The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-01-01 00:00:00

w--+--t-

PRINCE OF WALES'S ISLAND.

As the notice• of the Public, and the attention
' of the Proprietors of India Stock, have been.excited
by the arrangebients in contemplation for the Prince
of Wales's Island, we persuade ourselves that we
discharge a duty grateful to our friends, by enabling
them to judge of the source and the motives from
whence the measure proceeds.
EXTRACT.
LORIf MELVILLB TO LOILD WELLifILLY, JULY 4,
1130 S.
" The short .tote I lately wrote to your Lordship by an over-
land cotiveyame, will have prepared you for the letter with
which 1 ant now t., trou'a!e you, on the subject of building
ships in India. It if alntott twenty years since I first had occa-
sits* to consider that subject, anti 1 had much conversation w ith
Sir Cherie. Middleton u.mn it, when lie was Commissioner of
the Navy. lily einem:Mon witu the Ailuthristration of India
brought the same idea after occas'emally before roe, and my
oirintinei both as to the utility and practicability of the plan
have never vaned. I am :ware that many of the statements
which er,r,i before mu were too sanguine, and many of them
came inns persons who had given only a seperhcial attention to
the aufp,cit but the gmer.il o;nnion wa, so prevalent, and the
t. soils which so fraqtreatly to this cuuutry, impressed
tis a qrntag etaaric:ton, that with a view both to marine
oral c imonneiel purinsm, toner:ninny must one day avail itself
t'..2 ealuabla resource it hat for ship building in India
When my neiMe Nlr Piuhip Durelas, returned from India
about twelve mouths ago, I was naciroos rot my u*ll Yatisrae-
tint). to talk over the subjezt infinitely with hit]. The situa-
tion he bad held at Bombay gave him the bast means nf inform-
-341014 and I way the inur.• desirous to COrliereo with him,
as 11,t was the very revetse of being sanguine in his ideas en the
sMaioer, and tended to couutcrbahniee what I might conceive
t toe to., satig-itie ideas of others. I had a fuil cunitersa-
t ion with hint la.t sanimer in Scotland, and I iced yes No. I.
a minute that COUVenatigni. I likewise soul you copy of a
inemseinclum I have lard, wrceivell from him, No. 11.
" It has lately become my duty to examitte the thing to the
bottom with a view to the pieseical use of this syste.n. That
your LOTtliillia may be fully Infortned on the subject, I send
you a Corteseondence I have lately had with the Navy Hoard,
lions the perusal of which you will perceive the great impart-
slice of the measures on which I am addressing you, and it
will save me the necessity of troubling you with so long a letter
as might otherwise have been ilecesary. With the salon view
I send you a true Minutes, which, within these few days, have
been put irate niv bands by Mr. Philip Dundas ; they are drawn
up by a Mr. T. e, recently returned from India' and whose
aitentioti hash-mu accurately drawn to the particulars he details,
from his being himself engaged in the business of ship-building
in India. He. rt,t ids are certainly inure minute than any I have
rem:iv d, anti are unite satisfactory, as being founded on per-
a,seal obae...ition I had a vet: rig conveisation with hint
yesterday, at Wirsi!ileihro, Sir pra.ntae of Sir Andrew Ham-
mond and nephew Mi. P. 0 arid I expectte. receive from him
iu writing his AalsweTS to Many points I desired him to con-
sider.
From what has alrrady parsed, I am sathficd that we have
at Bombay the mean. (A budtte::, ships of rho :tire, of at seat
44 gum, and at Locion we May build fogai,e of .1* to any
'recent. It we should list be ab e carry it nattier, these,

_ .
theaarielvie, are very welt reseura-a, and dewrving of arrange.
omits being made (or coquet them into 111,61111,X4 elhhla. 1
tem &woeful that the system flier be carried elfin II•if further;
that either in Rangoon, in Pegu' or at Prince of Wake's I. fay...,,
airing euent ;nay be made for bnildine amps of 74 gun., or
even Lego, as the wood, of teal ii Pegu are said to K.: oleo-
Isauoitcc. The beet place for a building estalikh.v.nt, if it
answers in other motets, would be at etatigoot., in the neige-
bourhood of the wood.; and ti the asap dead not iii-.lead me,
the country there seems to lie wonderfully intersected by rivers,
which, of COUrit, 111111 t be highly useful in hringiog the wood
te the coast."
Mr DEA It T.catis " Wimbledon, nOth Aug. 104.
" I 'Annie allow the ships about to sail for India to deco
without troubling your Lordship agata on the subjr of ships
building for the Navy. Tb, more I tevolvo the subicet in my
inind,dieluirre I mil convincedof the utility, indeed I shweld
day the necessity, there feisty -to avail retrolves of goat re-
Amore* : atuu with this I send teyoei Lordship what further
information I have. r ...eerie.' .iire I lint Woe* to you.- -
'• I have had con-creation meth Lllll Castlereagh and the
Chairs of the East India Cele patty, and stated to them use out-
lilies of the plan I have in • sew t 'found them as i expreirri,
illipteered wish the mil/tartan-is of the ohje.e, and .listewed coo
dully to co-operate iii the exe,ution ..5 it. Tine more mitotic.
details tort. be settled between the East India Conspany and
the Comotrulter of the Navy ; mid it et my intention to famish
tweh of them with a envy of my firmer hitter to year Lord-
stip, and its acrompaev-reao., and likewhe voth a copy of
this and the addit ',seal pater 4 wise+ I hare subwityel to it.
- " The lewliog stoeowit which I treated in my last canversa •
'lion with Lord Caatlercagli, were, the places where the bedd-
ing of the ships for the bees ought to be s areal ore and the au•
thorn., under which the operateiro must be conducted.
" The papers friwn Mr. 'late, which acciimpany 614, are
decidedly in favour of Itangrion, and 1 ant ready to admit, that
if Pegu was a part of the itiitoh possesetue in India, the vie'.
nity of the material, for banditti, arid ether circumstances,
would give to Rangoon ado ahel preierete.e i earl I du not wish
to cxetude it from your I.nnisliite. mature considcratiett,
hou-d. d on better channels id mforiiiateei, bet I have heart
hotiiing yet to satisfy me, that it would be expertieut to risk se
'eat a stake an iso mom lOU'S a tenine; and I enter strongly
the ze,i& as contained iii the lettn to me from my nephew,
r. Philip Vundas, which accumpanied same sii the memo.
,:.
random. premierss by Mn. Tate It will sertaiii:v add vary con-
siderable to the expence of ship-builslieg. u. lie.-sic ten woad
, i crest Peru to Prince of Web:, steams; len th.• lint" inToetoy
I em amine the sititetien of that settlement, I am the me, , sm.
rpressed with an opinion that the Lee lame Compatty sweat to
ea:heats, and by every mem.. cherish and itterceoste ' pose,
tay of it; and it way be a gontion how far the gettano: four,
whirl; the timbeil Asses Pegu is to be bro..abt, sway nut its a
degree be counterbalanced by the emblem adeatitagte which
will resu:t from the interestsof the Company beiva nsce• coo.en-
tend; and whatever roilatetsi Iseneht. arise (tom hiving a new
nays', depot and arterial in muds might certitude if eoribfe, lobe
elation tato the scale in favour of a promowin of nor owe, 44,42.
Bally one in a 'siltation .0 very perawireg test eagerly of otter re
spiels It Prince of Waire's I.land is A go! trona as the station fir
the new arsenal, the pile toe the iambs', Lome it is removed fro.l
Pogo, iota a Mutton agar to use aeon Ise, will ratiolitly be at-
t coded to; and if, in nor intercom,. with the people of Pepe
tee conduct morstives in such a manner a.. to contdiate then
eamirideam, and reasas jpelea.., nit oat impensible that et
progreseuf time tbey 'night i on comiteosare ships bang/ duet
there for our behalf, iii the mine owner a. their hive aflowe I
others formerly to twee. The meat elhort will be to etimatee
re, by nun bast exertions, the effect of thews intrigue+, whet+
our enmities, no doubt, will eheleensut to use to our ptejnilicr.
.- Bet however sanguine I ens in my ideas respecting Prince
or Wale.% bleed. and however desirable I eon oiler it to *IL.
%fish, path.. i.s, the .. Iva% aI.P.CII: in teat queer, .11 ',ilia, I ran
by so memo enter min the ideas of those whet may be disposed
It ' to oniteeisito: the importance of Bombay, become it may hot
thhaavet that rnerobehiaalva:t,aimeef
theilabrri:tet.:l:6o4guenstitny arbeet3Obeial,
Olt 111111• It. as 1101114 belong to ail emabloeetrot at ai„r„,,,,.
or Prince or Wales', 'nand. It • undoubtedly a meat enema-
>Uwe in favour .4 an egialAishowia at rather of these plait,
there—but, time seems nodouht. that ship. of 64 guns, ma
1 -
frigates of any 11111 P, way be built on that tele a India, and
that it I. a resource too impotent in its miaow to be itegketed.
Resides, it will be recollected, that Bombay is already known
ass rrierctable marine establialtraent. with a no:alwr uf vale-
able artificer.—and, at a very inehassies...hie ex pence, as fir
posted horn Illoinhey, the harbour mid it•recourisiowliton sway
he so 'extended and unproved, a. to Wiloid fell tinitimi-nee Inv
the operations it both our mildary ei.d coaelhotcset swops on
i that side rd Indio.
. in adilltion teal! ibis, Is another tonwileratem tor impaseent
cat to b.. &doomed to; I has: hong theught Mat there ions • de-
tect in the owtribisbun of oor Naas' two, in liar, and that
the teee4 shoold be so disided, under wearaw graesstrolds, a.
to afford c-in.tant positcceassi to both cows of the Pasisminia.
Sy 'orb a •hairilisition, the trade connected with Stlallf, end
etar taro 0 aptas of Anibal and Perm, tavola nionion a tubas*.
101 peacetime/. met the trade with Ileoget,, end else own oo that
ode of ledia, rev:leer"! a similar proem twin. This wooid
rant against away isconsonatewne wow% hos the aids of