1830.] Naval Administration of Great Britain. 627 



quite .toil- worn and weather-beaten by long service., are incompetent to 

 the exercise of such discretionary power. Still, however meritorious the 

 services of these " shore-going" Lords of the Admiralty might be, in 

 appointing and promoting their own connexions for the good of the 

 service, let us for a moment cast a glance at the other duties which the 

 innocent public might think they ought to discharge. For instance, 

 suppose Sir George C**** and Lord C********** were despatched to 

 Portsmouth or Plymouth to investigate any local circumstances con- 

 nected with the service, such as the patent triangular stay-sails of Sir 

 Henry Heathcote, to what conclusion could either of these gentlemen 

 arrive at as to the merits or demerits of the proposed invention ? The 

 former, from his well-known predilection for old usages (as the patrons 

 of the Ancient Music might satisfactorily testify), would, in all proba- 

 bility, reject Sir Henry's plan because it was not a hundred years old ; 

 just as the works of Haydn are not allowed to be performed in the 

 orchestra, or to be admitted into the reverend and dusty library of the 

 institution ! And this exclusion is not because Haydn's symphonies are 

 not far better than those of his predecessors, but because they do not bear 

 the stamp of age ! On the other hand, the juvenile lord might be in- 

 clined to regard the new stay-sails with contempt, because, in demon- 

 strating their utility. Sir Henry might demonstrate also a wristband not 

 authorised by the oracles of fashion. 



But the whole of our naval administration is not confined to the Ad- 

 miralty. The Navy Board have under their jurisdiction all matters 

 relating to ship-building, and every thing (excepting the ordnance) 

 belonging to the fitting-out of a vessel of war. But in this body, as 

 Admiral Penrose very justly remarks, there is a pernicious adherence to 

 old customs merely because they are old. With this body the cry is, 

 and ever has been, " No innovation !" as if improvement was not inno- 

 vation. ff Where the judgment is weak, the prejudice is strong." There 

 is nothing which marks the infirmity of age so unequivocally as fear of 

 alteration, and irrational resistance to improvement because it is change. 

 " I was very much struck," says the Admiral, " by one remarkable 

 instance of obstinate adherence to our old system on the part of the Navy 

 Board. The Foudroyant, of eighty guns, had been taken from the 

 French in 1758, and was universally considered, during the whole of the 

 American war, the finest two-decker in the British service ; but no per- 

 suasion could induce the surveyors of the navy to imitate so desirable a 

 ship; and it was not until 1793, thirty -Jive years after she had been in 

 our possession, that the first eighty-gun ship on two decks was launched 

 from a British dock-yard !" This is a fact, though it seems incredible ; 

 but it is well known to professional men that the Admiralty have been 

 too long controlled by the " Comptroller of the Navy." To illustrate 

 this assertion : The Admiralty permit naval architects to construct a cer- 

 tain number of experimental vessels, and accordingly Captain Hayes, 

 Captain Symonds, and Professor Inman, build ships of a certain class ; 

 but, instead of being allowed the full exercise of their scientific acquire- 

 ments, are so " cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in" by the Navy 

 Board, as to render their efforts any thing but experimental. Let us refer, 

 on this head, to the pertinent observations of our author. 



" The first great mistake committed, appeared tome to be in limiting the con- 

 structors unnecessarily as to the dimensions, and more especially as to the breadth 

 of their ships, by insisting that they were not to exceed a certain prescribed ton* 



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