LONDON, January 29 to February 5, 1805] 129] ESSAYS. CONDUCT OF THE ADMIRALTY. SIR,—I have been a watchful observer of the progressive state of naval affairs during the administration of Earl St. Vincent, and am very, very sorry to say, our navy is not in that flourishing state the situation of affairs require. [130 politic proceedings.-I am inclined to attribute the credit they have obtained, to the have discovered, which are magnified betwo or three solitary instances of abuse they yond all bounds, and for which the whole civil department of the navy is stigmatized. It is much to be lamented there is so little charity in the world, that ten thousand men With regard to the artificers of the Dock because a few undeserving and peculating should be considered in an infamous light, Yards, I contend they have been treated characters have been amongst them.-lt with too much severity. There certainly has been said that Lord St. Vincent by his was a want of a proper subordination, but wise and politic system of economy has saved to effect the reformation, it was not neces three millions per annum, and another persary to resort to the violent measures which were adopted by the Admiralty.-In May, amounted to £500,000. I shall therefore son asserts that the annual peculations have 1801, an extensive discharge took place in offer one powerful argument in opposition order that discipline might be restored, and to those Munchausenlike statements, (statetherefore a great number of innocent and deserving persons were dismissed, without tention to defame and vilify every person ments which have originated from an inany discrimination whatever; owing to a particular order the officers of the yards Dock Yards); by stating the whole expense concerned in the internal government of the were under, to discharge those men, to whose of the yards in the year 1798, both for malot it had fallen, to collect a six pence from terials and workmanship amounted to no each individual, which had been remitted to more than 41,994,000. Then how is it London, for the support of a deputation of possible that three millions could be saved, their trade, who were in town petitioning for an increase of wages. If the deputies amount exceeding a quarter of the whole or that peculations could be carried on to an themselves had given offence, I think the expense? This I am certain of, that any discharge should have been confined to one who has the smallest knowledge of nathem, and not have extended to those who val affairs must see the fallaciousness of the were ignorant of any transaction, beyond assertions.-In every Dock Yard there is a the general intention of their embassy; the description of people called cabin-keepers, consequence was, that the country has lost pound-keepers, &c. whose duty it is to take the service of near three hundred of the charge of certain stores and issue them when best shipwrights, which the Dock Yards to this day have not recovered. The visitation nerally filled up by shipwrights and arwanted. These appointments have been geof the Admiralty to the yards cannot have tificers rather advanced in years; to which escaped your notice, a visitation that has offices, as the employment was not laborious, procured them so much credit.-What! are they entitled to credit, for having discharged certainly, more to be depended on than they were perfectly competent, and were a number of men, at a time when the ap- young men.-Many of them, who at this proaching rigour of the season, would detime are equal to the task, have been disprive the generality of them of an oppor- charged.-Some it is true were past labour, tunity of procuring for themselves and families a subsistence? For burthening parish- also several who are still capable of working, but it is generally admitted, that there are es with heavy rates, by reason of the numand who of course will work for individuals. bers that became objects of parochial cha--Indeed some artificers whom the Admirity? and for driving others to seek an asylum in foreign countries? No, I hope there are but very, very few Englishmen who can sanction such unnatural and im VOL. II, their duty, are now earning, in merchants ralty discharged as incapable of performing yards, at the rate of eight or nine shillings per diem. F It has been asserted by a member of that board, the Dock Yards are full of artificers, the truth of which I positively deny, for in one yard the shipwrights are now nearly two hundred short of the peace establishment, with a very little prospect of the numbers being encreased; and instead of making every exertion to repair the fleet, in some of the yards they are employed in pulling old ships to pieces. Surely it would be wiser, in the first place, to put the navy in a state of active employ, and after that is accomplished, works of less consequence might be carried on. When the admiralty visited the yards in Sept. last, they discharged a number, with a promise of superannuation, four months have now elapsed without any provision being made for them, and the men already begin to think, the Admiralty have either forgotten their well deserved claims, or that they are to be consigned to their parishes without the promised remuneration. So much for their want of attention to the pressing calls of their fellow creatures. O! tempora! O mores-I cannot resist making some observation with regard to the circumstance of the dismissal of the late builder of Plymouth Yard.-But in the first place, I must inform you that Lord St. Vincent's, then private secretary (Mr. B. Tucker), had a brother who was a foreman of the shipwrights in a merchant's yard, and who at all events was to be provided for, in one of the King's-yards. This I am persuaded of, (and I am far from being singular in my opinion) that could Mr. Marshall have availed himself of a court martial, he would have been as honourably acquitted, as the late Sir W. Parker and General Innis. In page fifty-nine of the second number of the third volume of your Register, the circumstance of the ship Mars is related, otherwise I should have offered some observations thereon. But this I must be allowed to say, that I am of opinion had any other man betrayed such an evident want of judgment, he would have been dismissed, as unfit to hold a situation of that importance; but fortunately for Mr. Tucker, he was the private Secretary's brother, and therefore only had a reprimand. It is worth remarking, that previous to the enquiry taking place, which ended in the dismissal of the Plymouth officers, the late Clerk of the Cheque, who was an intimate friend and favourite of Lord St. Vincent's, was provided for by being placed on the superannuated list, and therefore escaped those charges in which otherwise he would have probably been included.-I will now advert to the general disposition of the officers and seamen towards the public service. With regard to the officers, I am persuaded disgust is the prevailing sentiment; and as for the sailors it appears but too evident how they stand affected.-Take a view of the ports where ships are fitting, and you will find that scarcely any enter, for ships that were commissioned four or five months since are still laying for want of hands, and although they have been commissioned so long a time, there is little or no prospect of their complements being completed, an alarming circumstance, considering the situation this country stands in. Hence the mutiny which has recently occurred, for had it been in the power of the Admiralty to have procured men for the ships which are now under orders to relieve those that are abroad, that much to be lamented and unfortunate circumstance would not have happened.-Notwithstanding this incontrovertible representation, the Chancellor of the Exchequer asserted, that were it necessary fifty sail of the line could be put to sea in a month. Per He was therefore taken from his situation, and directly made an assistant to the master shipwright at Plymouth, (which is the second employment in the shipwright branch). This hasty appointment was a thing unheard of; for before any one could be promoted to that station, it had always been customary to serve, not only their apprenticeship in the Dock Yard, but to rise progressively to the rank of quaterman, foreman, master mastmaker, or boat-builder, before they could be an assistant; instead of which, favouritism and partiality prevailed.-There is one cir cumstance which requires particular attention. Soon after Lord St. Vincent was at the Admiralty, Mr. Marshall, the builder, received an anonymous letter, cautioning him to be on his guard, as it was the inten-haps it is right (and I will admit it is), to tion of the Admiralty to dismiss him.-In April last a committee of the Navy Board went to Plymouth, by an order from the Admiralty, to enquire into certain abuses, which some one had given them information of. At the head of the committee was Mr. B. Tucker (who at this time is a commissioner of the navy), dismissal was the result of the investigation, and immediately Mr. Tucker's brother was appointed builder. make it appear our navy is in the most prosperous state, at all events it is highly necessary for our repose, Europe should think so. For my own part I sincerely wish it was, but a thorough information convinces me it presents a most gloomy prospect.-And how can it be otherwise when the study of the present rulers of the Admiralty is to persecute and degrade every class without discrimination under their jurisdiction.-The Admi ralty Board with all their pretensions to economy, would not have scrupled to have burthened the Public with additional expenses, provided the comptroller of the navy and a resident commissioner had accepted the offers made to them, as observed by your correspondent R B.-In short, they stop at nothing, however impolitic and unwise, to gratify any favourite project they may have formed. Some little time since, a member of that board asserted, that the Admiralty had a right to dismiss any individual without assigning to them a reason. I paused and he. sitated when I came to the passage, being doubtful whether I was reading the speech of a British senator, or the declaration of a Spanish inquisitor. That men are to be turned into the street, like dogs from a kennel, with every degradation, without any chance of their having an opportunity of clearing themselves in the opinion of the world; is such treatment as every honest Englishman must shudder at; surely give a man a chance of exculpating himself, and if be fails in that, then, and not until then, punish him. Many high encomiums have been passed on the Admiralty for their attention to the correction of abuses —But I contend they are not entitled to those hyperbolical compliments which some uninformed people so liberally bestow; for the new regulations which took place the 1st. July, 1801, and which did away one of the greatest evils complained of, that of permitting the workmen to carry out chips, was suggested by the commissioners of enquiry in 1784; not that I mean to say the regulations were planned by the commissioners of enquiry in toto; for I believe the greatest part originated with Earl Spencer, and were put in a train to be carried into execution long before Lord St. Vincent was at the Admiralty; and therefore, they cannot be entitled to popularity for having only put in force the measures that were framed by their predecessors.—It has been an unforfunate circumstance for many individuals, that the leading persons at the Admiralty had so long a list of favourites, who quere to be provided for, at all events; had it been otherwise, many who are now drinking of the bitter cup of sorrow and affliction, would still have enjoyed comfortable appointments. -Almost every individual in the civil and military department seems to entertain the same sentiment, and it is painful to state that distrust and murmurs are predominant. -Are these times to add (by the violent and oppressive manner of a department of the government) to the disaffected of the country? Surely not, for if ever it was needful that Britain should be puited, I know of no one period that required it more than PUBLIC PAPERS.. Convention between Austria, France, and Russia, signed at Paris on the 26th Dec. 1802. His Majesty the Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, having signified that he could not conşi. der the 5th article of the treaty of Luneville, as far as it relates to his Royal Highness the Archduke Ferdinand, Graud Duke of Tuscany, as suf ficiently fulfilled by the plan of indemnities agreed to by the Deputation of the Empire; and as the First Consul of the French Republic, on his part, has nothing more at heart than to contribute to the entire and perfect fulfilment of that treaty, it has been resolved, with the consent of his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, to agree on certain modifications to be introduced into the plan accepted by the Deputation of the Empire, to tender it conformable to the principles of the treaty of Luneville, and such as may receive the ratif cations of the Emperor and the Empire.-For this purpose the high contracting powers have appoiated their respective plenipotentiaries, namely, his Majesty the Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the Sieur John Philip, Count Cobentzel; and the First Consul of the French Republic, Citizen Joseph Buonaparte, who having exchanged their full powers, have agreed on the following ar ticles :-Art. I. To enlarge the indemnities stipu lated in favour of his Highness the Duke of Modena and his heirs, his Imperial Majesty cedes the district or province Ortenau, with all its depers dencies, to be united to the Breisgau, and his highness and his heirs shall possess these two provinces without any exception or limitation, according to the 4th article of the treaty of Luneville, which, with respect to the duke, is to be understood as well of the Ortenau as of the Breisgau. -Art, II. To indemnify his Imperial Majesty tor the cession of the Ortenau, the two bishopricks Trent and Brixen shall be secularised, and his Majesty shall receive possession of the same, and all their property, rights, and revenues, only under the condition that he shall provide for the the maintenance, for lite, of the two Prince-bishops and the Chapters, as shall be agreed on, and for the future dotation of the clergy, which, in these dioceses, shall be placed on the same footing as in the other provinces of the Austrian monarchy. Art. III. To complete the indemnities of his Royal Highness the Archduke, Grand Duke (of Tuscany), the bishoprie of Eichstadt shall be added to what has already been assigned to his Royal Highness by the general conclusum, or recess, of the ad of Filmgire (Nov. 23), to be possessed by his Royal Highness and his heirs, in full sovereignty and independence, with all the property, revenues, rights and prerogatives connected therewith, as possessed by the Prince-bishop Limself at the time of the signing the treaty of Luneville; only with the exception of the districts of Sandsee, Wernfels, Spate. Oberberg, Hornburg, and determination, the Batavian Rescriptions hav to-day fallen to 60; but they find many buyers at that price, and will probably soon be higher. Hague, Jan. 15.-The French expedition to Louisiana, is delayed by the severity of the weather; the ships destined for it are all frozen in at Helveotsluys. One hundred and thirty women and two hundred children, are to go with this ex Infantry, 190 Dragoons, the Corps of Guides, and a detachment of Artillery.We are returning throughout our Republic to our old institutions and customs. Many of the partizans of the Stadtholder have been admitted into different Municipal Offices, and the Government of the City of Amsterdam has published a Proclamation, restoring the Guilds or Corporations which had been abolished by the second Legislative Body, through the whole Republic. No person can now carry on any manufacture or fabrick in Amsterdam, within the laws of the late Corporation, who is not free of the Guild. Warburg, with all the dependencies of the bishopTic of Eichstadt, contained in the territories of Anspach and Bayreuth, which shall remain to his Electoral Palatine Highness of Bavaria, and shall be recompensed to his Royal Highness the Archduke, Grand Duke, by a suitable equivalent from the domains of his Electoral Highness of Bavaria in Bohemia, and in case these should not be sufficient, from other revenues of his Electoral High-pedition. The troops consist of six battalions of ness. Art. IV. For the confirmation of the said stipulations, and the property and other rights which his Imperial Majesty, as sovereign of the Austrian hereditary states, and head of the Empire, has agreed on and ceded for the completion of the plan of indemnities, his Majesty engages to employ his influence that the general plan of indemnities, as modified by the present convention, shall be ratified by the Empire, and that it shall, without delay, receive the Imperial ratification.Art. V. It is expressly understood, that after the exchange of the present act, the territories mentioned in the preceding articles shall be taken possession of, both in the civil manner, by the princes to whom they are allotted, or in their names; also that the city of Passau, and the suburbs of Instadt and Illstadt, shall be immediately evacuated by the troops of his Imperial Majesty, and given up to his Electoral Palatine Highness of Bavaria, but under condition that the fortifications of the city shall not be enlarged or strengthened, but only maintained in their present sta e; and that no new fortifications shall be erected in the suburbs of Instadt and Illstadt. Also in the territory of the bishopric of Eichstadt, no new fortifications shall be erected by his Royal Highness the Archduke Ferdinand or his heirs.-Art. VI. The First Consul of the French Republic will unite with his Imperial Majesty of all the Russias to procure the electoral dignity for his Royal Highness the Archduke Ferdinand.-Art. VII. The high contracting parties guarantee reciprocally he fulfilment of every thing contained in the preceding articles, and the minister plenipotentiary of his Imperial Majesty of all the Russias shall be invited to accede to the present convention, for and in the name of his Imperial Majesty, as a contracting principal-Ihe present convention shall be ratified within twenty days from the present time, or sooner it possible.-Done at Paris, the 5th Nivose, of the year 11, (Dec. 26, 1802).— (Signed) Phil. Cobenzel.—Joseph" Buonaparté.—Count Markoff. FOREIGN COUNTRIES. Genoa, Jan. 6.—This day three French ships of the line have entered our port, under the contmand of Vice-Admoral Bedou, after a voyage of twenty days from Brest; each with a crew of 560 men. On board this squadron, the Polish demibrigade will embark, after being reviewed. Florence, Jan. 7.We yesterday received, by a Courier from Leghorn, the agreeable intelligence that the Spanish fleet which brings back our Sovereigns, had arrived within sight of that Port, but a contrary wind prevented the disembarkation of their Majesties. Amsterdam, Jan. 15-Yesterday the Legislative Body at the Hague resolved that the Batavian Rescriptions should be changed into State Obligations. The plan is not exactly known, but the principal outine is said to be, that to a rescription of 100 florins, 800 florins shall be added in ready money, for which shall be given three obligations, each of 1000 florins, to bear an interest of 3 per cent. at least. In consequence of this Brussels, Jan. 20.-It appears that it is not in the vicinity of our city alone that an encampment is to be formed for 12,000 men. Accounts from the borders of the Rhine mention, that an equal number of troops is to be stationed on this part of the frontier. The general commanding the 27th military division, has received positive orders to this effect. According to the same advices, the Prefects of the four new departments are to meet in a few days at Coblentz, to confer with Citizen Dauchy, on all matters that concern their governments. General Beliard had set out, on the 13th, for Paris, with the greatest precipitation;. he returned yesterday evening, but did not stop a moment. He proceeded immediately to Ghent, where the Counsellor of State, Pellet de la Lozere, still is. It is not known what occasioned this precipitate journey, and this return equally precipitate. New York, Dec. 25.-The accounts from New Orleans confirm the apprehensions which the inhabitants of the United States entertained on the subject of the cession of Louisiana to France. A letter from that place, dated October 28, states, that no Spanish vessel is allowed to load with any thing but Spanish produce, and that only for France, Spain, or the Colonies. Another letter of the 29th of the same month, mentions that the ship Matilda, from London, was not permitted to land her cargo, and the consignees of a nun.ber of vessels from Europe and the United States had dispatched orders for the Captains of the respective ships not to proceed up the river, as their cargoes could not be received. FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPERS. Message of the President of the United States of America, to the Congress, on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1802. TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES.-When we assemble together, Fellow Citizens, to consider the state of our beloved country, our just attentions are first drawn to those pleasing circumstances which mark the goodness of that Being from whose favour they flow; and the large measure of thankfulness we owe for his bounty. Another year has come around, and finds us still blessed with peace and friendship abroad; law, order, and religion at home; good affection and harmony with our Indian neighbours; our burthens lightened, yet our income sufficient for the public wants, and the produce of the year great beyond example. These, fellow citizens, are the circum stances under which we meet; and we remark, | particulars of the contract will be laid before |