The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1819-03-19 00:00:00

so ILI he prejudging the qnestion, if they at-
,ramted to decide upon it, otter it had been re.
,illl,lrly referred to a Committer. He was Me of
:10,e who regretted the departure from the good old
„will of former times, arid she throwing on Sc..
•rrt Committees the responsibtlity of important
isr.sures, which ought to rest on the House itself.
_(near,/ But, when the House did place such
rtal burdens on Committeis, it was necessary to
.mime what those Commiltees did—istid he
3 in call their attention to the Report of the
Committee, on the rubjeet then ander
~..i.leration. They said, that, ss with respect to
•. ',umber and salary of the Lords Commissioners
the Admiralty, it was riot for them, rifler the
',re 'lreton', or the Howe.. to offer any opinion."
do that mie day the Ncble Lord told them it would
he imptrawr to consider dm question, pending the
;,,hours of the Committee above stairs, and she
„„t day lie ova up to the Committee, and said,
were not authorised to meddle with the sub-
jrct. brill precluded by the late vote of the House
„f Cotorooo.—(Hear.j—This was a sample by
which the Belton of the Finance Committee. of
IHl7onlglit fairly be estimated. It provret that little
,more 'odd be placed in it, should Gentlemen
tht,ik proper to quote it as an authority.
nit cline Committee had reported, that they were for
tram
sail.tied at the regulations of the Navy Board,
and they recommended that vacancies should not
he filled op until a certain number had occurred.
Hut Ministers cared not for tis. In • ver short
time they did fill up the vacanhcy when a Commis-
„mail of the Navy retired, directly contrary to the
or.aameialetiosi of this Committee. He admitted
thr ladoidual appointed was every way qualified
for me office ; hut the question was not to be de-
hy the merits of a Gentleman, hut by the
atre•sity which existed for making the appoint-
meta. Ile would now consider a little the Report
of the Committee of 1797. That Committee was
esrepa.r.l of men who would not, without good
wool', propose that the number of public cilia-
' should be narrowed. Their late Speaker,
,•ow Lord Colche•ter, Mr. Dudley Ryder. now
1..411 Harrow by, Mr, H. 'Thornton, and Mr.
Charles Yoke, were Members of that Coin.
miner. These Gentlemen would nut rramil.
timid any measure inimical to the interests of the
i•ousitry, or that was likely to curtail the power of
the Crown. That Committer, in their Report,
said We think it worthy of consideration, whe-
ther, on the restoration of peace, such a comiderable
'eduction of the retool force of the Navy may not
be made, as greatly to lessen the labour in the Ad.
miralty Department, and thus admit of a redne.
lion of the 'mother of Commissioners," &c. Ili.
Majesty's Minister/, oth WA point, acted in
on with this Committee. They had uis-
Thirord a great nueishret of Parsons from this de-
partment. But what sort of persons ► A flambee
it it seemed useless clerks. There were formerly.
I;4—at present they were reduced to 30. But the
moment they were called on to diarnim some of the
norirw, Commissioners, Ministers felt a reluctance,
winch they could not nvereome--because they could
nut part with the iufluence and patronage attached
so these eituatioris--and, with all their boasted love
of economy and retrenchment, they continued them
no spite of every restionetrance...—(Hear, hear.)—
There were, on the outs hand, power and influence,
on the other, fairway mid retreoehrnetit—the lat-
ter was strop g elinueh to tern out a number of
poor clerks, but the former could not he resisted,
and the junior Lords kept their places. —( Hear !)
If there were • diminutiou of business in the office
(11.41 the thernissal of the clerks proved it), then it
was impossible that all these junior Lords could be
wanted. That the business wits diminished appeared
from this circunistasire, that formerly they used to
have fire boards a week, and now they had only
three—(llear.)—ll. the year 1797, when the Re-
port 1w had quoted was made, the number of mien
voted for the navy *eviler, was 120,000, and from
1797 to 1814, it varied from lao to 140,000 men.
There were then iu commission 1,000 ships of war or
different cla.see. In the present year there was
a vote of 4u,000 seamen, and there were only 197
ships of war in commission, and tho.e only half.
officered and maimed—yet the same number of
of the Admiralty was now kept up, us when
there were 1%1.000 seamen and 1,000 ships. The
ruferroce was this—either that, io 1797. the nom-
her of jimior Lords was too few, or that, under
the present circunistasirw• of the country, there
were too maul'.—(Heor, hear.)—Government had,
however, titled upon another part of this Report—
and he was sorry, in .a commercial country like
this, to see its ltwa guardian, the navy. lowered
in
favour of another service.—(Hear, hear.)—He
meant nothing invidious—he respected both ser-
vices—but it was lamentable to see the navy has.
teilisig 10 a state of decay, which, at a future time,
might be productive of very evil consequences.—
Hear. Ar.tr, hear.)—lt was most difficult to
Mum an efficient navy. and therefore it ought
not to be broken up without deep conaideration.
Ant it was not so difficult to procure junior Lords
1,1 the Admiralty. They might be dismissed to-
day, and, if their services were wanted at any fu-
ture period, the Munster had but to hold up his
linger, nod he would find volunteers flocking from
all quarters. laragh.)—The Board of Athirst.
.rdty haul carried their retrenchments still further.
'l 'hey had reduced the number of naval chaplains—
a measure which he regretted, as it retarded
the 'progress of moral and religious instruction.
this subject a remonstraiwe was sent to the
,:oard of Admiralty, and the answer was, that
chaplain* should he appointed at particular posts,
to du the harbour duly. The vermin to he so ent-
pl, tied
were to be selected from the oldest chap.
on the list. This was a very good plan. But
all apiaalllMClK was made for Portsmouth, which
dal riot accord with this principle. The permit no.
mooted to act as chaplain there had no claim
*llikteVrf--end was hoot, he believed, at the time of
Ili, appointment, on the list of chaplains.—
(Hera, hear.)—.lf he wished to discover the reason
of this appointment. he should look for it in the
1,"""q" or the last election, for the borough of
(Hear, hear.)—He rather 'unglued
that the person selected owed his appointment more
iti a certain degrce iiriolluesice at that election. than
so any ylatiii founded on length of service. Ministers
sceuted to lir exuremely favourable to economy, in
every case that did not trench upon patronage, or
i.itierfere with election influesice.-1 Bear, hear.)
I.ey still kept up the tiumber of the junior Lords