1830.] Naval Affairs of Great Britain. 63 



cannot be an eighth of those we possessed at the conclusion of the war, and that, 

 under the present system, they are actually driven out of the service. A set of 

 good petty officers is an incalculable advantage to a ship : they may be said to 

 give efficiency to a badly manned ship. We propose an additional number to be 

 allowed to the ships during peace, say two hundred and fifty. There are now 

 about one hundred and thirty men of war in commission, so that it would be 

 hardly more than one to each. What a foundation for the ship's companies of 

 twenty or twenty-five sail of the line these additional petty officers would be ! 

 On the breaking out of a war, with the officers, the marines, and these men, 

 they might be said, in efficiency, to be one third manned. As such men would 

 be comprised in the general number employed, the only additional expense these 

 extra ratings would incur would be the little increased pay, above that of the 

 able seamen ; a perfect insignificancy when compared with the high value of 

 these men's services." 



The above considerations, we think, should not be neglected by our 

 senatorial seamen. Not that we have much hope from these honour- 

 able gentlemen, who, however independent some of them may be on 

 other topics, are invariably acquiescent in any measure originating in 

 the Admiralty, and who sit quietly and hear the grossest official mis- 

 statements, aware of the existence of many official sins as well 

 of omission as of commission. Why should this wretched subserviency 

 be required ? It is a bad sign when a public body cannot afford to 

 permit persons who are in its power to speak their opinions honestly. 

 This is not only hurtful to power itself, but is utterly destructive of that 

 tone of mind in individuals without which neither public nor private 

 good can long subsist. " The political liberty of the subject," says 

 Montesquieu in his Spirit of Laws, book xi. chap. 6, " is a tranquillity 

 of mind, arising from the opinion each person has of his safety. In 

 order to have this liberty, it is requisite that the government be so 

 constituted as that one man need not be afraid of another." It is 

 nothing but the fear of loss of favour that keeps the professional mem- 

 bers of the House of Commons from discharging properly their duty 

 to their constituents and to the country. It is in vain for any of 

 them to say, " I am no orator as Brutus is ;" for oratory is not required 

 of them, nor would oratory stand them in the least stead. What is 

 wanted is a plain exposition of that which is wrong, an honest guidance 

 towards that which may be right ; and a service of this kind is better 

 done in few than in many words. We have it from the competent 

 authority of the Duke of Wellington himself, that the only object of 

 long parliamentary speeches is to mislead and confound. But even 

 should eloquence be once in a way necessary, the occasion will never 

 fail to inspire it, if the speaker be familiar with his subject. A wise 

 English writer has said that " What we know thoroughly, we usually 

 express clearly, since ideas will supply words, but words will not 

 supply ideas. I have myself heard a common blacksmith eloquent, 

 when welding of iron has been the theme." 



But we fear that independence is not to be expected from men who 

 are under so serious a liability as are our naval officers. The evil is 

 without a cure ; and yet it is impossible not to lament, and difficult not 

 to reprehend it. 



are they replaced ? In addition to our own observation, we have the authority of others 

 whose opinions carry infinitely greater weight, that many sent to the navy now, are fit only 

 for sweepers." 



