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and material to the public safety, and that to record such merit would excite the emulation of the people at large, if a stimulus were necessary, while it would form a monument honourable to our own character, grateful to the pride, and conducive, by the influence of example, to the best interests of posterity. The hon. gentleman concluded with submitting his motion for thanks, &c. Colonel Crauford made a few observations in reply, which were merely explanatory of his speech.

The question was then put upon Mr. Sheridan's motion, and carried nem. con. Mr. Sheridan next moved, "That the speaker do signify to the lords lieutenants of counties, &c. the assent of the house to the above resolution."

Agreed to nem. con.

Mr. Sheridan finally moved, "That a return be made and entered upon the Journals, of the names and number of the volunteer corps, who, from the present moment till the next meeting of parliament, should enrol themselves and be accepted by his Majesty, in order that their patriotic example may handed down to animate our latest posterity."

Agreed to nem. con.

be

MARCH 15, 1804.

STATE OF THE NAVAL DEFENCE OF THE COUNTRY.

Mr. Pitt moved for an address to his Majesty," Praying, that he will be pleased to give orders for laying before the house, an amount of all the ships of the line, fifty-gun ships, frigates, sloops, gun-brigs, and other vessels actually in commission in the years ending the 31st of December, 1793, 1801, and 1803.”

MR. SHERIDAN said, it was my intention, sir, to wait until I should hear the opinions of professional men on this subject, but the observations which have been made by the hon. gentleman (Mr. Wilberforce) who has just sat down, urge me to obtrude my. self on your notice thus prematurely, and contrary to my original intention. The hon. gentleman has, in my mind, used observations the most unwarrantable, on parliamentary grounds, I have ever heard in this house. He has stated, that he has never had conversation with any naval officer whose opinion has not been decidedly in contradiction to the system upon which the naval affairs of the country have been for some time back conducted; that is to say, since the gallant admiral who now presides at the

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head of the admiralty board, was appointed to that high station; and this information, so obtained, he offers to the house as justification for the censure which the advocates for the motion before the house would attach to the character of the noble lord at the head of the admiralty. The hon. gentleman ventures to tell the house, that upon grounds such as these, there is a sufficient reason for the inquiry, and for granting the papers required; but from whom has the hon. gentleman obtained the intelligence, and heard the sentiments to which he thinks the house ought to attach so much importance? From officers, no doubt, who are ashore and unemployed; from those who have not the best opportunity of judging, and whose judgment, for many is not entitled to the first attention: but not from such officers as those whom the house had heard this night; not from such as the gallant admiral who preceded the hon. gentleman to whom I am now alluding, and who has attracted my notice by statements which I am inclined to think he has collected from persons such as I have described, from those whose accounts of the condition of the navy naturally receive a colouring from their own situation. Thus the hon. gentleman would persuade us to found our verdict on an occasion so important as that now before us, upon evidence drawn from such sources, upon secondhand assertions, in a word, upon mere hearsay. The hon. gentleman is no doubt a conscientious man, he certainly so considers and describes himself, and we cannot give him any credit at all if we do not believe him to be so; and would appeal to his conscientiousness whether he does think that any court of justice— and this house is now called upon to act in that capacity—would pronounce sentence in any case upon evidence of the nature of that upon which he seems to rely? I say that there is no court that would attend to, much less believe, such assertions. If the hon. gentleman has any charge to urge against the noble lord, against whom the motion before the house appears to be pointed, say, let the evidence be brought forward; but do not let accusations be insinuated abroad, unsupported by any witnesses whatever, unjustified by any fact, and excused only by a loose statement that such and such officers, whom no one ventures to name, are much in the habit of speaking ill of the conduct of the admiralty and of the character of its principal director. The hon. gentleman, however, has told us, that he entertains a very

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sincere respect for this noble lord, and really here I must remark, that I never heard of any public character for whom men are more forward to profess respect, nor one that is so much respected, and yet so much aspersed. The grounds of the respect are, however, notorious, while those of the aspersion are not even pretended to rest upon anything more than hearsay evidence, which is surely not sufficient to induce this house to acquiesce in a motion that has no other object in view, than to convey an imputation upon one of the most gallant and meritorious characters this country has ever produced. For such a purpose I will never

give my vote. I will not, therefore, consent to the grant of a single slip of paper, however plausible the pretence for demanding it, that may lead to an inquiry for which there is not the shadow of excuse, and import an accusation for which there is not the slightest ground. I would ask the right hon. gentleman who moved this proposition, what are the reasons-for he certainly has not stated any-which have provoked him to alter his sentiments with respect to the noble lord who was the subject of such warm panegyric, upon the first accession of the present ministers. to office? and who, I would be curious to know, does the right hon. gentleman think more adequate to the high station he fills? whom would he recommend to succeed him? If the right hon. gentleman did pronounce the splendid panegyric to which I have alluded upon this noble lord, upon slight grounds, he was certainly very censurable; for he was, as it were, giving a false character, and that to a great public servant; but it was well known that those grounds were not light-they rested upon the highest public services, and were supported by the warm and unanimous applauses of the country. Why then have the right hon. gentleman, and the hon. gentleman who spoke last, changed their opinions? Why have they altered their sentiments of the noble lord? Has anything occurred since to induce or justify the change? I challenge them to take the most minute retrospect of the conduct of that noble lord since his appointment to the presidency of the admiralty; I call upon them to retrace all his steps, and to point out one reason why he has forfeited their confidence; I mean such a reason as this house would recognise as sufficient to justify the proposed inquiry. What facts have they in their power to produce? I am satisfied they have none, and therefore I will resist the proposition; and this is the first

instance in which it has happened that I have felt it my duty to oppose a motion for inquiry. Indeed, on every such motion. heretofore that I recollect, particularly during the administration of the right hon. gentleman by whom the present motion was submitted to the house, ample grounds were laid to demand inquiry; but in this instance I am of opinion that the demand is unsupported, not merely by common sense, but common decency. I do not intend to attribute improper motives to the right hon. mover; but I beg to ask him, what good can he accomplish by the production of papers respecting the state of our navy in a former war? What are his views? Does he mean to institute a comparison between Lord St. Vincent and Lord Spencer; to ascertain which of the two is better qualified to manage our naval concerns? I cannot see the purpose of such a contrast. It cannot tend to any good object. Indeed I am confident, that if a stranger were to observe the whole of this proceeding, he would not hesitate to pronounce that it could be only actuated by factious and party motives. This I am the more strongly inclined to believe from the statements of the gallant officer (Sir Edward Pellew), which were quite a satisfactory reply to all the arguments that have been advanced this evening, and a full refutation of the calumnies that have been for some time back propagated relative to the condition of our navy. In that speech, which applied as forcibly to the heart as the understanding, the hon. baronet manifested not only that sincerity and frankness which is the general characteristic of the profession of which he forms so bright an ornament, and which never fails to interestany man capable of feeling, but also a considerable share of acuteness and judgment: he made some pertinent remarks upon the nature of those gun-boats which seem to be such favourites of the right hon. gentleman who brought forward this motion, but of which the hon. baronet does not appear at all to approve; and, from my own observation, I certainly am disposed to agree with the hon. baronet, who is much more competent to judge upon the subject than the right hon. gentleman or any other statesman. I am not surprised that these gunboats should be treated with so much contempt by naval men. I have happened to see something of them myself, by accident, in the course of the last war, on the south coast, and they really appeared to me to be quite unfit to render any material service

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in the way of attack or defence; indeed, some of them were incapable of firing a shot. It is known that out of the 120 gunboats which the right hon. gentleman had in commission at the close of the last war, there were scarcely any retained as at all useful, and that sixty-two of them, which were purchased from contractors, were much the worst. Enough has been said by the hon. baronet of the kind of vessels which contractors generally built and without referring to the ships of the line of which the right hon. baronet has taken notice, in proof of the badness of their materials, and the inferiority of their workmanship, I shall only remark on these gun-boats. I do not, indeed, like to dwell on the misconduct of inferior officers in any department. I do not wish to hear of such persons in this house; we should always look to the heads of those departments as the persons answerable to us. The navy board may be suspected of having played into the hands of the contractors during the last war; and perhaps, to that was owing the great inferiority of the right hon. gentleman's gun-boats-an inferiority which was certainly very glaring, for, out of the 120, 87 were sold, after advertisement, for almost nothing; some which could not be disposed of were retained, and six were sent to Jersey, which were found so utterly useless, that Captain D'Auvergne knew not what to do with them. He, however, sent five of them home some time after, and was obliged to send some of his best cruizers to tow them safely. Yet this is the kind of force which the right hon. gentleman would recommend in preference to any other to defend our coast. It reminds me of an anecdote of the right hon. gentleman's administration, when three men of war were sent to this country from Portugal, which was our ally; those ships were found to be incapable of giving us any assistance; but on the contrary, were so little sea-worthy, that it was determined to send them home, and it became absolutely necessary to dispatch one of our frigates with them as a convoy. Such shipping would of course be rather an incumbrance to us; and the gun-boats, to which the right hon. gentleman is so partial, would, from all that I have heard abroad, which is corroborated by the hon. baronet this night, be rather injurious on the score of expense, and the number of men they would necessarily require, than likely to he serviceable. An hon. admiral on the lower bench (Admiral Berkeley), has, in the course of a very extraordinary

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