tion, and violates the laws of humanity; therefore every plan to obviate the evil, has a claim to a patient hearing and candid discussion."-That worthy member's remarks must, I am sure, strike every body, who duly considers them, as just and forcible. Is it not an abominable sight, in a free country like ours, to have a number of sailors, with fire-arms and cutlasses, frequently in the dead of night, sometimes intoxicated with liquor, making their way into the dwellings of peaceable inhabitants; dragging a sober, unoffending subject from his home and settled means of livelihood, to convey him on board an impress tender, from thence to a guard-ship; imprisoned amidst the moral and physical contagion of a miscellaneous, kidnapped crew, to be driven across the seas, no mortal can tell him where, nor for how long a time; and, what is still worse, seized by surprize; not suffered to bid a kind farewell to his wife and family, nor have thought of their future subsistence, when deprived of his care; to adopt a new way of life, perhaps that for which his limbs and faculties are the worst calculated and fashioned by his Creator? And, Sir, is it not a serious matter of reproach to this wise, this liberal nation, never yet to have provided a remedy for such dreadful and extensive sufferings? What tumults, fear, and confu-sion, arise in every city, town, and village, within ten or twelve miles of a press-gang! And what numberless inconveniences to all conditions of persons throughout Great Britain! In 1770, the Lord Mayor of London represented to the Board of Admiralty, that the city of London was so infested with press-gangs, that tradesmen and servants were prevented from following their lawful business. A gentleman in Yorkshire, of rank and veracity (who was formerly a member of this House), sends me word, that such is at this time the general apprehension in that part of England from a press-gang at Tadcaster, that the labourers on his estate are dispersed abroad like a covey of partridges; neither could half of them be brought back to their work, till the steward had given them assurance of his master's protection: still, it seems, they are afraid to return to their own homes at night, and therefore constantly beg leave to sleep upon straw in the stables and outhouses of their landlord. In the west of England, the public are now so prejudiced by press-gangs, that I have read a letter from Exeter, dated February 24, which observes, that there had been no fish in their town for upwards of a fortnight-a circumstance scarce known within the memory of man: and another correspondent of mine, paints the miseries

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of the neighbouring coasts, in as strong colours as if there were famine, pestilence, or some other awful and almost preternatural visitation of Providence-markets deserted, the price of the most urgent necessaries of life thereby greatly enhanced, and numbers of families among the inferior classes of mankind, from the insecurity of the masters of those families, by whose toil and industry they had long been maintained in comfort, reduced at once to the verge of poverty and wretchedness! How shamefully has this unconstitutional license of the impress been abused at the town of Leicester, where men, the most unfit in every respect for the sea-service, were kidnapped, collared with iron, and manacled with cords or fetters, sent up to London in the basket of the stage-coaclı (as I understand), under command of a serjeant of militia, in violation of the most sacred laws of your constitution; with an heavy local expence, and to no better end than to have them at length put at large, as totally incapable of the errand they set out upon ! The animosities within this very metropolis of your empire, on the subject of impressing men for the navy, and the law-suits depending thereupon in the courts of Westminster-hall, must occasion, as well to government as to people in general, much embarrassment and apprehension. In several of the ports along the north-east coast of England, you have actually subsisting a dangerous commotion among large bodies of sea-faring persons, occasioned by many lawless proceedings of the press-gang; and every day's post brings some new detail of innocent lives lost, or limbs broken, in that quarter.Sir, there have been lately no less than one hundred and twenty men pressed, without distinction, in or about Bethnal-green and Spital-fields; of which between seventy and eighty, after suffering every hardship, and leaving their families distressed at home, obtained a discharge, as of no use to the service.-Having already cursorily touched on some of the calamities and unconstitutional outrages affecting those manufacturers, mechanics, and husbandmen, who never exercised, nor had in contemplation, the trade of a seaman, I must next take a short view of your cruelty towards mariners by profession. They are not only liable to the same inhuman violence and surprize with landsmen, but when seized on board trading vessels, for the purpose of serving his Majesty, are often imposed upon by fraudulent or imperfect bills, on account of wages due to them for past hire in the trader's employ. The lives of many brave officers, and their followers, have been sacrificed, or they have

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have come off cruelly maimed by this invidious part of their duty. A multitude of seamen have been drowned, by attempting to swim ashore from their ships; or have been shot by the centinels, while they endeavoured to escape under cover of midnight darkness; being driven to phrenzy and despair, for want even of a shadow of hope, that they might one day or other beitled to a legal discharge.

I remember, Sir, one Robert Fosper, a gunner's mate, belonging to the Resolution man of war, who, having been forcibly detained in the King's service, without remission, upwards of seventeen years, twice endeavoured to hang himself; was cut down, and cruelly restored to the same endless bondage. Many tragical events, still more decisive than this, occur in the private memoirs of your seamen. die through a gradual vexation and despondency; while others, ere they can be seized on shore, torture and mutilate their limbs, to incapacitate themselves for the yoke.

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What havock is made, during an impress, by fevers, and various infectious illness! -the captive seamen being crammed unwholesomely together, or too long confined on board an impress-tender. In 1771, during the heat of an impress, the number of sick in Haslar-hospital, near Gosport, amounted at one time (in the month of March) to 1418. It has been observed by well-informed authors on maritime customs and policy, that the ill consequences of a protracted impress have destroyed more British seamen than the first two or three years hostilities of a foreign war; and a very intelligent writer (I think it is Doctor Lynd), calls the guard-ship stationed at the Nore, for the reception of impressed men, a seminary of contagion to the whole fleet, by persons from infectious prisons, and covered with cutaneous or putrid eruptions.

In 1770, and beginning of the year 1771, the officer to whom I am indebted for the better part of the proposed plan, beheld ships from two to three hundred tons burthen deserted at sea; left only to a master, and perhaps three or four boys; cargoes exposed to perish, the lives on board sported with, and property of owners and insurers in a most perilous state. Near 400 vessels were at that period of time, during a warm impress, in this condition on the open ocean: neither yards lowered, nor topmasts struck; most of them deeply laden, and without strength sufficient to purchase or weigh an anchor, owing to a general apprehension among the sailors, of being compelled to go immediately on a foreign voyage, without reasonable expectation of ever being released, and feeling for that pain and anxiety which they were sensible their wives and families must labour under on their account.

There has frequently been given, by the owners of ships thus abandoned on the waves, so large a sum as from 25 to 30 guineas, to superannuated sea-faring men, to bring the vessel into a place of safety, while the project of its voyage has been altogether demolished. A very serious danger likewise arises to the public, when seamen, belonging to ships coming home from the Levant, and places accustomed to the plague, break quarantine, and run the risk of a civil law sentence, rather than be pressed to serve an unlimited time, to be sent abroad again without seeing their home, or visiting their relations, and allowed no prospect of some final period to their servitude; never, Sir, to rest unmolested on their native soil. An heavy tax usually falls on commerce in general, while an impress rages; partly from the exorbitant pay extorted by sailors, and partly by the detention of ships, for want of men. Consider, too, the numerous poor belonging to sea-faring persons, with which the parishes throughout this kingdom are burthened, during press-warrants, or in consequence of an unlimited term of service. Certain I am, that no compulsatory propositions, no encouragement nor lure whatever to seamen, no increase of bounty-money, will avail, so as to supply the numbers necessary for war, without a limitation of the servitude required.

Unpopular methods are ever abundantly more tedious and more expensive, than those where the people concur with government; and as, with men serving voluntarily, contentment is a natural consequence; so from that contentment must arise a zeal and alacrity, which will render fifty men capable of performing more real service than seventy could accomplish, whose actuating principles are directly repugnant to such spirit and energy. While an impress is in force, besides the high amount of bounties, you are at the charge of employing from four to five thousand seamen on that duty, which, together with the guard-ships for receiving pressed men, the tenders, and various out-goings, amounts to such a charge, that, at a very moderate computation, every impressed man actually retained for service, costs the nation thirty pounds sterling, besides near as many seamen as are employed in the impress, rendered of little use on the seas, from the necessity there is of putting several of those who can be trusted, into guard

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guard-ships, for security, and sending others on board merchant-vessels, in lieu of impressed men.

The impress, we know, fails as much in point of number as well as of expedition. The French, by means of a marine register, fit out their ships of war, to a certain degree of strength, perhaps near 40 sail of the line, far more expeditiously than we can: this has been proved at the commencement of former wars; and hence you must have been totally destroyed in the East Indies, early in the war which began in 1755, were it not for the extraordinary skill and exertion of your British seamen, and the prowess of Sir George Pocock, who repeatedly engaged the enemy with a force much inferior to theirs. When an alarm of war was sounded throughout Great Britain and Ireland, in 1770, press-warrants were issued, and continued in execution five months: you then swept the refuse of gaols, and the outcasts of almost every town and hamlet; yet you scarce increased your mariners (officers and servants exclusive, and without reckoning marines) to the additional amount of 8000. For the naval service of the current year 1777, we have voted 45,000, including 10,000 marines; and the best parliamentary * authority that can be quoted, since the weekly accounts have been unwarrantably and unprecedently denied to this House, gave us to hope, nay, to rest assured, that the whole number voted, would be raised by virtue of these press-warrants; adding, that 40 sail of the line were to be ready for sea, and completely manned, before the end of February. Sir, those 40 sail of the line must require above 24,000 men. We are now in the month of March-press-warrants in force between four and five months-we have about 14,000 men in Great Britain, and upon home service-possibly as many in North America; and 4700 employed in the Mediterranean and East or West Indies; in all, from 32,000 to 33,000 men, of which near 10,000 are marines, and more than 7000 officers, or servants :-of the remaining 16,00o, we may allow one-third, or upwards, say 5340, to be complete able seamen, and scarce 2400 of those are in Great Britain; the remainder of the ships' complements are ordinary seamen or landmen-that is, in Great Britain at this day, between 7000 and 8000 sailors of the royal navy-officers of all ranks, servants, &c. and marine