HYDROGRAPHY, PAST AND PRESENT. 239 



over.' Of these, and similar documents, we may say, in the words of the 

 old Scotch song, that 



Wives and mithers maist despairin' 

 GV them lives o' men. 



Apart from humane considerations, the new branch of commerce that 

 has been opened in Siberia, and our increasing trade with Norway, which 

 is already worth nearly five millions a year, would appear to justify the 

 small additional outlay that would be required to publish work that has 

 already been done, and paid for. I am quite sure that neither the 

 Government nor the public have realised the state of things that I have 

 endeavoured to set before you, and that if it could only be made clear to 

 them, fewer ships would be wrecked on the dangerous shoals called ' de- 

 partmental reasons.' 



I hope I have succeeded in proving that hydrographical information 

 is urgently needed by our merchants, and by their fleets, while the fate of 

 the Independencia, and the narrow escape of the Active and Tenedos, clearly 

 show that it is required by our Navy. Both duty and interest call upon 

 us to provide this information to the utmost extent of our power, for 

 hardly a ship floats that does not in some way carry British interests, and, 

 as the First Lord of the Admiralty publicly said only a few weeks ago, 

 * our national greatness is principally due to the fact that we have a larger 

 mercantile marine than any other nation.' 



In the words of a great English Minister, ' I refer it alike to the 

 hearts and understandings of those who hear me, and of those out of 

 doors who will consider our discussions, whether we should not shrink 

 from our duty, and disgrace the memory of those who have gone before 

 ns, if we were to hesitate to say that we would provide for the wants of 

 the day in which we live ? I am not addressing you in unconsciousness 

 of the increase made to the Army and Navy Estimates, which unforeseen 

 circumstances have rendered of immediate necessity, but in considering 

 the amount of estimates voted, I would say, it is not the amount to be 

 considered, but the national exigencies imperatively required for the 

 country's safety.' 



This is essentially a humane and industrial, and in no way a party 

 question, and I would earnestly appeal to you to use your influence for the 

 restoration of the Surveying Service to the prominent position it ought 

 to hold among the forces of civilisation, and to protect it in some measure 

 from those blasts of ruinous economy which occasionally sweep over our 

 country. By increasing the number of surveying ships, and extending to 

 navigation and nautical surveying a fair share of the encouragement so 

 freely bestowed on ship-building and great-gun-founding, you would 

 establish a first-rate finishing school, which would produce not only 

 nautical surveyors, but superior officers for the general service ; and, in 

 giving your naval officers the opportunity of practising afloat what they 

 learn at Greenwich, you would enable them more efficiently to protect the 

 trade they would be helping to extend. 



I trust that the country will take this matter up ; that before long the 

 commander-in-chief of every station will have a properly equipped sur- 

 veying ship at his disposal ; and that the Hydrographical Department 

 may be extended to enable it to keep pace with the wants of the times, 

 and to publish and circulate the stores of valuable — or rather invaluable — 

 information, that are now shelved for ' departmental reasons.' While 



