TO THE EDITOR.

SIR, I cannot but admire the ingeniousness of your correspondent R B. in the last Register, in destroying a building, to raise upon its foundation a superstructure, which, doubtless to his speculating mind, appears as solid as the founders of the Property Tax hope that measure will be.-He condemns a plan founded, as he allows, upon sound financial principles, because the complete ex'ecution of it may meet resistance from "the dominion of self-interest;" and he proposes a substitute, by taxing landed and funded property, which recommends itself highly to him, from its affecting only that species of property which cannot escape taxation. If equility of burthens renders them less obnoxious, it is very desirable to attempt it; and if the selfishness of individuals makes the result imperfect, the success, in a considerable degree ought, nevertheless, toe courage the pursuing so excellent a priuciple. By charging the present tax as odious and attended with difficulties, he shews no knowledge of its provisions, and were it so, his substitute would be subject to both objections in all their force :-if the disclosure of property creates the odium, he is not aware that his own scheme omits that branch of it, which is now the most secure from disclosure, by its favorable provisions for collecting the duty on profits of trade and industry; and whatever difficulties may arise, proceeds principally from the valuing that property which he offers in lieu, as the easiest source of supply. His own mode of estimating lands, &c. by survey, is borrowed from the present measure, though these are adopted only as a last resource, in case a much easier and more economical method should fail. His objection to taxing the profits of labor, evinces not only a partiality, as he himself admits, but would be checking industry in one channel to throw a preponderance into another, and seems that he imagines a tax upon lands is wholly unconnected with labor, and the profit of it-The measure now in force embraces the whole of R. B.'s suggestions, bat extended to the view of equalizing the public burthens, by involving in them every individual, whose property, however derived, enjoys the protection and blessings they are the support of; and there is no doubt, but that in point of efficacy, which it cannot be denied govern. ment from late experiments has the power of prejudging, every expectation will be answered -Your's, &c, P. Q. 25th Jan. 1804,

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR,-In my last I pointed out the defect of the present establishment of the marine corps, in their not having a sufficient number of field officers. I have now to observe, that there is not proper encouragement given to the non-commissioned officers.The serjeants in the regiments of the line, after serving a certain number of years, are not only entitled to the benefit of the Chelsea Hospital, but I believe there is about four hundred of them, who have what is called the King's Letter, which amounts to a shilling a day for life. On the other hand, the serjeants of marines, when they are admitted into Greenwich Hospital, are on the same footing as the privates, there not being any other establishment for them. In order to obtain some little indulgences that are allowed to that class of officers in the navy, commonly called petty officers, they are onder the mortifying necessity, of permitting themselves to be rated on the hospital books, as boatswain's mates. What a degradation to an old soldier, who has bled in the cause of his country to reflect on, that he cannot be permitted to enjoy those comforts that his worn out constitution requires, and that his services ought to have commanded, because he has fought the battles of his country in a red coat, in the room of a blue one! I hope the present Admiralty Board will do away such illiberal distinctions, and endeavour to procure the King's Letter for a certain number of them, in proportion to the strength of the corps.-There are many serjeants now serving, who have been in the corps thirty years, and could not get admitted into Greenwich Hospital, on account of there not being any vacancies; the consequence of which was, that at the last reduction, the commanding officers of the different divisions, very much to their credit, could not think of throwing on the world, on a small pension of nine pounds a year, a deserving class of men, who had served their country faithfully and honorably for such a length of time. Had they belonged to the army, and there had been vacancies of the King's Letter List, they would have been entitled to eighteen pounds a year. These are striking and unjust distinctions, and loudly call for reformation.— The money the marine corps has paid to Greenwich from the year 1755, until the present time, must be very considerable; and it is astonishing, no alteration has been made in the regulations of that hospital, in favor. of a corps, which has contributed so much

to the increase of their funds. It must either have arose from professional prejudices, or the most culpable neglect. From whatever cause it has arisen, the peculiar hardship, and injustice the corps has suffered, is the same, and must be equally disgusting to both the officers and men.-I shall for the present, Mr. Cobbett, take my leave of this subject, in hopes that the Admiralty Board will enquire into what I have stated in these letters; and I should be happy to hear, that the new code of marine instructions for the guidance of officers on board, were published. They are most anxiously looked for by the whole corps. For fear of injuring the public service, I shall forbear making any observations at the present critical moment, on the situation of the marines, when doing duty on board, but will probably resume that subject at a future opportunity.-Yours, &c. 11th Feb. 1804. T. S.

LORD ST. VINCENT AND THE NAVY.

SIR,In looking over your weekly publications, in the last year, I have been a good deal struck with two letters dated the 11th Feb. and 10th April from Plymouth, signed "An Englishman," inserted in your Register of 19th March and 30th of April.It is with truly patriotic concern, I find, that these two letters have not produced their merited effect. I do not mean to say, that the contents of an anonymous publication should be so much taken for granted, as to impress an idea that the facts it relates are founded in positive truths, merely because they have not been controverted; but,. I aver that the circumstances detailed in these letters were of such a nature, as (taking into consideration also their notoriety) should have induced the minister to make a proper inquiry into the truth of the relation: and, if he had so done, he would not only have ascertained that the Englishman's representation was founded in truth, but would have discovered also much other matter, infinitely stronger than what is contained in the two letters, which ought to have opened his eyes to the danger of the country, from the mismanagement of the naval department. As it is but too evident, that the minister has not made that enquiry; or, if he has so done, that he has not properly laid the result of it before his Majesty, I have myself taken some pains to ascertain certain facts respecting the naval department, which I shall beg leave to lay before you, in the hope that they may find their way to the Royal Eye, and meet, in

the enlightened and discriminating mind of his Majesty, that consideration which he may consider them to merit.-The picture which the Englishman, in February and April last, drew of the then state of our Navy, of our Dock-yards, and of the proceedings of the Board of Admiralty, strong as it did at that time appear, is but a very faint colouring of the existing circumstances in those respects of the present day.-The symptoms of palsy, which then pervaded the Dock-yards, are now turned to the palsy itself. The same spirit in the Admiralty, which has led to that effect, still continues; but its operation proceeds with a redoubled fury. The contractors for the supply of the various stores for the navy, have, many of them, either withdrawn themselves entirely, or have required such extravagant prices for the articles of their respective supply, in order to inden nify themselves against the effects of the more than rigid mode of reception exercised by the panic struck Dock-yard officers, as to render it impossible for the Navy Board to contract with them: and, this has induced a necessity, on the part of that Board, for departing from the old and wholesome mode of supply, by fair and open competition, under which our navy has, heretofore, flourished; and of adopting either the per-, nicious mode of procuring the supplies by private commission, or that more than per nicious system of manufacturing the arti cles in our own Dock-yards: the former liable to job and imposition, the latter subject to faud almost impossible to detect, and to enhancing the cost of the articles so obtained cent. per cent.-That the operations in the Dock-yards go on so languid ly will not appear surprising, when it is known, that they are upwards of a thousand short of their complement of shipwrights and caulkers, besides other artifi cers and labourers, in great numbers; bit what operates even still more powerful y to produce this langour, is what has been faithfully described by your old correspondent, viz. that fear on the part of the yard officers of exercising the smallest discretion, that distrust they have of each other as well as of those under them, and that sys tematic determination, in which they persevere, arising from an apprehension of losing their places, of executing no orders but what are defined in the clearest mauner, and then not in such a way as shall be most conducive to the benefit of the service, but as shall secure them from puni ment. Hence arises above all things that short supply of that very essential addle

timber, so much complained of; from the deficiency of which, the most dreadful consequences are to be apprehended. I will, Sir, mention only one instance, which has lately occurred in respect of the reception of timber, and which may afford the means of judging how this business is conducted, and how the timber merchants are dealt with. It is the practice of the service, that when a contractor has a lot of timber to send into the Dock-yards, a confidential subordinate officer is sent from thence to survey it, and mark such as is fit for his Majesty's service. The contractor fearing to incur the expense of the carriage of timber which might be rejected in the Dockyard, did, upon this occasion, most earnestly entreat this officer to mark only such as he was certain would be received. The officer assured him he would do so for his own sake. The timber he thus marked was conveyed to the Dock-yard. One-third of it only was received by the yard officers, and the other two-thirds rejected, which the contractor will have to take away at a very great expense; besides sustaining considerable loss from its having undergone, in the Dock-yards, the operation of boring and squaring, as it is called, which greatly reduces the value of it at market.-Now, Sir, I could detail to you a great many instances of the treatment of the contractors, equally vexatious with the foregoing one, all tending to prevent the necessary supply not only of this very essential article, but of many other articles of stores equally important. From these circumstances, and from the deficiency in the complement of artificers, which has existed ever since Lord St. Vincent, in his visitation, carried his purging reform through the Dock-yards, you will be able to judge whether it be possible to uphold our navy. But, added to this, there is the operation of several collateral causes which equally tend to the downfall of our navy, equally arising from rigour and the most mistaken policy, and false economy on the part of the Admiralty.You have heard much of the ill-judged rapidity with which our glorious fleet was dismantled, and of the reduction which took place in the artificers of the dock-yards; whereby the repairs of our ships have been most ruinously retarded. The consequence of this has been, that we have sent many ships to sea which wanted considerable repair, and were laid by for that purpose; a measure unheard of in the annals of the Admiralty, and which might have been avoided, had not the reputation for economy, rather than the real good of his country, been the object

of the noble lord's pursuit. Judge, Sir, in what state these ships will return to port, after the winter's cruize off Brest! and whether under the circumstances I have stated, it can be expected without a radical change of system, that they can ever again be brought into condition, or at least, so as to be of any use in the present contest; for in six months they must be almost shaken to pieces, as a barrel would be that was set rolling with a deficiency of hoops upon it. And, besides that, we are prevented from proceeding properly in the repairs of our ships in the Dock-yards, no measures have been taken for supplying the places of our condemned and daily perishing, ships, by the means of the merchant ship-builders: not a single line of battle ship having been ordered to be built by them since the present Admiralty came into power, excepting one only within this month, which will not be completed these three years. Thus while our own navy is declining fast to ruin, the fleets of France, Holland, and Spain, are fostering in port, and are all increasing rapidly. A judgment may from this consideration be easily formed, what the comparative state of this country will be with that of our enemies at the expiration of two years from this time, and what the consequences are likely to be, if a change of system does not immediately take place; as Buonaparté is as well informed of the state of our navy and of our arsenals, and of the effect of the death-chilling hand which directs their operations, as any man at the Admiralty and other Naval Boards, and infinitely better than ninetenths of the Houses of Lords and Commons, or of the inhabitants of the cities of London and Westminster at large. Were it not that I am fearful of making this letter too long for insertion in your valua ble Register, I should lay before you, and I hope the public, through your means, many facts illustrative of the ill-fated policy, and ruinous proceeding of the present Board of Admiralty, as well in the military as the civil department of the navy. The opinions of the greatest naval commanders on the present system of national defence in wearing out our fleet, and tiring out the spirits of our seamen in an useless blockade of Brest: The parsimonious system which is pursued with regard to our naval hospitals, and to the surgical establishment of the fleet: insomuch, that the hospitals which ought, each of them, to have eight or ten assistant surgeons, have now only two, the consequence of which would be in case of an action at sea, that if five or six hundred men were to be brought into them, many

of the brave fellows must perish from the want of their wounds being dressed: and, insomuch with regard to the fleet, that many line of battle ships, instead of having four or five, have only two surgeons; frigates which ought to have three at least, have only one, and several sloops have been sent to sea without any surgeon at all. These would be topics I should enlarge upon. Z.

TO THE EDITOR.

Extract of the Marquis of Tweeda'e's Letter to Lord Milton, dated Whitehall, 21st Sept. 1745, from Mr. Home's History of the Rebellion in the year 1745, p. 309.

"That 2,000 men, and these the scum "of two or three Highland gentlemen, the Camerons, and a few tribes of the Macdonalds, should be able in so short a time "to make themselves masters of the town "of Edinburgh, is an event which, had it "not happened, I should never have believed possible."

SIR, enclose a passage from Mr. Home's History of the Rebellion in the year 1745, that deserves the attention of the present day. It is an extract of a letter from the Marquis of Tweedale to Lord Milton in Scotland, when the administration re ceived the intelligence of the Pretender having taken possession of the capital of that part of the island, with a few ragged half-armed Highlanders, collected in the most savage part of the mountains; it came from a ministry whose attachment to the constitution, and zeal for the service of their country has never been disputed, and who were deficient in nothing but vigour and ability. It was, probably, unconsciousTv that so simple and ingenuous, yet so full a confession of the ascendent of activity and enterprize over negligence and incapacity was penned; surprised from the actors themselves, it strikes more forcibly than laboured volumes composed by gazing spectators. Similar causes even in political affairs often produce similar effects; we stand on the verge of a much more momentous crisis; not the petty insurrection of a few undisciplined mountaineers, but a deluge that threatens to sweep us from the number of independent nations, should it reach our shores and burst the feeble barriers that are exposed to it, it will be little consolation to contemplate the astonishment of our ministers at the destruction they have occasioned. -Experience speaks a forcible language. There is a part of the same book that demands the attentive perusal of the present

administration; it is the narrative of the proceedings of the Edinburgh volunteers at that time, They are, I presume, the only body of that kind that can have been called out to action for more than a century past: they were precisely the volunteers of the present establishment, they expressed the same zeal for service, the same desire to choose their own officers, the same clamour for arms, the same ardour to be led against the enemy, and the same want of subordination: the parallel happily cannot yet be carried farther, but when they were to have proceeded to action, they held consultations, they differed in opinion, they divided, they fell into confusion, they laid down their arms, and the enemy entered the city without opposition. I intended to have added some observations, but on consideration, I have postponed them; the proper time is not yet arrived, the defects of the volunteer system have not been yet sufficiently felt, to compel the nation to abandon the principles on which it has been raised, and resort to a national force founded on authority and subordination. I shall, therefore, conclude with two remarks not unsuitable to the present moment. Among the great errors in respect to that establishment, it is not one of the least, to suppose that it is under the command or influence of the landed interest; that there are some noblemen and gentlemen officers of volunteer corps every body. knows, but so small a proportion that they are lost in the multitude, and have no etfect on the general spirit of the mass; a vast majority of them are composed of tradesmen and inhabitants of towns, or in other words, exactly the French national guards, who, perhaps, without knowing, or even intending it, overthrew the monarchy, sapped the foundations of all government, and paved the way for all the anarchy and massacres of the French revolution. It is now about twenty years since Ireland had nearly led the way to the French revolution from the same institution; for a considerable time the government hung by a thread, it was not without time and precaution that the volunteers were at last dissolved, and the effects are not effaced to this day. 10th Feb. 1904.

CAMILLUS.

INTELLIGENCE.

FOREIGN-Intelligence has lately been. received from Constantinople, stating that fresh disturbances has broke out in Egypt,

* See Home's History, p. 66 to p. 98.

that the Arnauts and the Arabs have united and made themselves masters of Alexandria, and that all the foreign consuls and vice-consuls, together with many of the principal inhabitants had fled and taken refuge on board the ships in the port.-It has been reported, that the Emperor of Russia, in order to continue the measures of preparation which he recently adopted, has directed an additional levy of eighty thousand men : this report, however, is not authenticated, and some other accounts from the Continent make no mention of the circumstance.Lucien Buonaparté has arrived at Florence, where it has been for some time asserted, that he has gone for the purpose of making some overtures of particular importance to the Queen Regent of Etruria.- Decres, the French Minister of Marine, has just returned to Paris from a tour along the coast to Flushing immediately on his arrival he had a long interview with the First Consul, who, it is said, is about to leave the capital for two or three weeks, on a journey which is not yet known.-It is said in the American papers, that Mr. Merry, the minister lately sent from Great Britain to the United States, has involved himself in a dispute with that government, in consequence of Mrs. Merry's insisting to take precedence of the ladies of the American secretaries of state, war, navy, and the treasury.

DOMESTIC.-The London Gazette of Saturday the 11th inst. contains an order in Council, annulling the late order which subjected vessels from New-York, Philadelphia, and Alexandria, to quarantine; the infectious fevers which prevailed there some time ago, having entirely subsided.-The King has been pleased to grant unto Major Gen. David Baird, his royal licence and perimission to receive and wear the badge of the Ottoman Order of the Crescent, conferred on him by the Grand Signior.-It is said, that a serious misunderstanding exists between Lord Hardwicke and Lord Cathcart, and that it is of such a nature, that either the lord lieutenant or the commander in chief must leave Ireland; the cause of the disagreement has not been made public.In the beginning of last week a man of genteel appearance was arrested at Bath, by two officers of the London police, and brought immediately to town, upon a charge of being engaged in treasonable practices.-For some days past, the King has been much indisposed, and is now extremely ill. The Prince of Wales has also been unwell at Brighton, but is now returned to Carlton House, and is nearly covered.

MILITARY Accounts are said to have

been received from India, of another desperate action being fought between the British and Mahratta forces in the neighbourhood of Surat, which place was, with great difficulty, prevented from falling into the hands of the enemy.-The French troops in the kingdom of Naples remain inactive, and the preparations which were said to have been making on the borders of the Adriatic, for an expedition to the Morea, have been suspended.-At Leghorn the French flag has been taken down from the forts by order of Gen. Murat, and that of the King substituted in its place; in the interior of the kingdom, however, the French still retain the command.--In consequence of a proclamation lately issued by the Batavian Minister of War to the army to be employed against England, the officers of the garrison of Amsterdam had a meeting, at which an aiddu camp of Gen. Dumonceau, the commander in chief, was present, when it was resolved first, that they would all send in their resignations unless this proclamation was withdrawn; and secondly, in order to convince the world that their resignations did not proceed from the fear of any danger attending the expedition, they would, if they were thus obliged to resign, offer themselves as volunteers in the French army where no such regulation existed. These resolutions were forwarded to Gen. Dumonceau, and being communicated.by him to the government at the Hague, the proclamation was withdrawn.-A copy of a regulation for the maintainance of eighteen thousand French troops in the Batavian Republic, has been sent to all the magistrates for their informa tion, and all their demands which are not authorised by this regulation will be refused.

:

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

BRITISH CREDITORS on the French Funds. A paper, entitled "a short "statement of facts relative to claims of "British Creditors on the French Funds," has just been printed and circulated, preparatory, as it is thought, to some application to parliament for redress; and, it is with a view of preventing the success of any such application, with a view of preventing the people of this country, properly so called, from being burthened with taxes to make up for the losses of those, who chose to deposit their wealth, the fruits of English labour, in the Funds of France, that these remarks are made.

See p.178 of this vol,

THR