icy so erroneous, whether the arithmetic be just or
otherwise. But in a scheme for making this nation "happy at home and
respected abroad, formidable in war and flourishing in peace," it is
surely a little unfortunate for us, that he has picked out the _Navy_,
as the very first object of his economical experiments. Of all the
public services, that of the navy is the one in which tampering may be
of the greatest danger, which can worst be supplied upon an emergency,
and of which any failure draws after it the longest and heaviest train
of consequences. I am far from saying, that this or any service ought
not to be conducted with economy. But I will never suffer the sacred
name of economy to be bestowed upon arbitrary defalcation of charge. The
author tells us himself, "that to suffer the navy to rot in harbor for
want of repairs and marines, would be to invite destruction." It would
be so. When the author talks therefore of savings on the navy estimate,
it is incumbent on him to let us know, not what sums he will cut off,
but what branch of that service he deems superfluous. Instead of putting
us off with unmeaning generalities, he ought to have stated what naval
force, what naval works, and what naval stores, with the lowest
estimated expense, are necessary to keep our marine in a condition
commensurate to its great ends. And this too not for the contracted and
deceitful space of a single year, but for some reasonable term.
Everybody knows that many charges cannot be in their nature regular or
annual. In the year 1767 a stock of hemp, &c., was to be laid in; that
charge intermits, but it does not end. Other charges of other kinds take
their place. Great works are now carrying on at Portsmouth, but not of
greater magnitude than utility; and they must be provided for. A year's
estimate is therefore no just idea at all of a permanent peace
establishment. Had the author opened this matter upon these plain
principles, a judgment might have been formed, how far he had contrived
to reconcile national defence with public economy. Till he has done it,
those who had rather depend on any man's reason than the greatest man's
authority, will not give him credit on this head, for the saving of a
single shilling. As to those savings which are already made, or in
course of being made, whether right or wrong, he has nothing at all to
do with them; they can be no part of his project, considered as a plan
of reformation. I greatly fear that