Queries are That every Man set on Shoar sick and not returning to his proper Ship or some other in one Month or immediately after discharg'd from sick Quarters thereby forfeits his Wages The Second Grievance is R's And those R's have of late been strenuously observed if not improved to the Seaman's Prejudice The Nature or Effect of those R's as now practised is That the Persons who by accident or otherwise do leave or are left by their proper Ships are by those R's noted to be Run and forfeit all the Wages due to them not only in the Ships they leave but in all former Ships as far as the same is unpaid notwithstanding Tickets long before delivered them for their former service by what new Rules or Orders this is practis'd I cannot say but am well assur'd 't is contrary to the former Practice and Rules of the Navy The Third Grievance is The deferring or non-payment of the Wages of such as are dead or absent notwithstanding others have attended with sufficient Power to receive the same and no colour of Objection and those to whom it's due ready to perish for want to such there are several 100000 l. now due and in Arrears which should have been long since paid The Fourth Grievance is the unusual and irregular manner of Payment lately practised viz. Some Ships that have three or four Years Pay due have been paid only ten or twelve Months the latter time and the former left unpaid upon account of their Companies being turned over into other Ships 2dly Some Ships paid for the whole time yet many People left unpaid The Fifth Grievance is Turning Men over from Ship to Ship lending them and bearing them by List that they know not in what Ship nor by what means they may obtain their Wages The Sixth Grievance is the Alteration of Officers Qualities By this their Wages have been retrenched some from 3l to 36 s. others from 36 to 23 s. c. The Seventh Grievance is Non-payment of Powers or Letters of Attorney made to Officers that is if any Officer's Father Brother Relation or any other Friend hath served in the Navy and hath made a Letter of Attorney to such Officer to receive the Wages he is denied Payment of the same The Eighth tho not a positive Grievance Yet as Matter worthy Consideration I shall hint something touching the smallness of the able Seaman's Pay and would not omit the Gunners Boatswains and Carpenters herein As for the able Seamans Pay it is 24 s. per Month the Deduction from the Registred Seamen 1 s. and from those that are not Registred 1 s. 6d per Month so that their Pay is but 22 s. and 6 d. The Warrant-Officers before-mentioned have Pay according to the respective Rates they are in The Ninth Grievance is The Difficulty of obtaining His Majesty's gracious Bounty allowed the Widows and Children of such as are slain in His Majesty's Service and the Monies due for the Clothes of such as die which Clothes are generally sold at the Mast such Seamens Families and Relations being at a distance and not knowing where to find the proper Officers to sign such Certificates as required for the Payment of such Bounty and Clothe-Money it hath been long delayed and often-times intirely lost The Tenth Grievance is The Non-payment of the Register'd Seamen not to insist on 40 s. per Annum hitherto unpaid I shall only mention the Case of the Widows Friends and Relations of such as have died in the Service with respect to their Wages 1. Such as die on Voyages to Holland France the Narrow-Seas c. their Wages are refused to be paid according to the Act it being alledged that such are not Foreign Voyages 2. Such as have been bound out on Foreign Voyages and died before the Ships departure from England their Wages are also refused 3. Such as have been on Foreign Voyages so accounted and in such Voyages have contracted Sickness whereof they have died immediately after the Ships Return to England their Wages are also refused as not intended by the said Act to be paid 4. Such as have gone out in one Ship and served a considerable time in her and afterwards turned over into another and there in a few Months died the Widows of such are paid for the Ships only wherein they died and not for the former 5. Such Commission and Warrant Officers as are Register'd who die on Foreign Voyages their Wages are refused as not intended to be paid by the said Act. The Eleventh Grievance is The Government and Discipline used in the Navy but there being already good and wholesom Laws provided both for suppressing Vice and encouraging Virtue I have little to say only that the Epidemical abounding of Vice and Debauchery through the whole Fleet too evidently demonstrates the Neglect if not the Contempt of the said Laws And it would be well if the Practice and Example of superior Officers did not so much contribute to the same and whether this with a sordid and slavish Punishment viz. Whipping and Pickling much us'd of late and that on frivolous Occasions do not tend to the dastardizing of the Spirits of our English Seamen and the animating and emboldening our Enemies and consequently to the Nations Prejudice 't will do well to consider and if found to be so to redress the same The Twelfth Grievance is The fraudulent Dealing of many that pretend to solicite Business and receive Wages in the Navy by which the Seamen are also prejudiced but the Particulars hereof being too long to insert herein shall at present omit the same Errat Page 16. line 15. for destruere read obruere
What dee' think of whipping our Seamen at the Gears and then basting their flea'd Backs with as many Canns of Pickle as the Commander by his discretionary Power pleases to order Are not our Ships thus become meer Bridewells and our Sailors as bad or worse than Gally Slaves nay I have known a Boy of 2 or 3 and twenty years of age lash'd to a Gun and whipt a punishment given to the youngest Boys on board Ship Had our Commanders any Religion our Seamen might stand in fear of the Inquisition If a stop be not put to their Barbarous and Inhumane Cruelties they 'l in time borrow the Rack from the French and the Boot and Thumb Screws from the Scots Can you blame the Sailors for running from such Tortures and shall they be punisht for complaining of their Miseries 'T is this Sir that dastardizes and effeminates the noble Spirits of your Seamen 'T is this makes them desert the Service of their Country 'T is this peoples Colonys of Pirates abroad And 't is this will in time be the Ruin of the most Glorious Navy of the Universe Nor are Pecuniary Mulcts a less Crime How this came to be a part of the Discipline of the Navy I can't tell but when men govern by their Will and not by Law we must every day expect new punishments But if it 's reasonable that the Sailors should be punisht after this manner is it not as reasonable that the Mulct should be answerable to the Crime If a Sailor be absent from his Ship a Week is not that Week's pay sufficient to be stopt for that Week's Crime The Fines in our Courts of Justice are laid according to the Worth of the Criminal exorbitant Fines having in all Ages been esteemed extrajudicial no man can be fin'd more than he is capable of paying and to fine a Person to the full Value of his Estate is giving away all a man has been gathering for many Years for one Piccadillo By lawful Judgment of his Peers and by the Law of the Land Peers that is his Equals men of the same Rank and Quality with himself But the Sailors are not try'd after this manner the same Person is Accuser Judg and Jury they have no Indictment no Jury empannel'd no Counsel to plead for them strip they must and to the Gears the Cat of nine-Tails and the Pickle Cann must be exercised upon the Back as long as the Whipping-Tom upon the Quarter Deck is pleas'd with the sport 'T is pity young Fudge's dearly beloved Friend Jefferies is dead he exercis'd his Talent so well in the late Reign in the West that he would have made an excellent Navy Officer now They are to be try'd too by the Law of the Land i. e. by due Process of Law for so the words are expresly expounded by the Stat. of 37 Ed. 3. Chap. 8. But instead of this Trial they are punisht by the Law of the Admiralty without any Trial at all So that the poor Tarrs are a sort of People that have no Right at all to any thing but ill Usage and barbarous unmanly Punishments Punishments that are superior to Death it self because ignominious and shameful malim mori quam vapulari But our Navy Officers like the Sicilian Tyrants employ their Brains more in contriving new sorts of Punishments than in finding out good and wholesom Laws to maintain a Discipline in the Navy Thus Sir I have given you a short view of the Inconsistence of the Navy Discipline with the fundamental Laws of our Realm a Discipline not only contrary to the Laws of our Country but even to the Laws of Nature and the practice of the most uncivilized part of the world And upon the whole I must conclude that they being warranted by no Law in the Execution of these Severities have assumed to and vested themselves with a Legislative Power a Power I shall never own to be lodged any where but in Parliament But if the People of England are so far willing to part with their Constitution as to suffer the Navy Officers to make Laws penal ' een let 'em allow the Lords of the Treasury Power to raise Mony and then our Business is brought into a very narrow Compass 't will be a great ease to you Members of Parliament you may retire into the Country walk over your pleasant Fields and sit under your own Vines but I can tell you in a short time who 'l eat your Grapes Pray Sir do but call to mind the days of old the years of your Forefathers look into the Chronicles of former Ages did any of your worthy Progenitors suffer their Rights thus to be invaded by men that are their Servants and receive their Pay Have they not left you Copies of your Freedom sealed with their own blood What Hazards have they run what Dangers have they attempted what Battels have they fought to secure to Posterity those Liberties they valued before their Lives Are not our Liberties the same Has envious Time devoured any part of them Are they less amiable because they are old Did they bring Kings to distress shatter Crowns and humble Tyrannical Princes who invaded their Birth-rights And will you suffer your Freedoms your Antient Constitution thus to be rent and torn by men of inferior Quality Whom your Forefathers would have impeached in the name of the good People of England and made them answer for assuming to themselves a Legislative Power If you read an excellent Book lately published entituled A Vindication of Magna Charta you 'l there see how valuable those Rights were and what Toil and Labour our Forefathers underwent to keep them entire and transmit them to Posterity I shall in the next place prove that the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of England during the War have assumed to themselves a Dispensing Power By an Act Anno Gulielmi Mariae 4 to 5 to entituled An Act for continuing the Acts for prohibiting all Trade and Commerce with France and for the Encouragement of Privateers p. 505. it is enacted That if any Captain or Officer or any other Person by his Command or Direction or any Seaman or Souldier or other Person serving in their Majestys Navy or in any Privateer shall take to him or themselves or imbezle any Mony Plate Goods Lading or Tackle or any things upon or above the Gun Deck or any other part or place whatsoever in any Ship taken or seized on for Prize or retaken from the Enemy the party offending shall lose and forfeit the Shares Proportions and Rewards to him allowed by this Act. And also in case such Person be an Officer he shall forfeit the Sum of five hundred Pounds and such Officer shall be uncapable of any Office or Employment under their Majestys during the space of seven Years Many Commanders of Ships guilty of embezling Prize Goods and of running of Wines c. contrary to Law have notwithstanding this been either continued
or restored to their Commands If your Honourable House pleases to send for a List of such Commanders as have been discharged and afterwards restored to their Commands and examine into the merits of the Cause for which they were discharged you will find this a manifest Truth To have the Kings ships become Owlers is far worse as lately a parcel of Wool was seized on board the Isabella Yacht that has the station betwixt Southampton and Jersey I know not how her Pilot Mr. Peter de St. Croix whom I have known much averse to things of that nature was prevailed on to take the Matter upon himself But this I know very well that if your Honourable House would enquire into this single thing it would be of great Advantage I am sure the Judges took the Case right enough whatever the Opinion of the Admiralty might be concerning it If a Merchant makes a mistake in entring of Goods the King's Officers are sharp enough upon him but when Officers themselves or Commanders of the Navy are guilty of these Crimes they have Friends to bring them off tho contrary to the Laws of the Land Now Sir for these very Practices for the Dispensing with Laws did we depose the late King James Upon this Account had this very Government its Being And shall we suffer Men in Commission under the Government not only to make new Laws but dispense with old ones Their Power is indeed very great who can make Laws inflicting Punishments upon others when no Laws are binding upon themselves They are self-holders of the Admiralty supported by an uncontroulable Power and Soveraign Will What a miserable Condition are those Men in that are under the Command of such whose unlimited Rage always roars and where Laws are always silent This is the Oeconomy of the savage Beasts of the Earth and thus our Offices become meer Deserts I shall next show you how these makers of new Laws are Repealers of the old good and wholesom Practices and Customs of the Navy Their Fudge tells you of the Embelishments they have added but not of the Ornaments they have taken away It has been the constant practice of the Admiralty in the days of yore to prefer Men according to their Merit and Demeanour on Ship-board the Navy of England was in those times a School wherein the young Gentlemen of the Nation were educated and instructed in the Military Arts of the Sea and became greatly serviceable to their Country These Men being descended from generous Stocks valued their Reputation and scorn'd to do any thing that might blot or stain their Pedigree The Sailors of the Navy had then better Treatment abuses being beneath the Character of Gentlemen Cruelties and Barbarities are inconsistent with the nature of generous and noble Spirits Whipping and Pickling was then a Punishment unknown Cruelty and Cowardice are things inseparable and practised only by Men of a servil Education If a Foot-boy or Page be made a Commander he remembers the Flaps of the Cook-maids Dishclout the Basting and Caning of his Master's Steward and now it comes to his turn to domineer he tyrannizes with a resistless Fury Those Gentlemen that were Reformades or King's Letter-men were sure of being Lieutenants in former times and as sure of being Captains in their turn no Foot-boys or Pages then skip'd over their Heads But now you may find Lieutenants of many Years standing in the Navy while Masters of Merchant-men c. are made Commanders of 3d Rates a Post in former Ages not beneath the Dignity of Noblemen as for instance the Earl of Ossory in the Resolution and the Lord Mulgrave in the Royal Katherine Our Ships were then throng'd with Noblemen their Sons and the Sons of our Gentry But how many of Quality have served in the Fleet during this War And is not the loss of Discipline the apparent Cause thereof For 't is contrary to the very being of generous Spirits to serve under the Command of the Riffraff of their Country and to do Homage to Men of more inferior Qualities than their Servants And what encouragement is thus given to those Gentlemen that have served a long time in the Navy as Lieutenants or otherwise when those that never served the King one hour are preferred over their Heads It is farther observable that the Masters of such Merchant-ships as have been hired into the Service during the War by the Interest of the Owners have been made Commanders of them to the Discouragement of such as have served in the Navy such Commanders in an Engagement were more likely to save the Merchantships from blows than hazard them in the King's Service But for all this they boast of the Discipline of the Navy as a thing excelling that of former Ages in defiance to publick Opinion and the Results of the mature Debates of the Wisdom of the Nation Yet upon this Account have the Enemies of the Government no occasion to reflect upon it no more than the Husbandman is to be blamed for the numerous quantities of Weeds that spring up among his Wheat The King never gave his Commission to the Officers of the Navy to oppress his Subjects to silence old Laws and enact new Ones And 't is much to be feared methods are taken to prevent the Complaints and Cries of the Subject from reaching his Majesties Ears otherwise we cannot imagine a Prince that has experienced so much of their tender Affection of their Bravery in War and the generous Supplies they have given him to preserve his Person and Government would suffer them to languish under such intolerable and illegal Evils If they had Commissions granted upon such an Account we should know whereabouts we are Yet tho such Commissions being out of the Verge of the Executive Power are to be accounted for the Persons executing them are not excusable however it fared with the Ministers of the late King James But we have no room for Imaginations of this kind under this Government And I may farther add that were his Majesty truly sensible of the Condition of his Sailors he would not suffer such Abuses upon them he would not withhold from them their Wages upon the Account of pretended and illegal Forfeitures his wonted and manifest Clemency must create in us better Thoughts than that he who has pardon'd Assassins such as have conspired to take away his Life that has eased Newgate so often of its burden of Criminals of all sorts by Acts of Grace and Free Pardons will suffer his Sailors to lose their Pay and starve for innocent Crimes without extending his Mercy towards them Now Sir having given you a true account of the nature of our Naval Discipline I shall spend a little more time in considering what young Fudge the Admiralty Author has to say for his Masters P. 21. he says Care has been always taken to do Justice to the Sailors for when any one produced reasonable Testimonials that he did not designedly desert the Service