Star. — London, England, 1810-04-05 00:00:00

VA rill, 1N FELLIGEisIC, LIVERPOOL, APRIL 2. The Backhouse, SCOTLAND, from the Brazils for Ltverpool, was captured the 24th March by the Grand Napoleon French privateer, of 16 guns (18-pounders) and 120 men, in lat. 51. 30. long. 18. out 13 days tiom Brest : on the 27th she captured- the brig Mos ton, PiratcE, from New Brunswick for Cork, which the Frenchmen. gave to Captains SCOTLAND and PIERCE and their crews, and in which they arrived here late last night. There are four other privateers cruizing to the westward of Cape Clear, in lat. from 47. to 54. long. 19: _ PLYMOUTH, APRIL s. Arrived this day the THAIs sloop, Capt. FERRIER, from the West Indies: brings no news of a later date t han what has already transpired, but has brought a great number of private letters. The BOURBONAISE frigate has been paid of and put out of commission. PORTSMOUTH, APRIL 4. Arrived his Majesty's ships DONNEGAL, ROYAL OAK, Cowarm and OWEN GLENDOUR, from off Cherbourg.—Sailed the PRINCESS CIIARLOTTE for the Downs.—The FURIOUS gun-brig is appointed convoy to the Downs.—Wind W. DEAL APRIL 4 DEAL, • Arrived, his Majesty's ship APEICA, from Ply. mouth ; BROTHERS, Scorr, from Rio Janeiro ; HAY 'mon, MACKINTOSH, in 45 days from Martinique; and the ONYx, BARCHARE, from Jamaica. Came down from the river the Aux, East Indiaman.— Arrived, the ECHO sloop of war, from a cruize.—... Sailed, the CRANE sloop of war, on a cruize..Wind W. N. W.—Blows fresh. YARMOUTH APRIL 4 . Yesterday, P.M. arrived in these Roads, to join the ships sailed for the Baltic, the VANGUARD, 74 guns. Two men of war are now (one P.M.) working into these Roads. Sent in by the PANDORA, the Hoffisung, J. P. 'rims, from the Texel, bound to France. 'Me PRINCESS A uGysTA is appointed to take the trade from this port to-morrow for Heligoland. HARWICH, APRIL 3. This morning sailed ror Heligoland the Beauvoir Packet, Captain NORRIS, and the LARK, Packet, Captain Nayler, for Gottenburgh, with Mails of the 30th ult. Sailed also the FR RE IMS bye-boat, S. HART, Master, for Heligoland, with goods and passengers. G AA vzsEND, APRIL 4.—No arrivals. Sailed the Lord Shef told, Surr, for Trinidad ; Crescent, Gardner, for Madeira ; An t on i o for Teneriffe ; Harmony, Clapham, for Ma lta; Dolphin, for Lisbon ; and the Comet, K er r, f or Rio Janeiro. INDIA. The following is a List &the Passengers to Eng. land in the undermentioned Ships : PER LItAL STEW cr.—Mrs. Hirrington, Mrs, Prender. gat, Mrs. Hewitt, hir. Kennedy, Mrs. Branson, Lieutenant- Colonel Vesey, 2d bat. 10th Regiment Native Infantry, Mr. &rote A. Kennedy, Mr. Turner, Assistant-Surgeon, 33d Re giment, Lieutenant Bette,worth, lstllat. 15th Regiment Bengal 2itive Infantry; Lieutenant Scott, 6th Native Regiment ; Lieu tempt R. G. Wilson, 14th Regiment ; Lieutenant M'Laron, 2d bat. ath Regiment Native infantry ; Mr. R. Stanley, late Captain Honourable Company's service; Mr. F. Godfrey, ditto, ditto ; Slr. J. Jackson, late Lieutenant Royal Navy; Mr. James Murray, aster Royal Navy ; Mr. G. A. Delvalle, late Midshipman of the itinwici Castle ; Mr. Oxholm, and Mr. W. Garrison.— Chliren, Misses F. Hewitt, Caroline de Grenier, Louisa Ann, Amelia Martha Harrington, Dorothea Prendergast—Masters limy Lyng Harrington, Harris, Thomas and John Prendergast, =I Philip Anstruther. Pt. s. Weir, Mrs. O'Reilly, Lieutenant• Colonel Weir, Captain W. C Fraser, 10th Regiment Native Infantry ; Lietnenaa; M.Clure, his Majesty's 2d bat. of Royals ; Lieutenant C. 3oye, likla Regiment Native Infantry; Comet O'Reilly, 3d Regiment Nazire Cavalry ; Mr. James Alexander Master, Royal Navy; M r . J. Chih on , an d M r. J . P . Inglis Free Mariner.— Children, Misses Mary Jane Nuthall, and Meredith Maria We therill. Pts WARREN HASTINGS.--Mll. Brown; Lieutenant T. Truer, Engineers; Lieutenant White, sth Regiment Native In fantry; Lieutenant Robert Andoe, Royal Navy ; Lieutenant E. Pillow, ditto; Mr. H. E. Suggate, Surgeon, ditto—Cliikireu, Muses Martins Brown, Elias Casamajor Brown, and Adelaide Wahalr—Alavers John Read Brown, and James Brown. PER Boy N t.—Mrs. Strachan; Lieutenant Utterson, of the lonlids; Lieutenant James Crosby, of the Royal Navy; Lieu tuant lames Stanton, ditto; Mr. Thomas Lewis, Surgeon, ditto, Mr. Charles SclialL—C.hildren, Miss Anne Strachan and Master I.mrachan. Pic I, Kovintsies.—Lieutenant C. Waddell, of the 21st Native It-talent ; M.ijor Maitland, of the .51st Regiment ; Captain De- I4onb, or :he Royal Artillery; Mr. Edward French, late Lieute cal: in Lis Majeity's Ist Ceylon Regiment. CALCUTTA, JULY 24. Attockce, the New Zealand Princess, and her bus liv.vi! at length a prospect of revisiting that Government having provided them with ac on hoard the ship Union, about to sail. New South Wales, whence frequent opportunity Lolireyanee offers to the place of their destination. l',le kindness and hospitality which these unfortunate have experienced since their first arrival in w . :11 be long and igratefu ll y remembered L . 7 Attockoc, in particular, has often been to express a hope, that she may one day have an n ppriunity of repaying the goodness of the kind The state of public affairs on the coast requiring the immediate presence of the Right Honourable t he Governor-General, hi s L or d s hi p procee d s roun d in the Dover frigate, accompanied by the Honourable Company's ship General Stewart. Jinx SO.—The Caroline frigate, which captured the Streatham and Europe, obtained correct infortna acn respecting the fleet, by the previous capture cf the American s hip Sil enus , w hi c h sa il e d i n company Nv itn the homeward-bound ships from Bengal. Fro m tx! ing-bnok o f t h e Sil enus, the enemy ascertained npctly the number, the strength, and value of the allerent ships composing the fleet. A few days after the Victor separated from the feet, she fell hi with the Silenus, then a prize to the Caroline frigal2, and having a French pnze.master no board, which she recaptured. e arly in the course of last month, a party from Colonel Ochte r l ony ' s d etac h ment h a d a skirmish with , - ,'rne of the people of Runjeet's Tannah, - at one of kt &elk villages on this side of the Sudedge. The, not only refused to suit; our troops , with but actually fired upon" m. The party was c°rlsequence, detained a whole night befoie the They received, in the mean time, a reinforce :r:ien,t from camp, and were preparing to assault-the ' 4 gs, in case the gates should not be opened a ,7 -br eak. Runjeet's people, however, had taken . lye vant age of the clink to make their escape, and in 2i . d r n°rlong the gates were thrown open. One man , k . . , several horses belonging to our party were "sided but no lives were lost. LETTER FROM Till RIGHT HON. LORD MILVILLi TO TIIE RIGHT HON. SI,ENCER -131.11EEVAL. We regret that the pressure of other matter pits vents our giving such ample extracts from ti:is letter as we could wish. The subject treated is of the first importance—involving our very existence as a m3ri time power, and, consequently, as ' a free and inde pendent people : Whnbledon,sth March, lai o. " SlR—lmpressed with a sense of the urgent ne cessity of the measure of establishing an extensive naval arsenal at Northfleet, I am anxious to state to you the most prominent circumstances which have brought tne tea decided conviction, that there is a criminal neglect on the part of his Majesty's servants, every hour thai there is any longer delay, in consi-1 dering and acting upon the information which has been laid before his Majesty, respecting this great national object. I shall briefly explain to you, the reasons which, in consequence of the importance I attach to the subject, have impelled me to address you at the present moment. It is not to be expected, that, amidst your other various and extensive avocations, you can be minutely acquainted with the details connected with this sub ject. You are however informed, that, in virtue of the Patent under tile Royal Sign Manual, bearing date the Bth of January, 1805, a Commission was appointed to investrette aid report upon the whole of the conduct of thei Civil Administration of the Navy, which had not undergone any systematic in vestigation since the period, at the close of the 17th century, - when the of York was Lord High Admiral. The Commissioners, appointed under this Patent, immediately commenced their labours, and, between the Bth of January 1805, and the Bth of Mardi 1808, they presented to his Majesty no less than fifteen voluminous Reports. 44 Beforeproceediog to a. more minute explanation of the proposition wiffs which I wish to impress you, it is necessary I shobld. guard against the effects of a mysterious Insinuation, which has been thrown out, as if there were-some reason, whythis subject should not be discussed, nor any information respecting it given either to Parliament, or the public. 1 can only express my astonishment that such an idea should exist in any rational mind. No such secret exists, nor can exist. The Commissioners of naval revi sion have never felt the propriety of any such con cealment, and they never practised it. A great na val authority has, in his place in the House of Lords, announced the importance of the object, and the dan ger of delay. There is not an officer in his Majesty's navy, nor the commander . 13f the smallest trading vessel in the kingdom, who is not in possession of this secret, and of the existing dangers which I have undertaken to detail to you. For my own part, I cannot be guilty of such gross affectation, as to pre tend that I am not fully informed upon it. It is more than two years, since I read every word of the 15th report, and I am in possession of extracts from the most important parts-of it, and shall in the se quel have occasion to refer you to such passages as I may think material to elucidate the proposition I mean to enforce. ge The following short statement will remind yon of the establishment of the different Royal Dock yards now existing in the kingdom. They are six in number, beptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Ports mouth, and Plymouth : " Deptford was built in the reign of Henry VIM under whose sway, history tells us, this country possessed the first fleet com posed of ships of war, belonging to the King :. although I have heard that some archives, recently discovored in the Tower,,prove the existence of a fleet of that kind in the reign of the preceding Monarch, Henry VII. " Woolwich Yard was formed under the auspices of the same Monarch. " Chatham was founded by Queen Elizabeth, where the gun wharf now is, and where there was only one small dock ; but that being too confined a spot, it was removed about the year 1622 to its present situation. " Sheerness was formed in the reign of Charles " Portsmouth by henry VIII. being the third Dock-yard founded by him. " Plymouth by William 111. about the year 1691, and in 1693 money was voted by the House of Commons for completing it. " The progressive advance of our Navy, will ap pear by attending to the following recital of its ton nage at different periods, from the reign of Henry VIII. to the present time : - Year. Tons about. "At the death of Henry VIII. - 1547 12,400 Edward VI. - 1553 11,000 Mary - - 15.58 7,000 Elizabeth - _ 1603 17,100 James I. 1625 19,400 Rebellion - 1641 22,400 Charles 1. - 1949 uncertain At the Restoration* - - 1660 57,460 Death of Charles li. - 1685 103,658 Abdidation of James 11. 1688 101,900 Death of William 111. 1702 159,000 - Anne - * 1714 167,170 George T. - 1747 170,860 George 11. - 1769 321,200 On the 31st December, 1788 . . 413,660 5806 - - 776,000 'X 1 609 - - 800,000 " Thus it appears, that, notwithstanding the vast increase of our navy, not a single Dock-yard has been added to it since the reign of William 111. about 119 years ago, at which time the tonnage of the Naval Force of this - kingdom amounted to near 160,000 tons; it is now near 800,000 tons, or about five times as large. " And when we attend to the limited state of our Navy in those ancient times, compared with the num ber of Dock-yards provided for its accommodation, we must be ashamed to confess that, even then, more attention was paid to those great national interests, than we can boast of at the present period, when every man is under the necessity of acknowledging, that not merely our prosperity, but our existence as a nation, depends on the preservation of opr. Maritime superiority.- It is true, that some enlargements-have been made to our yards, within the space of time I am speaking of. Some few Docks and Slips have been added, andisome store-houses built ; but these' addi tions have by no means kept pace with the augmen tation of our Navy, and, unfortunately, in other very important respects, (as I shall presently have occa sion to spew), our Dock-yards have, of late years, become less fit for the purposes of the navy than they I were even at the time when our navy was upon a ver y ! small scale, both in point of number and in size of , ships, and its wants more easily provided for, than they can be at present. " I now proceed to call your attention to the con : • Cromwell is known to have paid great attention to the Navy. sideiatiOn of the material defects which attend our present Dotk-yards, as the most forcible ground for i:nducing you to apply the only effectual reinedy, b v the establishment of a new and extensive Naval • " The first great defect is the want of a sufficient depth of water in the vicinity of the present Dock yards—a defect which is the more alarming from the consi deration that the same causes which have com bined to produce it, continue to operate, and to pro duce their highly injurious effects in an accelerated de tee. " The want of a sufficient depth of water at all the principal dock-yards has been ascertained by the tur veys and xeports of Messrs. Rennie, Milne, Huddart, and .letlop, , able engineers, and by documents and reports obtained from various authentic sources, as well as by a comparison, in many cases, of soundings recently taken, with those laid down on ancient maps of authority, altogether forming a body of concurring evidence, not only of the present deficiency of depth of water, but also of the alarming fact or the har bours becoming rapidly more shallow, so as to threa ten speedily the total unfitness for large ships, of no less than three out of the four Eastern yards of this kingdom, namely those of Dept-Cord, Woolwich, and I Chatham. 64 The gradual decay of the royal harbours of this kingdom, and the diminution of depth of water, are imputable to various causes : Ist, To the mud thrown down by the floods-2d, To the deposition •ot sand, and the mud from the tides-3d, To the numerous mooring chains which intersect poi harbours and catch the leaves and vegetable substances brought down by the rivers which run into them-4th, To the accretion of matter from decayed vegetables— and, lastly, to the embankment of the mud lands around or near the harbours, thus diminishing the quantity of water whith flows in or ebbs out of the har bours, which of course occasitais 2 decrease of its ve locity, and thereby renders it less able to remove or scour away the sand, mud, and gravel so deposited, when it ebbs out of the harbours. " It would occupy more of your time than neces sary, were I to enter into a minute description of the degree in which each of the above causes has opera. ted for many years past, and still is operating, to the decay of the royal harbours of this kingdom. I have therefore confined myself to the general result of the whole, declaring, at the same time, that any state ment of mine will appear feeble in proportion as you examine the subject more minutely, as it iv clucida ted by the Commissioners of Naval Revision, who have never failed to refer to the au th or i t i es b y w hi c h their opinions are supported. " The very pernicious consequences arising from the want of depth of water in our Royal harbours, are numerous and important—whether considered as relating to the great expellees they give rise to, or the delay which they occasion in the equipment of our ships for service at sea. No ships of the line, fitted out either at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, or Ports mouth, can receive their stores on board, without first proceeding to a considerable distance from each of those ports. Those fitted out at Deptford and Woolwich, I must go to Long Reach, Northfleet, or Gravesend, in order to lie in sufficient depth of water to admit of their receiving their guns, stores, and provisions on board : those fitted out at Chatham, must proceed to Gillingham ; and those fitted out at Portsmouth, to Spithead, for that purpose. " In order, therefore, to supply - ships fitting out for sea, with their guns, stores, and provisions, those articles must first be put on board lighters and other small craft, to carry them to their respective ships, from which they are afterwards to be hoisted on board ; sometimes the weather is such as not to admit of those small vessels going off to the ships, and, when they do reach them, the wind and sea are frequently so high as to make it unsafe to venture alongside, for-the purpose of delivering their cargoes on board the ships in want of the supplies they contain: but, even in the most moderate weather, and under the most fa. vourable circumstances, the stores are subject to da mage and waste, in' being thus loaded and unloaded, and transported from place to place in small vessels. " The cost of the numerous craft necessary to convey them from the Dock-yards, from the Ord nance wharfs, and from the Victualling premises; the money expended in keeping those vessels in re pair, the expence of wages and victuals for their crews ; all these circumstances combined, though not capable of being accurately estimated, create a con stant annual expenditure to a very great amount. " But, besides these unavoidable expences, arising from the want of sufficient depth of water in the Royal harbours of this kingdom, the depredationstowhich the public stores of every description areexposed, is another great disadvantage attributable to the same cause.— When ships are first fitted out, there complements of officers and men are rarely complete ; they are gene rally, indeed, very deficient in their proper numbers. Regular watches, therefore, cannot always be kept, and the facility of embezzlement is thus rendered . the greater, when the ships are receiving their stores on board, at a considerable distance from the dock-yards. 44 To such an extent, indeed, have depredations of this nature been carried, that I can state from indis putable authority, that ships, fitted out and supplied with all their stores from the magazines in the river, and which ought to have lasted them eight months at sea, have, on their arrival at the Nore, stood in need of fresh supplies, the whole of their first stock having been made away with." Ills Lordship, after pointing out other inconvent' encies at the time of outfit, points out evils of great magnitude, experienced when ships come into port to be docked, repaired, or paid off—and then states a fact which, in our present circumstances, cannot but excite an uncommon degree of anxiety for the speedy establishment of a new Naval Arsenal : 44 I am borne out," says his Lordship, by the best authority, in stating that if the number of ships which we should not know where to place in safety (in the event of peace) against another war, were reckoned at 130 line of battle ships, 100 frigates, and 450 sloops, gun-brigs, and small vessels—total 680— they would not be over-rated." By some quotations given in this letter from the 15th Report (not yet printed), it appears that the Commissioners have strongly recommended the esta blishment of a new Dock-yard. They express them selves thus: 44 But, we consider a new Dock-yard to be indispen sably necessary to supply the place of such of the 44 Eastern Yards, (Deptford and Woolwich) as are " use of a Dock-yatd is required i arid are << even new 'Mgt for most o the purposes dant be. •for tle " coming less adequate than the . k were formerly, to serve " the purpose ot our Navy, even if it did not require " more extensive means for its support, than it did a " century ago. But, considering the increase which " has taken place in the Navy of thii Kingdom within " the last century—ztbe magnitude to which it - hag ' " now arrived—and the additional means Which will, " in future, be required to support it—considering " also how small a portion of those means the present " Yards afford; and the vast additional expence, and " numerous other disadvantages, which attend the " present practice of making up for the deficiency of a those Yards, by having recourse to Contractors, ft for so large a part of the wants of the Navy, we . " hate no hesitation in declaring our opinion, that, " on every ground of true policy, prudence, and eco " nomy, no time shottld be lost in the construction of " a new Dock-yard, of the first magnitude, in the " most eligible situation." His Lordship, after pointing out the inconveniences attending the bad situation and other circumstances of some of our present dock-yards, proceeds to state the benefits that would result from the formation of an extensive and powerful Naval Arsenal at North fleet. The particular advantages of that situation may' be thus described : that, without being situated so tar up the Thames as to be subject to the inconveniences to which Deptford and Woolwich are liable, from the intricacy of the navigation of that river, it , is fir enough from its mouth, to be sheltered from the effects lof stormy weat h er ; t h at , i t i s on a weather shore, in respect of the prevailing winds in this country that there is sufficient depth of water to admit of ships of the largest size sailing to or from 't, with all their guns and stores on board, with any wind, if not too strong ; that an abundant stream of excellent water flows through the land in question, and in the most convenient and desirable part of it ; that there will be plenty of good brick earth, after leaving enough of the excavated soil t o ra i se t h e ground allotted fur buildings to a sufficient height above the level of spring tides; that the subsoil is of the most desirable kind for making good foundations for docks and building;; that it is not so far from the Metropolis as to render larger vessels necessary to bring the stores from thence, than what are now used in carrying them to Deptford and Woolwich ; that the situation is ex tremely healthy, and in the midst of a fertile and pro ductive country ; that, from the natural advantages of the surrounding ground, it is capable of a strong defence, both on the side of the river and on that of the land, thus not only being in a well-protected place itself, but forming an advanced military protection to the Capital ; that the extent of the level ground is such as to allow of the arsenal being made en as large • a scale as can now be desired, with the capacity tor further ificrease hereafter, if ever it should be thought necessary ; and, lastly, that the shape of the peninsula is perhaps the most desirable and convenient for the purpose of general arrangement that could 'be wished. for." On the expence which this great national object may require his Lordship says : 66 Amidst all their other Investigations, the ques tion of expence, did not of course escape the atten: tion of the Commissioners of Naval Revision, as you will perceive, on an accurate examination of their Report on this part of the subject; and I make no doubt that the result of such an investigation will be a conviction in your mind, that the object of economy will go hand in hand, with the attainment of all the other important advantages which I have stated. " It was once in my contemplation to have entered into a detailed discussion of this topic, but I found it impossible to do so, without extending this letter to a most inconvenient length. It would have been ne cessary to have minutely examined the comparative expence, and durability of ships of the line, and of all other classes built in a royal arsenal, constructed with all the advantages of modern improvements for the saving of labour, contrasted with a similar expen diture, both in the present dock yards, and in those of- • private individuals; and it would have been neces sary to have estimated, in like manner, the immense saving on almost every other article manufactured for the use of the navy of this kingdom. " Some of these heads of saving have been inves. tigated by the Commissioners of Naval Revision, and I shall therefore, in the first place, o b serve , on their authority, that there is reason to expect, that, supposing the expence of the new dock yard at North fleet, to amount to between Five and Six Millions, saving, to that extent, will be effected every fifteen years, on suck of the items of naval expenditure as they have estimated ; but, there are numerous other very important articles of comparative economy, which, though not estimated minutely by those Commissioners, are men tioned by them, in general terms, as forming the basis of considerable additional savings, beyond those which they have comprized in their statement.— Among these, the advantages to be derived from mooring ships in wet docks, instead of in open road steads, as at present, are most forcibly urged ; and I have no doubt you will find that the saving, which would result from the proposed wet docks, in render ing unnecessary the expence, which must otherwise be incurred, for moorings and bridles for fastening the ships, and the wages and victualling of the men to take care of them (none of whom are evergood sea men) cannot be stated, if all circumstances are con sidered, at much less than Three Millions more." We cannot dismiss this extract without expressing a hope, that a measure so indispensably requisite to the safety of Great Britain, as that recommended in this letter, will meet with a speedy adoption. The expence is no object. The people, so far from grgdg• ing it, will hail the demand as a peace offering for numerous defalcations. The extensive cotton mills of Messrs. Jenkins and Cudford, Langley, Wilts, were entirely destroyed, by fire on Tuesday morning. Several head of cattle were destroyed, and such was the rapidity of the flames that very little was saved. The fire was occasioned by the negligence of a man setting fire tb some flax in the mill. An alarming fire broke out on Tuesday morning in 1 Hull's-buildings, New-road, at the house of a milk- I man, which consumed the same. An extensive tins ' ber-yard hid caught the flames for a few minutes, but providentially the fire was stopped before it got to a great beightc • al * Of