Star.
London, England, 1805-01-05 00:00:00

Ear wat,f must.

• PRI*It WALIS'S ISLAND.
At therm ke of thy .Pll3llce and the mention of the Proprietors
of India Stock. timbres es dled by the arrangements in con-
templation for the Prhsainf Wales's Uland, we perfnarle our-
(dyes that we dUchargt Rohn grateful mom frien.hphy enabling
them to judge of the fosiree and the maitres from whence the
mcifurc proceed&

. EXTRACT. •
Lent StehetiLt V•co Limo wILLISLIT, JULY 4,
. . 1804.
" The Dort none! lately 'note to your Lordibip by an over-
land conveyance. will have pteptted.you for the letter with which
I am now to trouble yen. on the fubjea of building hips in India.
It is almoß twenty years tame I had hilt occafion to corddcr that
fubea, and I had meek aserierfation with Sir Chula Middleton
upon it. when he was Conuniflioner of the Navy. My connec-
tion with the Adzsiattration of India brought the fame Ides
afigvnlas coresfiullaily betore me, and my opinions both as to
the utility and practicability of the plan hake never varied. lam
aware that many of the ftatements which were before me were
too fangaine, and many of them came from perfons who had given
only a Averts:ill attention to the ridded ; but the general opinion
was fo prevalent, and the teak 'hips which fo bequently came to
this country, impreffed me with the &cog convialon, that with
a view bock to marine and commercial purpofes this country mutt
one day or ether mit IV& of the valuable refouree it had for Slip
building in India. Wien my
,nephew, Mr. Philip Dundas, re-
turned from India, abontstwelve months ago, I was delirou, for
my own farbfaalon. to tai': over the fubjea minutely with him.
The lunation he had !add at Bombay gave hint the belt means of
information, and I was the more &firms to converfe with him,as
Ise was the very reverie of being fangoloe ip his ideas on the full-
lea, and tended to counterbalance what I might conceive to be
the too/Aponte ideas of others. I had a full couverfadon with him
kit former in Scotland. and I fend you No.' I. r minute of that
converfation. I Ukewife fend you a copy of a inentoraudum I have
lately received from him, No. It.
" It has lately beComt ray duty to esamine the thing
.to the
bottom, With a view to the practical ufe of this (vitem. That
your Lordlip may be fully tuforincd on the fubjea, I fend you a
Corrdponsience 1 have lately bad with the Navy Board, from the
perufal of wittat you will perceive the great immenince of the
mcafures on *bleb I am addreffing you, and it willfare me the
neceirity of troubling you with Co lung a letter as might dimmer
have been necefary. With the fame view, I fend you kin mi.
ou tep, wi,kh within click few days have been put into my hands
lay.kfr. Philip Dundee; they see drawn up by a Mr. Tate, recent-
ly monied from India, and whore attention has been accurately
drawn to the particulan he details, from. his being didelf en-
gaged in the bufinds of 'hip-building in India. His details are
certainly more minute than any I have received, sad arc more
fatisfadkory, as being founded on I:errant cHervatieg. I had a
very long ronvertuiou with him yeßerday at Wimbledon, to prey
fence of Sir Andrew Hammond, and nephew Mr. P. D. and I
taped to receive from him ilftwriling his salvers tis many points
I defined him to confider.
" From what has already paired. I am faddiad that we hive at
Bombay the means of building 'hips of the Nes, of at leaf 64
guns. and at Corkin we may build frigates of 44 to any anssant.
If we &Quid not be able to carry it further. there, m tbeniftivel,
are very great refourcm, sad &Anima a( arrangements being
made for dairying them into infant etamition. lus hopeful that
the lyftem may he tarried inialtdy ftirftwr ; that dtber in Ran-
goon, in Pesti, or at Prises of Wales's Maud, arrangements may
be made for building Rips of 74 pans, or ova larger as the
woods of teak in Pegu are laid to be inexhaultibk. The belt
place for a building altablifinnent, If it adwors in other refpeas,
rimed be at Rangoon, to the neighbourhood of the woods ; and
if the map dues not difleadme, the country there fawns to be
wonderfully ioterfraed by rivers, which of cow& mutt he highly
deful in bringing the wood to the coati."

"MT DLit Loan, • Wimbledon, jthb Aug. 1804.
' " I cannot allow the Mips about to fail rob India to depart with.
out troubling your Lordthip again oft the frbjett of tips building
for the navy. The more I rcyolve the fubjedt in my mind, the
more I am convinced of the utility, Indeed I &add fay the nccc
ti; there milts to mail Muffins of that refouree : along vial
this I fend to your Lordihip what farther information I have cid-
ledted lines I lift wrote to you..
" I have had converfation with Lard Calllereagh and the Chairs
of the LA India Company, and fated to acni the Mallon of
the plan I have In view ; I (Mod. them as I cipeded, impreffed
with at importance of the abort% and difpofed cord!ally to co-
operate in the execution of it. The more minute details mutt be
fettled between the FAR India Can:luny and the Comptroller of
the Navy ; and it is my•intention to furnills each of them with a
copy of my former letter to your I.ordOsip, and. its accompany-
Matta, and libewife with a copy of this, and the additional pa-
pers which I have fahjoined to it..
" *he leading cicalan which ',treated in my lath converfation
with Lard Caftleriagh, tvere the placeswhere the building of the
ihipsfor the Navy: ought to he carded on, and the authoety on.
der which the operation. mutt be cooduded. .
" The papers from Mr. Tate, which accompany th's, are de-
cidedly in favour of Rangoon, and I am ready to admit, that if
Peg i was a part of the Bruit poffeißeihs In India, the vicinity of
the Mated* for building, and other circumP.ances, would elle to
Rangoon a decided preference; and I do nut wigs to exclude it
from your Lordihip's maturi coofideration, founded an better
channels of information ; but I have heard nothing yet to fatisfy
me, that it would be cap-diem to rifle fo great a Rake on fo preca-
rious a tenure ; and I enter Itrongly into the opinion contained in
the letter to me from my nephew, Mr. Philip Dundas, which ac-
companied fame of the memorandums prepared by Mr. Tate. It
will certainly add very atafiderably to the expenee of the tip build-
ing to bring the wood from Pegu,to Prince of Wales's Wand; but the
more minutely I monk the fituatiew of that fetdement, lam the
more impreired with an miinion that the haft India Cosabany
oeght to Went; and by every means cited& and 'netts* the
profperity of it; and it may be a queilion how far tad damn
from which the timber from Pegu h to be brought, day not in a
degree be counterbalanced by the eminent advantages which will
rtfult front the Enteral of the Company being more 6oncentered ;
and whatever collateral benefits wife from Antes a new naval
depot and addax] in India ought certainfy, Sipa/n*4m be thrown
into the tale in favour of a poffeffioo of our own, efpeeially one in
a fituation fo very promifing in a variety of other refpedts. If
Prince of Wales's Bland is fixed upon as the Radon for the new
attend, the putting the timber before it h removed front Pep,
into a tape as near to ufe as Mu be, will certainly be attended
to ; and it, In our intereourfe with the people of Pam we condudt
ousibims in Inch a manner as to conciliate their confide:wee, and re.
move jealoury, it is nut intpAlltie that In progrefs of time they
might even countenance tips belag built there fur our behalf.
the fame manner as they have allowed others formerly to buSd-
The great object will be to countered, by our belt Mertions, the
effects of thole intrigues, which our measles, no doubt, will endea-
vour to de to our prejudice.
" But however fanguine I am in my ideasilrefpeding Prince of
Wales's Maxi, and however dehrabk I confider it to eltabligi,
perhaps, the naval arfenal in that quarter of India, I can by do
means enter into the ideas of thole who may. be difpofed to under-
value the importance of Bombay, becaufe it may not have the fame
advantages in refped of the quantity or fute of the timber, as
would belong to an efiablithment at Rangounkr Prank of Wales's
Wand. It is undoubtedly a great cireundtance ht favour of an
ciLabliflunnt neither of thole plans, that tips, probably of the
Israeli dcferlption, may be built there—hot, there teems nodonbt,
than tips of 64 guns, and frigates of any fine, may be built on
that fide of India, and that it fs a refource too important in Its na-
t,at. to be negkaed. Befides, it will be recolkded, that Bombay
is already known as a rdpedtable marine ettabliihntent, with a
intoner of valuable artificers—and, at a very inconfiderable et-
re= e. as reported from Bombay, the harbour and its accommo-
dation may be fo extetukd and improved, as to afford full conveni-
ence for the operations °flack our military and commercial marine
ou that fide of India-
" In addition to all this, is another confidention too !mportaut
not to he adverted to ; I have bog thought that there Was e defeat
in the difiribution of our naval force in India, and that the gects
Oat(' be fo divided, under leparate commands, as tb afford con-
Rant proteetion to both c.aits of the Padatula. By fuck a
budun, the trade co nested with Bombay and the two Gulphs of
Arabia and Perlia, would receive a fithitantial prinelion,• and the'
trade with Bengal, and the fess 011 that fide of India, would en-
joy a bmilar protedion. This would guard aping many inconve-
niences ening from the efrecis of the Monfoem and other rheum-
fiance*. It lam right in thi pofition, it is obvious that a naval
Ration, for the building and repairing veffels of every ddalption,
on both Mee of India, would be a great accommodation to our na-
val interells in the Indian Ocean t a nava eitablithment,derefore,
at Prince of Wale:a Mind, 4ffords no argument for undervalaing
and ;reeding the cftablidatuutt now chains at

a With regard to Me nrity and controlling power to he es
ertifed over the Docks and Nov. I Arc nal. in India, I am fatisiled
here can be no divided authority; and as I am itrongly incnited
to the opinion that the building acconimndations are to be made
.ppd kept up at the expence of the Ealt India Company, It will be
eligible in many points of view that they Ihould be their property,
and kept under the care and management of their (truants; this is
pecullary neceffary an account of the witive artificers on whom It
will he wife for us to rely for the building of our dial» In India.—
The Company's fervauts arc accultomsd to their manners and ha-
bids, and will deal with them accordingly. But irate were to in-
troduce into the Docks inlhdia a multitude of European workmen,
or even a number of European overfeers and fuperintendants, it
Would probably be prtiludDree of dilggreeabla iircumitanees, if the
rummers, or evto the prejudices of the natives were to be hurt or
outraged by a (pecks of ziantiers and habits to which they were
not at cuitomed. In Rating this I do not mean to contend that the
Navy Board of this country are not to have a few palms placed
at the building nations in li.dia, in order to be certain that the
(hips are built ac.:ording to the drafts and models which they have
approved of, and that no infulikient materials are introduced, or
Infufficient WOO matithip allowed in the conttrudbon of the fbips;
but all thials perfectly confill cot with the fuperintending controul
and attholiey o. the Company fervants over all the fubordtnate
milkers in the Dock Yards. When faults are obferved, the per-
font Inunediatell in the employ of the Navy Board can have them
prevented and remedied through the interpofition of the Compa-
ny's bream, on a proper reprefentataion made for the purport.
"1. llthil hem Is adopted, and cordially and honourably adtcd
upota by tbeEaft India Company, as I have no doubt it wilt he, every
thing will proceed Imoothly. It will be the bulinefr 0f the Corn.
pany to take care that their arfenab and (tore-houses arc amply
foppliedurith (taloned timber, and every other material requilite
for the execution off the buGnefs; and as. the Ealt India Company
can have no view of making ally prat to chemfelves, on fuch a
national concern, they will, when a Nip for his Majefty's navy Is
completed, take tick proper spiesias as atoll be fettled between
them and the Navy Basra, fee akertaining the fum which the Ihip
has colt them.whan the account Is certified by the perfons autho-
rikd by the Navy Board. lam fortified this will prove to be both
the cheapeft and in etery other refped the molt beneficial method
of canduding this great national object.
" k hi not my intention to enter upon any of the details hy which
there arrangements are to te fettled between the Government and
the Balt India Company. They and the Comptroller of the Navy
ate Infinitely Wm competent for the adjuftment of loch details
than I can pretend to be. It is fuflitient tar me to chalk out the
material beads of the fyftem, and if either of the parties with from
me any further explanations, I will be molt ready to Wien to then.
When they arc finally adjefted, as I truft they will be fpeedlly, Ji
tuitions upon the whole of the bufinefs will be conveyed to the
Company a (ervanta in India in proper official form. But I thought
it my duty not to keep from your Lordthip the ideas which have
occurred to me after having beitowed conftdtrable attention upon
the fubjeft ; I could only do fo at prefent by communicating to you,
in an unoNclal form, the fentiraents I have troubled you with in
this and my former letter of the 4th ultimo.
1 have the honour to be, Sec.
(Signed) MELVILLE."
•
LETTER FROM T!,E COMFTROLLIR, SIR ANDREW HAM.