1830.] Naval Affairs of Great Britain. 59 



criminately in all parts of the world, or to keep them on the coast of North 

 America, or in the Bay of Biscay during winter, could prove only that total want 

 of consideration as well as professional knowledge which is most discreditable 

 in the conduct of naval affairs !" 



The Admiral's meaning is here not clearly to be understood. In one 

 part of the foregoing extract, he alludes to the incompetent force of 

 our brigs when employed on certain stations where enemies' vessels of 

 their own class, but of superior size, are likely to cruize ; in another 

 part of the paragraph, Sir Charles seems to deprecate the use of these 

 vessels, because they are not adapted to bad climates. Both these 

 reasons are valid in themselves ; but, to have due force, they should 

 have been distinctly stated, and not confused in one observation. The 

 admiral would have forwarded his object more effectually had he 

 pointed out the dreadful deprivations necessarily suffered by those who 

 are forced to embark in brigs indiscriminately " stationed." But the 

 secret of having so many small vessels in commission is to be detected 

 in the fact that opportunity is afforded thereby to give command to 

 a number of youthful sprigs of nobility ; for were the Admiralty to 

 confine the navy to ships of real utility, the patronage of that body 

 would be fearfully crippled, and the junior aristocracy would be 

 entirely thrown upon the tender mercies of the army and the church. 

 This system, it must be confessed, carries with it a bane and antidote ; 

 for if these young patricians are the cause of the superfluity of inefficient 

 vessels, they, in their turn, do their utmost to reduce the number of 

 such ships to its proper level, according to the notion of a certain 

 sea-senator, who said, in the House of Commons, that until Ireland was 

 brought to its proper level, by being twenty-four feet under water, 

 no good would come to the country. In proof of our opinion as regards 

 the unsought-for diminution of the craft in question, we may assert 

 that more small vessels have been lost, in proportion, during the present 

 peace, than have been destroyed in many preceding years of war. 

 This has been long known to every naval man in the kingdom ; and so 

 frequent have the losses become that, at length, even the landlords of 

 the Admiralty have gradually opened their eyes to the fact. Indeed a 

 recent court-martial has thought it might not be amiss to make a sort 

 of example of one of our beardless captains ; and, accordingly, pour 

 encourager les autres, one of our young Admiralty aspirants has received 

 a check, by losing his commission for having grounded one of his 

 Majesty's brigs, himself not being well grounded in his profession. In 

 this respect what was sauce for the goose was not sauce for the gander. 

 The captain and not the vessel should have been well grounded. 



It is remarkable, considering the care which Sir Charles Penrose has 

 evidently bestowed on his subject, that he should have omitted to par- 

 ticularize a certain arbitrary exercise of power in the present admini- 

 stration of our naval affairs. We allude to the practice of " scratching 

 off the list" the names of many valuable officers without court-martial, 

 or previous investigation of any kind. Persons in office seem to think 

 that an act, which converts a gentleman into a pauper, may be committed 

 without the necessity of assigning any other reason than that " it is the 

 pleasure of His Majesty " whereas it is well known that His Majesty 

 would be the last man in his own dominions to do an unconstitutional 

 act ; for martial law ought to be compounded of the same elements as 

 civil law, one of the fundamental principles of which is, that no man 



