into harness the better." I told him Mr. Marsden had already engaged me for the day. In taking leave with expressions of gratitude for his Lordship's great kindness, "By the way," he said, laughing, "I hope you are not a Scotchman." "No, my Lord, I am only a borderer-I am North Lancashire." He then said, "Mr. Pitt and myself, but chiefly the latter, have been so much taunted for giving away all the good things to Scotchmen, that I am very glad, on the present occasion, to have selected an Englishman." *

During the three years from 1801 to 1904, when Mr. Addington was at the head of the Government, and the Earl St. Vincent First Lord of the Admiralty, the boasted system of economy and retrenchment, particularly in the naval department, had been carried to such an extreme that the appalling statement delivered by Mr. Pitt in the House of Commons, and which upset the Government, was found, on the examination of their successors, to be more than true, and that the deficiencies in every species of naval stores in the dock-yards were quite alarming. The few ships left to us were scattered at sea; those at home out of repair, and no timber in store to place them in a seaworthy state, much less to build others; there was neither rope, canvas, nor hemp to make them. It is almost incredible, though asserted on apparently good authority, that, on the conclusion of the truce, falsely

* It is curious enough that, of the ten Secretaries of the Admiralty that have passed through the office in the course of the forty years I remained there, one single Scotchman only held that situation, Captain George Elliot, and he was appointed by Lord Grey. Six were Irishmen-Marsden, Wellesley Pole, Croker, O'Ferrall, Dawson, Corry; and three Englishmen-Parker, Wood, Sidney Herbert.

named the peace, of Amiens, large quantities of hemp had actually been sold to French agents, to save the rent and other expenses of the warehouses in which a preceding government had carefully lodged it.

All this folly had been committed under the erroneous notion that a peace had been established with France under the dominion of the Revolutionary government, and at a time when Buonaparte was overrunning Italy and the north of Europe, and his naval preparations, in combination with those of Spain, were so glaring as to be visible to all except to the infatuated government of Mr. Addington, an honest and good man, but an indifferent minister. That which most astonished the public was that Lord St. Vincent, at the head of the Board of Admiralty, did not take a more decided part in wiping off the disgrace incurred in his own department; instead of which, he and the professional members of his Board were at perpetual variance with the Navy Board, which it seems not doubtful they wished to destroy, and which ultimately the same party did succeed in destroying: very greatly, as it has turned out, to the benefit of the naval service.

The Stone Expedition to block up the ports of Holland, by heaving in masses of rock, contributed, as it was generally said, not a little to Lord St. Vincent's unpopularity and to a good deal of ridicule; a measure, however, which his Lordship disclaimed, and even avowed himself ashamed of. But the whole of his administration was not popular with the public and still less with officers of the navy, who, it seems, were at first delighted at the unusual event of having a naval First Lord as their governor.

Such were the general topics of discourse when I

first entered the Admiralty, a great part of which has been confirmed by Mr. Marsden, in a memoir which his widow has printed since his death. He therein says, when speaking of Lord St. Vincent's Board of Admiralty, "We visited Woolwich and Deptford Yards, at the latter of which we experienced much abuse from the enraged families of the workmen discharged or reduced in their allowances, and with some difficulty escaped from worse treatment" (he told me they were pelted with mud by the women and boys). These reductions were probably unavoidable at the time; but the general character of this naval administration was that of harshness, particularly as it respected the officers of the subordinate departments, with whom some personal ill-will was mixed up; the object (as Marsden states) seeming to be that of finding grounds for delinquencies presumed in the first instance. "People ask," he adds, "have not the Admiralty and the courts of law together power enough to punish delinquencies in the dock-yards, or other naval departments? But the object is to get rid of the Navy-Board; they are not faultless. Like most other boards and public offices they have left many things undone; but the visitation did not bring home to them any act of corruption or malversation. It was then tried to drive them out by the most abusive letters that ever were written from one Board to another; but they were too prudent to gratify our gentlemen in this way.'

It was at this time that the detestable Commission of Naval Enquiry was concocted, of which Mr. Marsden thus speaks:

"And now, this extraordinary Commission is re

* Brief Memoir of William Marsden, written by Himself.

S

sorted to in the hope of its operating some way (they cannot very well say how) to the end desired. I know it was their first idea to arm their friends,* the new Commissioners, with the power of punishing; but now it is only intended they should inquire and report. The Minister gives way, par complaisance, to Lord St. Vincent, against his own opinion of the propriety of the measure."

He continues: "Our Board-room is a scene of anxious bustle and agitation, which sometimes puts me in a little passion, but more commonly makes me laugh; for it is impossible for any person to be more independent of the inquisitions and reforms that are going forward than I am. If I resign, I am

afraid of its being said that I ran away from the new Commissioners. This is rather a curious dilemma; but, although it looks like a joke, it is serious enough. Well, I must make the best of it; at this season confinement is less irksome than it would be in spring, when, please God, I shall be my own master. mean time an open quarrel between them and the Navy-Board, which I daily look for, will bring it to a crisis, and oblige me to determine between double and quits."

In the

Mr. Marsden, at the desire of Lord St. Vincent, remained as Secretary after Nepean had absolutely been driven out by the professional members of the Board. Mr. Addington, to soothe him, gave him the Secretaryship of Ireland and created him a baronet ; but he said to his Lordship, "I was convinced, from experience of the tempers, ideas, and conduct of the

*These friends were Charles M. Pole, Ewan Law, John Ford, Henry Nichols, and Mackworth Praed.

professional members of the Board, that I could not possibly carry on the public business with them with the least chance of satisfaction to my own feelings. I explained the defects of the present constitution of our department; expressing, at the same time, my conviction that it was not in his Lordship's power to remedy it, as he could not change their natures nor do without them."*

With such a Board, and in such a deplorable state of the Navy, did the Lord Viscount Melville succeed to the administration of that important branch of the public service; and, perhaps, there was not another individual in the whole kingdom so capable, by his exertion and talent, his aptitude for business, and resolution to look at difficulties with a determination to overcome them, as was Lord Melville.

But it was

his fate, at the very commencement of his administration, to have the feelings of humanity strongly roused, in a way for which there was no relief. The precious Peace of Amiens was already broken, and the restless spirit of the French leader had driven us into open war, the first instance of which was of a most deplorable nature-the unfortunate collision which took place between two hostile squadrons: that of Captain Sir Graham Moore, consisting of four sail of the line-the 'Indefatigable,' of 80 guns, and three others of 74 guns-and that of Spain, of four ships exactly of the same force, in which three of the latter were captured and the fourth sunk.

To the fatality of this squadron was added a most melancholy and distressing event. The Mercedes' blew up with a tremendous explosion, and sank. A wealthy

* Brief Memoir.