222 ANNUAL REIGISTER, 1805. 



During this anxious period, Lord 

 Nelson, witii unwearied activity, 

 cruized in every likely direction 

 in the Mediterranean, agreeably to 

 his own surmises of the course of 

 the enemy, or as he was led by the 

 various intelligence he collected 

 from every quarter, and finally took 

 his station in the Sicilian seas, 

 where he eagerly waited the ap- 

 proach of the enemy. 



It is necessary, in considering tlie 

 naval events of this year, that we 

 should recur to the condition of the 

 civil administration of the marine 

 at home within the same period, 

 and to the changes which it under, 

 ■went, as they bear very materially 

 upon the great events which wo 

 have 3'et to record. 



In the month of April, the suc- 

 cess of Mr. Whitbread's motion 

 against lord Melville, having driven 

 his lordship from the councils of his 

 majesty, he was also soon after re- 

 moved from his high station of first 

 lord commissioner of the admi- 

 ralty, in which he was succeeded 

 by Sir Charles Middleton, newly 

 created a baron of the realm, by 

 the title of lord Barham. It is 

 not our purpose, at this moment, 

 to investigate the proceedings 

 against the late first lord of the 

 admiralty, still less to pretend to de- 

 cide upon his criminality, in the 

 matter adduced against him. lie 

 is now upon his country, and before 

 our next publication, his guilt or in- 

 nocence will have been determined by 

 the proper tribunal. But whatever 

 maybe the event, motives of strict 

 impartiality oblige us to state that 

 no minister whatever, at the hesd 

 of the naval department, has ever 

 wore distinguished himself as the 

 friend and patron of the service ; so 



long as his memory shall exist, her 

 Avill be revered by the seaman, the 

 M-idow, the orphan, and the half- 

 pay officer ; and while judgment is 

 yet pending on his character as an 

 accomptant, it is but justice to his 

 long services to give him the credit 

 due to an able statesman, and view 

 his conduct, in the high stations he 

 ha*- nileil, with an impartial eye. 



^Vhcn viscount MelTille accepted 

 the office of first lord of the adnii- 

 ralfy, he found the navy of this 

 country in a most deplorable state, 

 if not rapidly approaching to utter 

 ruin. Scarcely a ship in course of 

 repair, or a single piece of timber, 

 or article of naval equipment, in any 

 of the royal dock-yards. To such 

 a wretched state had tlie baleful 

 system adopted by a late board of 

 admiralty, under the specious pre- 

 tence of retrenchment and ecano- 

 niy, weakened and reduced this 

 great, perhaps sole, prop of the 

 welfare of the nation. 



To withdraw the empire from 

 the abyss which yawned beneath 

 her feet, and to restore her navy 

 from the paralyzed state in which 

 it was left, to its pristine health and 

 vigour ; and enable Great Britain, 

 through its wonted medium^ again 

 to give laws to the world, was 

 the successful, but arduous attempt 

 of the fii-st step of lord Melville's 

 naval administration. Part of his 

 lordship's Measures, for this pur- 

 pose, had already taken the hap- 

 piest 'effect, when the event of his 

 removal took place, and admiral 

 sir Charjes Middleton, a very old 

 and experienced officer in the civil 

 department of the navy, was named, 

 as we have already stated, with the 

 dignity of the peerage, to succeed 

 him. No subsidiary changes took 



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