HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
greatly impeded, by the extensive 
efforts lately made to strengthen the 
service at land. The bounties given 
_ to recruit the army took off*num- 
bers of able men from the navy; 
on which, however, every judicious 
man placed more reliance against an 
invasion of this country, than upon 
~itsland forces. Theincessant threats 
of the enemy oughtto render govern- 
ment peculiarly sdlicitous to provide, 
in time, the means to frustrate them. 
_ The navy was the bulwark of-the’ 
. realm, and it were criminal at the 
present jun¢ture, ‘not to pay it a 
much higher degree of attention 
than military operations on the con- 
tinent; ‘which the experience of 
three campaigns had shewn to be 
ineffeCtual for the main’ obje@ of 
the contest, the reducing France to 
Submit ‘to our own terms. 
* Mr. Dundas, in vindication of 
ministry, stated, that no efforts had 
ever been made superior, if equal, 
‘to those: which had taken. place in 
the naval department of the king- 
dom, since ‘the ‘commencement of 
the present war. “The number of 
seamen, at that period, amounted 
only to sixteen thousand, but was, 
at this day, noless than ninety-five 
thousand. He was convinced, from 
good information, that our ating 
force at sea was double to that of 
the enemy ; much, he observed, had 
been said in favour of the superior 
skill of the enemy in naval ‘archi- 
teCture; but we were confessedly 
the superior in action, and while we 
_| retained this superiority, the collate- 
! 
De etiNene Si, 
ral advantages of construction and 
expeditious sailing would be of 
little avail to the enemy, , 
Mr. Sheridan made several ob- 
servations on the assertions of Mr, 
Dundas ; he particularly sioticed 
the difficulty of overtaking vessels 
[ 167 
so much more advantageously con- 
structed for quick sailing thin ours, 
as the French seemed to be gene- 
rally acknowledged; and reprobated 
with much severity the negleét of 
government, in not accelerating the 
improvements necessary to remedy 
so essential a defect. 
Mr. Pitt confessed that extraordi- 
nary efforts had been made by the 
French to increase and strengthen 
their navy: but, like their exertions 
at land, they would not be ofa du- 
rable nature: they were tco hurried 
and precipitate to-last. He pro- 
ceeded from this topic to the ge- 
neral state of that country ; the vi- 
gour.and resources of which he 
represented to be on the declines 
Herein he was contraditted by ge- 
Neral Tarleton, who described*both 
as very far from being exhausted ; 
and their ingenuity as incessantly 
on the stretch to profit by every op- 
portunity that occurred. ‘heir 
system of a€ting had, since the fall 
of Roberspierre, undergone material 
alterations ; convinced that severity 
and terror were not so effectual 
as lenity and conciliation, they had 
wisely adopted: these’ wherever 
they could be applicable. Hence 
the aversion formerly excited, by 
the merciless proceedings ‘of their 
late government, had given> way 
to sentiments Jess hostile and re. 
pugnant to the principles . they 
were labouring to establish.’ The 
treatment ‘oftheir prisoners, in 
particular, since that time, had been 
much more humane, and they seem: 
ed, upon the whole, studious to aed 
quire a charaéter of mildness: and 
moderation ; all these circumstances 
shonld be taken into consideratiom 
Whea we animadverted on the 
present state of that nation, as they 
had been lately described with jus- 
[M4] tice, 
