they had no remuneration, although the captains of marine artillery, for only paying their own companies, had two shillings per day additional pay. Besides, those old officers, in any branch of the service, would have been entitled to majorities, and many of them would have been old field officers. Any advantage, therefore, which could be given them without great expence to the public, ought not to be withheld from a brave class of men, whose existence was scarcely known to their country except by their services in her cause.

Upon this Mr Wellesley Pole begged leave to refer Sir Charles to a petition presented by those very paycaptains to the Admiralty when the honourable baronet was at that board, praying for this very allowance which he was now seeking to obtain for them. The answer then given to their petition was, that the birth was a pretty good one, and it was very desirable it should continue to exist; but if they did not like it with full pay, and exemption from all other duty, they might take their turns of service. Ever since they had been pretty well satisfied to remain as they were. Sir Charles Pole denied any recollection of such an application. At all events, he said, he was perfectly certain that, during the whole time he was at the Admiralty, he never gave an offensive answer to any application made either by an individual, or by any description of persons. There was nothing which he considered as more disgraceful than such conduct on the part of any man in office.

A bill was brought in May 15. by Mr Rose respecting the payment of wages and prize-money, and the allotment of wages in the navy. When the House

resolved itself into a committee upon the bill, Sir May 31. Charles objected to it on account of the discontent excited among seamen by the deductions from their pay, first for their slops, secondly for the allotments to their wives and children, in consequence of which it often happened that at the end of a long voyage they had not more than forty shillings to receive; a hardship which should be contrasted with the case of militia-men, whose wives and children were provided for by their parishes, and which was the frequent ground of complaint. At the very moment when old seamen were called on to set out for another voyage, without a shilling in their pockets, they saw volunteers, inferior seamen, and even landsmen who had never served an hour, receiving large bounties for entering on board, and were often so piqued as to desert their ships. Mr Wellesley Pole replied, it was considered as an indulgence to seamen to enable them to allot part of their earnings to their wives and children, and save them the necessity of applying to the parish: this bill extended the principle, and enabled them to allot part to their parents also, which by law they could not do before; and the allotment was altogether optional on their part, not compulsory. Sir Charles then remarked, that the bill was very favourable to the parishes, but not to the navy: he would not, however, divide the House upon it. When it was read a third June 7. time, this baronet proposed a clause, by way of rider, enabling a seaman to revoke his allotment if he thought fit; because, as the bill then stood, he could not, if he should marry, make any allowance to his wife. A clause providing for this

would lessen the evil, he said; but it would not do away the objection of increasing the labour and responsibility of the captains or commanders. On the contrary, it imposed severe fines and penalties, independent of the articles of war or naval instructions; it augmented their already too much loaded accounts; it increased their risk and responsibility, and strengthened their claims for an increase of pay or other remuneration. The bill was then passed.

It is remarkable that no allusion was made by Sir Charles Pole, in any of these debates, to a circumstance which, early in the year, excited considerable interest in the navy. A number of captains and commanders petitioned for an increase of pay, stating, that it was impossible for them to support that respectability of appearance, without which the service could not be carried on, otherwise than by a continual and heavy expenditure of the private fortunes of the few who had any, or by a ruinous accumulation of debt upon the majority who had none. The income tax, the increased price of every article of consumption and every incidental expence, naturally, they said, called for a corresponding increase of salaries in general. In addition to these drawbacks, they had suffered a most material diminution of their accustomed emolument, by the late deduction from their share of prizemoney; the only source, however precarious and uncertain, from which they had heretofore hoped for relief. To this petition a general negative was returned; in consequence of which they presented another, wherein they entered more fully into the nature of their difficulties:"Long custom," they said, " made it imperative upon the captains to keep a constant table

while at sea, as the means of maintaining a social intercourse with their officers, and of knowing them. He who should venture to break through that good custom, however urged by strong necessity, would not only sacrifice a great portion of his respectability, but would also lessen that happy connective influence, which generated regard, cemented the various links in the service, and tended so greatly to regularity and discipline. Submit. ting this most humbly to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, should they not be pardoned if they asked, how, in the present times, and with all the accumulated expence of live-stock at sea, and unavoidable waste of every other article beyond what it would be on shore, with all practical economy-how this could be done without involving the whole of a captain's pay for his table alone, and forcing him to borrow for the rest of his expenditure? The rise of servants' wages was one of the many increased expences which might be enumerated. Stationary had greatly increased in price, while the consump. tion had been greatly enlarged; and frequently, on his arrival from sea, a captain had an enormous postage to pay for letters written by the wives or parents of sailors, to solicit tidings of their husbands or sons. The rise of almost every article in life had alone reduced the value of their pay to half of what it once was; and, prest as they already were by these circumstances, when the income-tax came, it fell upon the great majority, who had no private fortune, with a force that was almost destructive, the effects of which could only be palliated for a while by incurring debts and living upon hope. There was a time, indeed, when that hope was not without foundation: an oc、

casional prize did, in former days, not unfrequently reward the toils of a few fortunate individuals. But although they rejoiced that naval gallantry had swept the seas of the foes of Britain, even this success, so happy for their country, was to them, who were the instrument of that happiness, an additional cause of pecuniary distress. The diminution of their shares, and the droits of Admiralty, they did not presume to canvass; yet perhaps they might be suffered to add, that when a prize was taken, (an event which was well nigh as rare as a prize in the lottery,) the captain found a heavy defalcation from what was formerly considered as his due, not only for the long and persevering service which had brought him to his rank,-not only as a necessary means to assist in the support of that rank,-but because, in the case of the detention and noncondemnation of a vessel, he alone was the responsible individual. They also humbly entreated that the pecuniary insignificance and embarrassment to which they were consigned when their services were no longer required, might be taken into consideration, and that an augmentation might be made to their half-pay, proportioned to the time they had served, the rank they respectively bore, and the value of what it was worth, in reference to the price of all the articles of life when it was first established."

To this Mr W. Wellesley Pole replied, by order of the Lords Commissioners, that, upon a full examination of the memorial, the prayer therein contained was considered to be wholly inadmissible. The pay of all ranks in the navy was, in the year 1806, increased in such proportions

were considered, after the most

mature deliberation, to be just, and nothing had since occurred to induce their lordships to think it expedient to recommend a farther increase of pay to the captains and commanders. The reply concluded in these harsh terms to the port admiral: "I have their lordships' further commands to acquaint you, that they regret that' an application of this nature should have been preferred so recently after his Majesty had extended his gracious bounty to all ranks in the navy, and that you should have been the channel through which a memorial so illtimed and inadmissible has been transmitted." The captains did not submit to this unmerited rebuke without appealing against it. They begged leave, with proper respect to their lordships, both personally and from their office, to express their grief and surprise that their memorial, couched as it was in respectful language, and the matter being undeniable, should be considered wholly inadmissible; and farther, that it should be stated to have been preferred so recently after the extension of his Majesty's gracious bounty,-insinuating thereby that it was indecorous. They thought it right respectfully to observe, that the gracious bounty of his Majesty was in fact putting into one hand what was taken out of the other by the income-tax; and that a charge of five per cent. had been made on their prize-money for Greenwich, and ultimately a third of it taken away altogether since that bounty was extended to them.

Immediately after this correspondence, the commander-in-chief at Portsmouth was dismissed from his command, for no other reason, it was said, than that he had forwarded these petitions to the Admiralty. These circumstances occasioned some

letters to Lord Mulgrave, in which his military character was not forgotten. He had been taken, the writer said, from his own profession to be put at the head of another, and there could be no reason to believe that he had any predilection for naval men, or talents for naval offices. Some of the remonstrances addressed to the First Lord of the Admiralty on this subject were so intemperate, and so nearly libellous, that they injured the cause which they were designed to serve. The petition of the captains certainly deserved a different answer: the facts which they alleged were unanswerable, and the inadequacy of their pay, and its disproportion to its real value a century ago, are glaring and notorious. Had Lord Melville continued at the head of the Admiralty, what he did for the navy gave reason to believe that he would have improved the condition of all ranks in it. This might be effected upon two principles, as simple as they are just; by appointing an increase of pay correspondent to length of service, and securing to every man who had served a certain number of years a provision sufficient for all the comforts of life, according to his relative rank. This term might be fixed at one-and-twenty years after the age of twenty. Many would, no doubt, be tempted after that term to continue in the service, by the prospect of advantage in that lottery which it holds out, or by inclination and inveterate habits; but every man

who chose it should be entitled to his discharge, for one-and-twenty years service is as much as any government ought to require from its subjects. A portion of life would then be left for enjoyment; and when it became apparent to all men that a certain and comfortable provision was to be obtained in the service of their country, it would no longer be necessary to man our fleets by violence, or recruit our army by delusion. These are the reforms that are needful and practicable, and not less easy than desirable. Did statesmen think more wisely and more favourably of human nature, they would know, that the hope of good is a far more powerful impulse than the fear of evil, and that the better they thought of mankind, the better they would find them and the better they would make them. The perfectability of man has been made a word of ridicule by philosophists on one side, who fancied themselves perfect, and philosophicides on the other, whose worse error it was, that no farther improvement in human society is possible. But when these truths shall be acknowledged and become the ground-work of policy, the main step will then be taken towards that amelioration of humankind, which history and true philosophy alike encourage us to expect; to which we have been commanded to press on by Him, who said unto his disciples, "Be ye perfect!" and which, in fact, is one great purpose of revelation itself.