats, we could have taken more, but they escaped into shallow water, where it "was impoffible to follow them :" he asked, would this have happened if they had been provided with gun veffels to affift them? certainly not: but even of thefe frigates and floops upon which fuch dependence is placed, he averred the Admiralty had not provided a fuffieient number, no, not even for the common duties of the Channel; and this he would likewife prove by official documents (here he read an advertisement to contract for 14 armed fhips for convoys). What did this prove? why, that the Admiralty were driven (for the date of this propofal is fubfequent to the right hon. Gentleman's notice) to hire the wort and moft expenfive fort of veffels; vffds, which until this time were never reforted to, except at the very outlet of a war, while the frigates, &c. were getting ready but what does this prove? why, that the fact is, we

have not a frigate or floop left or built to fit out for the neceffary defence and protection of the Channel. Might they not have them? certainly they might; and he was happy to find, that he was not the only officer who had offered plans for this purpose to the Admiralty. He would read a part of one of these plans, by which it would be feen, that a force might and ftill may be created, which would effectually fecure our coaft, annoy the enemy, and by not interfering with the ufual naval exertion, might be inftantly manned, and by that means leave the frigates to thofe duties for which they are fo expressly calculated (here he read a part). If this plan had been adopted, thefe fhameful contracts for armed fhips would have been unneceffary, and our convoys would have been protected; as it was, 19 fail of one convoy were taken and carried into Spanish and French ports, and even between Spithead and the Downs, a very rich West Indiaman had been taken by the enemy's privateers. The fyftem of gun boats had been much derided, and we were told they were of no ufe. Another official document, however, would fhew, that fuch was not exactly the opinion of the Admiralty, for they had actually contracted for 20 gun brigs; but to make even this paltry number as ridiculous as they wished us to believe them, the time limited for their completion is half in three months, and the remainder in fix. Good God! if they were of no ufe why build them at all? But if they were of ufe, why not build more, and in the shortest time poffible? as it is, in fix months the project of Bonaparte must have either fucceeded or have completely failed. They talk of the nature of thefe veffels, and of their force. He did understand that one of the moft fcientific officers in the fervice had not only communicated his own ideas, but the plans of his father, who was, without exception, not only as good an officer, but as accomplished a mechanic and fhipbuilder as ever was known; and when he mentioned the name of the late Sir Charles Knowles, no perfon would deny it. This great officer's plans were fhewn to the Admiralty; what was the answer? not very gracious, perhaps, but very true. Lord faid, he was not competent to judge; the other said, he knew nothing of fhip building; this might be fo, and it was not actually neceffary, that either a Lord of the Admiralty or a Captain fhould be a fhipbuilder; but at least it was a fort of coufin-german duty to their own, and they ought not to talk of want of experience, when they were fo ignorant themselves. As to the motions made by his right hon. Friend, he certainly fhould fupport them; but if he had a fault to find with them, it was that they did not extend far enough; he wished to fee an

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inquiry into every part of the naval fyftem, into the treatment of the officers and men, into the fituation and state of the hips, into the ftate of the dock yards, and into the want of ftores and artificers; for of thefe laft, he understood, there was a defalcation of 800 fhipwrights lefs than the ufual war eftablishments. This inquiry would either prove the negligence and incapacity of the Admiralty, or place their fame fo high, as not to be touched by the breath of flander. Upon thefe heads, however, he should not enlarge, as they were extraneous to the motions before the Houle; not but he held papers on this fubject, which might make the Houfe ftart; they contained fubjects which even in that House were too dreadful and too delicate to ftate publicly. But this he did not hesitate to affirm, and he begged the Houfe to remember that he warned them of it, that if the prefent fyftem was purfued, whoever might be at the Admiralty, if this fyftem is not impediately changed, the moft dreadful, the moft fatal calamities that ever happened to this country might be expected.

Sir Edward Pellow ftated to the Houfe what fell within his knowledge of the naval defence of the country; and what was his opinion with respect to the efficiency of our present equipment. We had about 300 gun boats, or gun brigs, or cockle fhells, as they had been termed ; but which he deemed as competent to the bufinefs for which they were intended, or could be fuppofed capable of, as any other fpecies of gun boats. We had kept the fea and blocked up the ports of the enemy all weathers, fair or foul; and they had no where a force that was able to cope with us. Yet these strong facts were not fufficient to fatisfy the minds of fome of the hon. Gentlemen as to the power of our navy. The contracting for building of fhips for his Majelly's navy had been dwelt on with very great force in the courfe of the debate; he could ftate, however, from his own perfonal knowledge, that the contract work was, in the general, either compofed of very indifferent materials, or elle put together in a loose and flovenly manner, fo much fo that they could not be deemed fea worthy for any thing like the fame space of time as the veffels which were built in the King's yards. Two particular inftances had lately fallen within his own obfervation; indeed the refult of his experience was, that hip building by contract is not to be depended on. But he had very lately feen two of them lying on the ftocks, in fuch a ftate as was fufficient to convince him, if any further proof was wanting to his mind, of the impropriety of contracting.

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That mode, however, might be very neceffarily reforted to, when there was not room enough in the King's yards, for the purpose of keeping up our number of shipping. As far as the fubject could, in any degree, be connected with the character or conduct of the Admiralty Board, or with that of the noble Lord who prefides over it, he muft say, that he never knew any period during his experience in naval affairs at which more univerfal or more zealous affection towards the Government in general, or more cordial approbation of all the measures of the Admiralty, prevailed amongst all ranks of perfons belonging to the navy; but every officer in the navy, he believed, was particularly fatisfied with the conduct of the noble Lord at the head of that Board. The cordage, the stores, the provifions, in thort every neceffary for the proper appointment of a fufficient naval force to beat the enemy, was moft rigidly attended to. We had not only enough, but more than enough to beat the enemy at Toulon, at Breft, at Boulogne, at Flushing, and at every other place where they were able to collect any force that was at all worth notice. This general fatisfaction which prevailed among naval men as to the conduct of the Admiralty, and this strong and powerful force with which we were enabled to overcome the enemy, was ftill faid to be infufficient. This reminded him of an anecdote of a French Admiral who was blocked up by him with fix fail of the line:-the Frenchman had taken it into his head that there were twelve veffels at the mouth of his harbour, and though every pains was taken that could be likely to fatisfy him as to the real amount of the blockading force, yet he never could be convinced that there were less than twelve veffels blocking him up. The cafe was not exactly fimilar; but really the idea of making it a fubject of ferious investigation, that we had not gun boats fufficient to meet the enemy, appeared to him something like forming a fuppofition that our fhips of the line, frigates, &c. were not fufficient for the purpofe of repelling any force that dare fhow itself to them.

Admiral Berkeley explained. He could not poffibly fuppose that our naval force was inadequate to the task of totally difcomfiting the whole force of the enemy, if they came fairly out to them: but he meant to fay that they never could poffibly have collected in the force in which they now are, if we had had a fufficient number of gun boats to run in thore, and attack them in fhoal water, where they frequently escaped VOL. II. 1803-4.

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