68 Financial Reform. 



service, intending to prove that many millions maybe annually saved 

 under a reformed system. Patronage and jobbing must now disappear 

 under the scythe of reform. 



In the naval service, we would disband all the marines. There are 

 nine thousand of these sea-soldiers voted annually for the service of the 

 navy, not one of whom are wanted; and they form most expensive bal- 

 last. The marine service was invented for two purposes : for the firing 

 of small arms in time of engagement, and still more to be a defence 

 against the seamen themselves in cases of mutiny. The improved usage 

 of seamen, and the disappearance of the ancient rare of brutalized com- 

 manders of ships of war, have rendered mutiny unknown j and it cannot be 

 required to carry nine thousand soldiers to sea in time of peace. 



But why stand these ships idle all the day long ? England, commercial 

 England, possesses six hundred sail of fine vessels, lying useless and de- 

 caying in the harbours, to the incalculable waste of the money, timber, 

 and iron of the nation. There is no reason why these vessels should not 

 be employed in commerce ; for the ships in the service of the East India 

 Company are usually rated as fifty-gun frigates, and yet each brings home 

 nineteen thousand chests of tea from China. Already the commanders of 

 our vessels of war are allowed to realize enormous fortunes by the trans- 

 portation of specie ; and boxes of gold and silver ought no longer to be 

 the only articles of freight. Nor is there any reason why we, who take 

 expences for carrying letters through the post-office, should not now take 

 millions for carrying bales of cotton and bars of iron. We propose, then, 

 to charter our vessels of war to companies of merchants, upon the footing 

 of common mercantile shipping, for one or more years, to continue to be 

 repaired at the royal dock-yards, and also to dismount three-quarters of 

 the complement of guns (as a thirty-six-gun frigate to carry only nine 

 guns) 5 and allowing six men to a gun, the number of men required for 

 the management of a frigate will be fifty-four; amply sufficient for every 

 purpose of commercial navigation. They may continue to be efficient 

 upon the present system, with certain reductions in pay, and in naval 

 expences, and etiquette j and thus the whole navy coming into active 

 operation, an immense sum will be annually saved in the half-pay of 

 retiring officers. These vessels will be preferred to any merchantmen, 

 because they are better equipped and managed ; and being more secure 

 from enemies and damage, the insurance upon them will be lower than 

 upon vessels of any other class. In time of war, the full complement of 

 guns may be remounted ; and even then, one half of the cargo, at the 

 double rate of freight, which will be usual, will produce an equal revenue. 

 By this conjunction of a mercantile policy, the navy of England may be 

 made to support itself, a saving of six millions may be annually effected, 

 and the naval discipline may be preserved more perfect, by the uniform 

 employment of officers and men. 



It will be said that the shipping interest will be injured by the intro- 

 duction of vessels of war into the merchant service : to which the answer 

 is, that these complaints of injuries to particular interests have too long 

 been entertained, to the much greater injury of the general interest of the 

 nation. Moreover, the shipping interest can sustain no farther injury; 

 for all the merchant vessels of the kingdom are sailing to ruin in search 

 of the land of sound and wholesome trade promised by Mr. Huskisson, 



