628 YONGFE STREET AND DUNDAS STREET. 



As Treasurer of tlie Kavy, Dundas was the originator of roany- 

 beneficial reforms in tlie navy. For several special benefits accruing^ 

 from his enactments to the common sailors, lie was long spoken of 

 amongst tbem as "the sailors' friend." 



By a kind of irony of events, a regulation introduced by him in 

 the Navy Department was made use of, at a subsequent date, to set 

 up a series of charges against himself. The salary of the Treasurer 

 of the Navy had hitherto been .£2,000; but perquisites and the com- 

 mand of the public money set apart for navy purposes, added greatly 

 to the emoluments. To prevent the risk, profusion and irregularity 

 inseparable from-such a system, Dundas' bill fixed the salary at £4,000, 

 and prohibited the treasurer from making any private or individual 

 use of the public money. How this salutary provision was brought- 

 to bear against himself by his political opponents at a subsequent 

 period, will be presently seen. Dundas became also, under Pitt, 

 Secretary of the Home Department and Secretary at War. He "Was- 

 likewise sworn of the Privy Council. As Secretary of the Home 

 Department, in view of the expected invasion from France, he pro- 

 moted the formation of the fencible regiments, the supplementary 

 militia, the volunteer- corps, and the provisional cavalry. Due to 

 him was the whole of that domestic force which, during the war con- 

 sequent on the French Revokition, was raised and kept in readiness, 

 as a defence at once against foreign invasion and internal disturbance. 



I am enabled to give a specimen-dispatch of Mr. Dundas's, as Secre- 

 tary at War, transcribing from the original, wholly in his own hand- 

 writing. It is addressed to the Governor of the Island of Jersey, 

 General Hall, during the troublous times of the Revolution in France. 

 The island, it seems, had been made a convenience of by the French 

 Royalists and by some scoundrels engaged in the manufacture and 

 circulation of forged assignats — French paper currency of the day. 

 The Secretary at War thus addresses General Hall on the subject, 

 leaving us under the impression that due vigilance had not been used 

 by the Governor, who, it appears, is about to be relieved. It, is 

 dated "Horse Guards, 26th October, 1794," and marked "secret:" 

 " Sir, — Some unpleasant occurrences which have lately happened on 

 that part of the coast of Brittany on which persons sent from Jersey 

 have been landed, with a view of establishing a communication with 

 the Royalists in the interior of France, render it absolutely necessary 

 that you should not permit or authorize any person whatever to 



