Selected quad for the lemma: peace_n
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A50378
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Naval speculations and maritime politicks being a modest and brief discourse of the Royal Navy of England, of its oeconomy and government : and a projection for an everlasting seminary of seamen by a royal maritime hospital : with a project for a royal fishery : also necessary measures in the present war with France &c. / by Henry Maydman.
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Maydman, Henry.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing M1420; ESTC R30058
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112,498
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385
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by the Lord High Admiral whose Office is to execute all Orders from the Admiralty for fitting out of Ships what allowance of Men the Unrigging and laying them Up Building and Repairing of Ships or Houses they direct the manner of doing it they represent to the Admiralty the Quality and Condition of Ships Houses Docks c. the Qualities and Conditions of all Officers for Preferment viz. Warrant-Officers if not some Commissioned In fine they represent the whole Affair of the Navy to the Admiralty and receive Orders from them which they put and cause to be put in Execution by making By-orders grounded upon them They Contract and Pay for Assign-Bills for Payment for all Stores Wages and Victuals and all the Expence of the Navy and Audite all the Accompts and avouch all the Payments to the Treasurer by a Ledger which Ledger the Pay-Master of the Navy for the Treasurer passes into the Exchecquer every Year which undergo the Examination and Casting again of the Auditor of the Exchecquer which Ledger contains the Treasurer's Debtor and Creditor Accompt which Examination being over the Treasurer hath a Quietus out of the Exchecquer for his Acquitment But yet in general these aforesaid Commissioners are of very great Trust for they so negotiate the Affair of the Navy that not an Officer or Person in it but what comes under their Cognizance Their Office is partly Military and partly Civil-Military for they Execute or Direct all Councils of War which in the Roads or Rivers where no Admiral is they are Deciders of all Controversies between Man and Man concerning Debts to be defaulted out of their Pays They have Power to mulct any Man's Pay for Neglects and Offences committed They examine into all Men's Facts the lesser to punish by Pecuniary Mulcts and the greater to represent to the Admiralty and in the Interim to suspend them from the Service and in fine to do Justice between the King and the Subject To their Commissions from the Admiralty is generally added Commissions of the Peace for those Counties where it s thought the King's Affairs will lead them whereby they are enabled to Act in Civil Matters by doing Justice no any appertaining to the King's Affairs to decide Matters of Justice between any in the Yards or in their Travels commit any to Prison for Burglary Murther or Petty-larcony and may sit on the Bench at Assizes or General Quarter-Sessions And in fine may do any thing that a Justice of the Peace can do within the Limits of his Commission And for the Military he is the very Image and Deputy of the Lord High Admiral to put in Execution the Power which the Admiralty delegates unto him And if he be President of a Council of War he sits by virtue of a Commission from the Lord High Admiral and as his Proxy In fine It is a Place of very great Trust and Business and requires Men of Knowledge Wisdom Justice and Experience of the Naval Proceedings and of Courage also and Conduct for they are many times called to Sea to wear Flags such as have been made out of the Commanders at Sea Knowledge and Experience of the Navy to soon decide any Controversie arising between Officers concerning their respective Duties else the Officers will be apt to put Novelties and to raise Scruples if they know the Commissioner is not able to decide them whose Umpirage ought to be absolute in any of the Yards also when he is alone But when there is a Board it may be appealed to the Board but if the matter be not very great and grievous it were better to abide by his Umpirage For the Others will not care to meddle within his Precinct concerning any one in the Yard or Ordinary except they do belong to any Ship in Extraordinary And though there is a Captain who will assume the Power yet a Commissioner may grant Relief to a Wronged Person against the will of his Captain if the Ship be within the Harbour But of late Years the Commissioners of the Navy have been eclipsed and lessened by the Captains and the Rules of the Navy and the Antient Customs much broken For the Authority and Business of some have been stretched to that length that they themselves know not the end but of that I shall speak when I come to their particular Post As for a Commissioner of the Navy I have known him to bear very great Authority in the Harbour and at Pay and have done great Justice to particular Men who have been wronged by their Commanders unjust and merciless Spleen so that the grieved Officer and Mariner have rejoyced when they have come where a Commissioner was who would take the Captain to Task for his Inhumane or Unjust Dealings and reprimand him severely and if worthy would transfer the Matter to the Admiralty where the Commissioners Representation should be heard to the Others disadvantage And if a Ship came into the Harbour and the King's Affairs stood in need of hands he would not scruple to order one Ship 's Company to work on another to clear her for the Dock Rigg Re-fit and what not by which the Service might be furthered But as I said before the Case is much altered and the Hinges of that Affair quite Lame they will not move any way except you would have them go Backwards But I will not meddle with Particulars lest I should come within the Account of an Informer the which is reckon'd a thing of great Odium in the Navy-Affairs But I greatly admire that the Officers of the Upper-Rank should brand any one that lets them know of any fowl Fact with the Odium of an Informer and seemingly nay openly treats him unkindly It has seemed strange unto me and looked like the unjust Steward who not only Wronged his Master himself but shewed others to do it or looks like a Great Man's Steward who discourages or is angry with any one that comes to him and tells him That such an one hath cousened his Master or stollen his Goods of which he is the Head Steward what might be the Reason that generally in the Navy-Office and through the Practice of the Navy one that Informs of Cousenage or Theft in the Navy is stiled with an Odium and generally hated and discountenanced as also a Ticket-Buyer or Ticket-Monger as they in hatred term him and is looked upon as some ill Office done by him But in my mind these Two Persons are the King's Friends the former to deter Thieves and Unjust Men from their Evil Practices and the latter I shall speak to when I shall arrive at the Ticket-Office But these Treatments are very strange to me and seem as if there were a general Agreement against them as Evil Men and not fit to negotiate in the Navy But I shall say no more at Present but hide my Face with Shame and follow my Discourse of the Commissioners who are of that weight in this Aflair that if they be right and
us with his Almighty Finger to Rule and Govern in it which our former Princes have done without sparing Blood or Treasure to accomplish it But now the French King maketh very large Efforts to the bereaving us of that Right and Pirating Roving and Ravaging in it he having been increased in Shipping Navigation and Wealth by our late Impolitick Proceedings First by permitting the uneven balance of Trade with us And Secondly By directing or suffering the changing the ancient and Expeditious Methods of the Discipline and Government of the Navy Royal putting it into the hands of designing Projectors to enrich themselves only confounding the Affair exhausting much Treasure to multiply great Ships of little use to our purpose and neglecting of lesser Ships which we now want discouraging and disanimating Warranted bnd Standing Officers Mariners and Seamen by blind-folding Pretences of strict observance of Duty needless and from preserving the Mariner from being rooked of his Pay by having liberty to dispose of it as he pleases for which purpose he hath not been allowed an open Market for the same on Shoar to bring it into Money into his Pocket nor yet on Board allowed a Market where more than one Seller for Cloathing and other of their Wants which Methods I say have greatly disanimated all the Maritime People under a Commission Officer And I fear by the Novels introduced have brought Distraction and Confusion on it to the great impeding thereof Wherefore it is high time if it be not too late to awaken out of this Lethargy to recover our Dominion Honour and Prowess before it be past recovery now in this instant War with France to effect which the Nation must not spare Blood nor Treasure although it prove a Work of time and great Maritime Expences must be continued until it be gained without which no lasting Peace or Happiness can be expected for us to enjoy for the Sword being drawn by so many hands to carve themselves a share out of this said Maritime Dominion we are not able to judge how Sides may be taken or with whom we may happen to deal with before the Seas may enjoy a setled Peace Wherefore I emplore the King and Estates in Parliament to put the Navy into a posture of great and constant defence to dispoyl this Common Enemy of all his Commands or Collonies in the West-Indies and his Navigation of Fishing on the Banks of New-found-land but first to put the Navy into its former Methods of Expedition near unto what was practised when England did such Braveries at Sea as before spoken of and by expugning all the Novel and hurtful invented Intricacies and retain only the Laudable which is the principal and proper Work of the Lord High Admiral or Lords Commissioners for executing the said Office by appointing and choosing Experienced Wise Just Valiant and Religious Commissioners of the Navy Flag Officers Captains Commissioned and Warranted Officers all well approved in their Principles for the maintaining of the Monarchical Government of this Nation both in Church and State as by the Laws thereof established and to lay by all Vncapable and Irreligious Persons unjust Cowards Private-Interest-makers Trickers Dissemblers Designers Party-makers Debanched and Disloyal Persons to the said Government and by inviting and incouraging all good Men qualified as aforesaid and setling of Just Safe Expeditious and well experienced Methods in the Government thereof affixing and establishing Rewards and Preferments independant upon private Interest Bribes or immediate Superiors Commanding and also giving them ample and full Instructions for the performance of their respective Duties in doing which they shall be safe from violence or wrong done them by their Superiors not suffering Methods and Instructions to be either leapt over or broken like Cobwebs and they left to Despotical and Tyrannical Power I say the King Commissions the Lords of the Admiralty under him and by his Dictates unto them from time to time to Govern Fight and Manage the said Navy and to perform which they Constitute Commissioners of the Navy to negotiate under them and by their Dictates and Approbation to prepare and provide Ships Men Stores and all Necessaries Provisions Moneys c. and to Dispose Account and Order the same as Deputies of the Lord High Admiral having each his distinct Class or Order to act in yet a certain number thereof confirms all Actions viz. three of them whereof one is needful to be the Comptroller him unto whose particular Office the said Matters do more immediately relate whose Clerks in each Office are under their respective Inspections and Directions for Dispatches to keep them to their Duties duly observing their Errors in Methods and Protraction in Dispatches yet not wholly confined to their respective Offices but to mark all Errors in all others nay of all Degrees and Orders of the Navy under the Lord High Admiral but if they are designed to live at ease and let Business slide and do Justice as the unjust Judge did because he was wearied by the Complainant that he could not rest and no otherwise If he let Officers do their Dispatches at their Leisures Secretaries Clerks c. do most of the business I say if their Actions are with too much Grandeur and Deliberation and promulgate their Pleasures at too great distances and through too many Doors And if they move in the Affairs as some Country Justices doe to do Justice to their Country for at their procuring the Commission it was but to give them Authority to punish those that offended themselves or Friends in their Domestick Rights or slighted their Grandeur but to serve their Countrey or take pains to distribute Justice to relieve the oppressed and restore Men to lost Rights maintain Peace and Amity in Neighbourhoods punish Malefactors and Offenders and for doing this and many more good Offices spends his Time and Moneys at Assizes and Sessions he never intended any more than to live well himself and let the World Sink or Swim I say if such like proceedings be in the Navy then I conclude it has gotten a filthy Disease the Lethargy and to a waken it out of its Drowsinefs there ought to be some sharp Applications Wherefore I project that there should be another Officer created in the Navy viz. a Superseding Officer such as the French call an Intendant but I affect not the French Name nor Manners but the Latines or Romans a Censor one that should Censure all Officers in the Navy under the Lord High Admiral and be Commissioned by him to go and fit at all Boards Inspect all Officers and Books and observe their Methods and Practices in dispatches and censure dictate direct and correct the Errors quicken the Dispatches hear all Grievances and Complaints suspend all Contumelious Negligent Dishonest Disloyal and offending Officers refering them to the Admiralty for their Appeal whither he should transmit their Faults in a fair written Accusation taken before him at the place by his Clerk for that Purpose