178 
BOMBAY. 
probable that he may lose every officer under him. I have known 
a Lieutenant to be appointed to three different vessels in four days; 
and the Panther cruizer had three different commanders in one 
week. This system of perpetual change, annihilates that pride 
which a Captain in the King's navy feels in the neatness and good 
condition of his ship, and leaves to the Bombay marine com- 
mander no motive for exerting himself to bring his vessel to the 
highest possible state of improvement. It has indeed no one ad- 
vantage, and can only enable the Superintendent to provide when- 
ever he pleases for a new favourite, and to keep in implicit obedi- 
ence to his caprice the officers, who must be conscious that if they 
offend hiai, they can instantly be removed to the most disagreeable 
situations. 
If the East India Company determine to make their marine a re- 
spectable body, this evil must be rectified as well as many others ; 
they must increase the number of their officers, which, at present, 
bears so little proportion to the size and number of their vessels, 
that the Mornington of twenty-four guns, and the Ternate of six- 
teen, when they sailed from the Persian Gulf, had each only one 
Midshipman. They must inforce the proper regulations in their 
vessels, and make the officers amenable to a strict judicature ; 
and, above all things, they must avoid exercising that most mis- 
chievous of all privileges, the reinstating such officers as have 
been dismissed by a court of inquiry. They must also arrange 
with his Majesty's Government the real situation of their marine 
officers, who, at present, claim, under their directions, a relative 
rank with the officers of the King's navy which is not recognised 
by them, owing to which disputes often occur, and more serious 
