ried to the credit of the offal account. In the fame account is alfo included the money received for bran, grains, yeast, decayed provifions, old ftaves, hoops, and all ftores fold, and which is regularly paid to the treafurer of the navy, purfuant to the inftructions received from the board for that purpose.

At each of the three out-ports there is an agent victualler, a ftore-keeper, and a clerk of the cheque, with clerks and other inferior perfons. At Plymouth and Portsmouth, there are likewife a master cooper and a mafter brewer; and at the latter place a mafter miller; but the fame eftablishment is unneceffary at Chatham, on account of its vicinity to Deptford.

MAKING OUT AND PASSING ACCOUNTS. The agent victualler, ftore-keeper and clerk of the cheque or perfons deputed from their respective departments, muft all join, in order to carry through any tranfaction whatever; fo that they are mutual checks on each other, like the principal officers of a dock-yard. Every article of provifion, and ftores, received by the officers at the feveral out-ports, is charged against them in accounts kept at London by the accountant for ftores; and all provisions and ftores iffued by fuch officers, are placed to their credit refpectively in the fame account. Thofe accounts are afterwards checked, and examined in the office of the chief clerk for bringing up the accounts of stores in arrear. The bills made out by the agent victualler at the out ports, and certified by him, the storekeeper, and the clerk of the cheque, are received by the accountant for cash, and afterwards pafs through the fame forms as bills which are made out in London. Every agent victualler keeps one general account of cafh; another ftating all monies received for provifions, &c, fold; both which are fent to and examined by the accountant for cash. A third account, ftating money impreffed to fuch agent victualler, is alfo tranfmitted to and examined by the chief clerk for examining and ftating of impreft accounts. The pay-lifts for wages are received by the clerk of the cheque, and those for short allowance money in the office of that name. All the above accounts are tranfmitted to London once in every three months, upon oath, and being corroborated by other documents, they collectively form a complete fyftem of connexion between the board of victualling in London, and the feveral fubordinate eftablishments at the out-ports, under every check and fecurity which the public fervice can render neceflary; provided that the execution of the complicated duties of that extenfive department, as well in the fuperintendance as the detail, be performed with fidelity and precifion by the perfons intrufted.

EXPENCE OF VICTUALLING. The expence of victualling hie majefty's fleet is provided for in the following manner; out of

the

the fum per month of twenty-eight days, which is voted by parliament to each man for the fervice of the navy, a certain portion per month is appropriated to the victualling; a further fum is likewife voted, under the head of harbour victuals, which is intended to defray the expence of victualling the fhips in ordinary, and the officers and fervants employed therein, alfo thofe employed in navy tranfports, finall yachts, &c. The amount of thofe fums collectively is never adequate to the whole expence of the victualling establishment; extra fervices conftantly occur, and old balances are frequently demanded, and paid, although not provided for in the eftimate which is laid before parliament; and an additional charge likewife falls on this department, in confequence of the high prices paid for provifions or ftores upon foreign ftations, with other incidental expences, which are more or less confiderable, according to circumftances, and cannot be enumerated. Befides the fund arifing from the money voted by parliament, another fund is formed of monies produced from the fale of offal, decayed provifions, old ftores, &c. to which are added, fums repaid to clear imprefts, debts remaining due to government upon balancing the accounts with purfers, &c. and in general all monies whatfoever which are received by the board of victualling, except what is received directly from the exchequer.

MANNING THE NAVY. In ancient times, as already has been fhewn, the fovereign by his prerogative enforced the fervice both of fhips and men when requifite, and fubfequently both were fupplied by the kingdom at large on the king's demand. The principle on which this prerogative was founded probably gave birth to the practice which has been at all times reforted to by government as a great mean of procuring men for the navy, that of inforcing feamen to serve, or, as it is generally termed impreffing, or preffing them.

THE IMPRESS SERVICE. The unpopularity which must ever attend a fyftem where abfolute force is employed on perfons guilty of no offence to make them perform fervices to which they have an utter repugnance, and which are alfo perhaps prejudicial to their interefts, has occafioned many warm difcuffions, on the legality of the practice of preffing feamen. Thofe who oppose it reafon chiefly on general principles, and from them, arguments of great force and cogency are derived; but on the other fide, every lawyer, hiftorian, and antiquary, who has well investigated the origin and progrefs of the British navy, agrees in the legality of the prerogative, according to the ufages of the moft ancient times. Nor will they who duly confider the neceffity of adopting fudden and vigorous meafures for rendering available the great national defence in times of war, be too

ready,

ready, even in argument, to rely on principles which can never be reduced to practice, and againft which the writings of all lawyers, and the declarations of all ftatefmen may be almost uniformly cited. Among the former may be reckoned Sir Michael Fofter, Lord Mansfield and Mr. Juftice Blackftone, and as a fplendid inftance of the latter, the earl of Chatham, who, while he oppofed government, declared, in 1770, his firm conviction that this mode of obtaining men for the navy was legal, and that those who oppofed it, were actuated by faction, and guilty of an endeavour to cut off the right hand of the community. Edward III. in 1337, exprefsly empowered his admirals to chufe as many men as they thought neceffary for manning the fleet, and to feize and imprison those who might be unwilling to go on board; the ftatute 2d Richard II. c. 4. fpeaks of mariners being arrested and retained for the king's fervice, as of a thing well known and practifed without difpute; and provides a remedy against their running away; and in 1481, Edward IV. preparing a navy against Scotland, empowered eleven commanders to prefs mariners for manning their veffels.

REGULATIONS. This most unpleafant and difficult, though indifpenfable, fervice is reduced to regularity and method by the divifion of the united kingdom into twenty-fix ftations, to the officers at which the prefs warrants are directed. At each ftation is a captain, and generally two (but on fome more, and on one or two fewer) lieutenants, who have under them bodies of feamen, called gangs, or generally prefs-gangs. In fome places; in the city of London in particular, their warrants cannot be executed until fanctioned by the indorfed permiffion of the civil magiftrates, whofe Gignature is called backing the warrant, and the attendance of a peace officer. The officers and men on this duty have an extraordinary pay. The lieutenants attend with the gangs, and place the men whom they impress on board a veffel prepared for the purpofe, and called a tender, where they undergo an examination before the regulating captain, and unless they can fhew fufficient reafon to obtain a release, they are configned to fuch of the king's fhips as are in want of hands, and compelled to ferve during the refidue of the war, or until discharged. The accounts of every lieutenant on the impress service are audited monthly at the admiralty: they contain the fums expended on the men impreffed, and their number; alfo the amount of the pay and incidental expences of himself and gang. The regulating captain of each lieutenant makes oath as to the validity of his account, and paffes it at the admiralty.

EXEMPTIONS AND REGULATIONS. A ftriking hardfhip which attends the practice of preffing is apparent in the fituation of thofe feamen, who, after making long voyages in the fervice of merchants,

merchants, are, the moment they come in fight of fhore, compelled to renew their labours on board a king's fhip. Another evil is, that fometimes it is found neceffary to imprefs landfmen as well as failors, and in these cafes ferious affrays have arifen, in which even lives have been loft. In order to prevent these calamities, the legislature has framed fome provifions, and occafional attempts have been made to fubftitute means lefs harfh, for fupplying the navy with hands. By feveral ftatutes, any waterman, who ufes the river Thames, hiding himfelf during the execution of any commiffion of preffing for the king's fervice, is liable to heavy penalties; no fisherman fhall be taken by royal commiffion to ferve as a mariner, but the commiffion fhall be first brought to two justices of the peace, inhabiting near the fea coaft where the mariners are to be taken, to the intent that the juftices may chufe out, and return for fervice, the number of able-bodied men mentioned in the commiffion; efpecial protections are allowed to feamen in particular circumstances to prevent them from being impreffed; and ferrymen are faid to be privileged by the common law. Thefe protections are however occafionally fuperfeded in cafes of urgent neceffity, by acts of parliament, and difcretionary protections granted by the admiralty, are revoked without notice to the parties.

OTHER MEANS OF MANNING THE NAVY. One of the means tried for fuperfeding preffing was a scheme in the middle of king William's reign, for registering 30,000 men for a conftant and regular supply of the king's fleet; with great privileges to the registered men, and, on the other hand, heavy penalties in cafe of their non-appearance when called for: but this registry, being judged to be ineffectual as well as oppreffive, was abolished by ftatute 9th Aune, c. 21. In 1795 acts were paffed requiring the feveral counties in England and Wales to furnish men in ftated proportions, amounting in the whole to 9859, and those in Scotland to 1814, the number being levied on each according to the valued rent, and the men raised by a tax fimilar to a poor rate, but this experiment was never renewed. In the fame year, an embargo was laid on all Britifh fhipping in the ports of Great Britain, and a requifition made from the owners of all veffels, excepting those belonging to the king and the royal family, and craft ufed only in rivers and canals, to furnish ablebodied men for the navy, (one able feaman being accepted as equivalent to two able-bodied men) in certain proportions amounting in the whole to 19,867 men. This laft operation was, indeed, little different from preffing, except that it allowed the mafters of fhips to felect from their own crews the men they were leaft inclined to keep; and the following measure was in fact a land prefs, with the refervation only, that the perfons VOL. II.

expofed

expofed to it must be guilty, or at least reasonably suspected of being injurious to fociety. The juftices of peace and magiftrates of cities and towns, were authorised and required to fend on board the navy, all able-bodied idle and diforderly perfons, exercifing no lawful employment, and not having fome fubftance fufficient for their fupport and maintenance, all offenders, coming under the defcription of rogues and vagabonds, fmugglers, and embezzlers of naval ftores, between the ages of fixteen and fixty, unless they were intitled to vote for the clection of members of parliament.

A mode more eligible than any of these, and which, it is to be regretted, is not always fufficiently productive, is that pursued in every war, of giving bounties to volunteer feamen, and that eftablished by act of parliament, of allowing them certain advantages in pay and prize money, over thofe whofe reluctance is only overcome by force. As an encouragement to foreign feamen to enter into the British service, they are declared, after being two years on board any man of war, merchantman, or privateer, to become ipfo facto naturalized. Parishes, too, may bind out poor boys apprentices to masters of merchantmen, who fhall be protected from impreffing for the first three years; and if they are imprefled afterwards, the master fhall be allowed their wages.

NAVIGATION ACT. A law which has contributed more than any other to the fuperiority of the British navy, although at first defigned only for the promotion of commerce, is that known under the name of the Navigation Act, for as it always provides employ for a great number of British seamen, it facilitates, in courfe, the manning of the royal navy. The act now in force owes its origin to Cromwell, and hence fome continental politicians, hoftile to England, have been led to describe it as the offspring of injuftice, bred in the mind of a gloomy and fanatical ufurper. It may however be proper to obferve, that the undoubted public right vefted in the fovereign power, of determining in what manner the commerce of a nation shall be carried on, was not first exercifed in England in the days of Cromwell, but its early traces are found in the regulations of a legitimate fovereign, whofe court was, during his profperity, fingularly brilliant, and whofe, mildnefs and careleinefs were among the chief caufes of his melancholy fate. Richard II. im the fifth year of his reign, enacted, that none of his fubjects fhould fhip any merchandise, outward or homeward, except in fhips of the king's allegiance, on penalty of forfeiture of vessel and cargo; and this was the firit navigation act pafled by the parliament of England. Acts of the fame import, but lefs general in the prohibition, were framed in fucceeding reigns,. even to that of Charles I. and almoft every flature contained a

2

recital