390 LETTERS OF A CITIZEN. 



the quarter from which such anti-democratic doctrines come is 

 not calculated to gain them any unusual favour in the public mind. 

 The lachrymose tone so characteristic of your annual report is 

 even more conspicuous in the second number of " A Friend to the 

 Navy." Indeed, I doubt if your most charitable supporter would 

 be able to point out a single manly expression in anything you 

 have written connected with the enterprise ; equally fruitless would 

 be his attempt to select a solitary recommendation in which the 

 noble and enlarged views of the liberal and strong-minded states- 

 man can be even faintly recognised. 



From first to last, in conversation and in all your reports, one 

 meets with nothing but a grumbling, fault-finding spirit, in which 

 it is difficult to say whether perversity of temper or narrowness 

 of policy is most obvious. 



I should be pleased to see one incident pointed out, whether 

 connected with the plan of the voyage, its objects, the construction 

 of the vessels, the appointment of officers, or having any bearing, 

 real or imaginary, on the undertaking, from which an excuse for 

 delay or a pretext for dissatisfaction could be drawn, of which you 

 have not availed yourself to the utmost for these purposes. Thus 

 it was again and again asserted that the protection of commerce 

 in 1836 was more than the department could manage, without the 

 " new duties" of fitting out the expedition. But, that I may not 

 do you injustice on this point, I will let " A Friend to the Navy" 

 speak for himself. 



" The imposition of new duties in fitting out an exploring ex- 

 pedition could not fail to increase the difficulties of his (the sec- 

 retary's) situation without relieving him of the responsibilities ; 

 which effect they have had y to the most serious injury of the ser- 

 vice. It is not strange that the secretary should feel opposed to 

 the imposition of new duties at a time of such difficulties ! ! /" 



Is it not enough to provoke a smile on the steeled countenance 

 of a stoic to hear of the onerous duties of the secretary of the 

 navy ? From 1797, when the nation had a navy to create, through 

 the quo,si war with France, during the war witii the Barbary 

 States, and subsequently with the first naval power in the world, 

 down to the present day, nothing like your piteous groaning had 

 been heard. 



No such melancholy complainings escaped your predecessors, 



