BOMBAY. m 
It is in the light of a marine arsenal that Bombay appears of the 
greatest importance, and its value has been hitherto little dimi- 
nished by the conquest of Trincomalee, which, at present, affords 
only a scanty and precarious supply of fresh provisions for a fleet. 
Here are established docks for the repair of the King's ships, as well 
as of the vessels belonging to the East India Company's marine, an 
establishment that seems, at present, of little use, and of which 
the expense is incalculable. Most of the situations in it seem to 
have sunk into sinecure employments, and its very existence must 
have been doubted by its former enemies, the Pirates. If the 
East India Company are really in embarrassed circumstances, it 
appears to me that in no part of their establishment can they more 
easily oeconomise than in the marine of Bombay ; even if they do 
not think it advisable to abolish it at once. Were a new system 
adopted, and a reform carried into the higher and the lower 
orders, I believe the marine might become a respectable and useful 
establishment. As far as the exertions of an individual can go 
to the completion of this, I have no doubt that success will attend 
on Captain Money, the present Superintendent of the marine; but it 
will require the power and the perseverance of a Hercules to cleanse 
this Augean stable. 
Some of the present arrangements of the marine seem to have been 
ingeniously formed for the sole purpose of acting contrary to the 
system of the King's navy. Instead of an officer who is appointed 
to a vessel, continuing for a length of time in her, till he is ac- 
quainted with the characters of those under him, it is a very un- 
usual circumstance for an officer to command the same vessel for 
two successive voyages ; and if, by accident, he should do so, it is 
