g period to come will
obtain, her seamen altogether from Great Britain.

2. That those seamen can be naturalised immediately, and become
American seamen by law.

3. That, under present circumstances, England is under the necessity of
raising seamen, not only for her own navy, but also for the Americans;
and that, in proportion as the commerce and shipping of America shall
increase, so will the demand upon us become more onerous; and that
should we fail in producing the number of seamen necessary for both
services, the Americans will always be full manned, whilst any
defalcation must fall upon ourselves.

And it may be added that, in all cases, the Americans have the choice
and refusal of our men; and, therefore, they have invariably all the
prime and best seamen which we have raised.

The cause of this is as simple as it is notorious; it is the difference
between the wages paid in the navies and merchant vessels of the two
nations:

+=========================+=========================+
Y Ypounds shils pounds shilsY
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
YAmerican ships per month Y 3 10Y
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
YBritish ships ditto Y2 2 to 2 10 Y
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
YAmerican men-of-war dittoY 2 0Y
+-------------------------+-------------------------+
YBritish men-of-war ditto Y 1 14Y
+=========================+=========================+

It will be observed, that in the American men-of-war the able-seaman's
pay is only 2 pounds; the consequence is that they remain for months in
port without being able to obtain men.

But we must now pass by this cause, and look to the origin of it; or, in
other words, how is it that the Americans are able to give such high
wages to our seamen as to secure the choice of any number of our best
men for their service; and how is it that they can compete with, and
even under-bid, our merchant vessels in freight, at the same time that
they sail at a greater expense?

This has arisen partly from circumstances, partly from a series of
mismanagement on our part, and partly from the fear of impressment. But
it is principally to be ascribed to the former peculiarly unscientific
mode of calculating the tonnage of our vessels; the error of which
system induced the merchants to build their ships so as to ev