ts and demerits really were it is not easy to discover
through the mist made up of factious abuse and factious panegyric. One
set of writers described him as the most ravenous of all the plunderers
of the poor overtaxed nation. Another set asserted that under him the
ships were better built and rigged, the crews were better disciplined
and better tempered, the biscuit was better, the beer was better, the
slops were better, than under any of his predecessors; and yet that the
charge to the public was less than it had been when the vessels were
unseaworthy, when the sailors were riotous, when the food was alive with
vermin, when the drink tasted like tanpickle, and when the clothes
and hammocks were rotten. It may, however, be observed that these two
representations are not inconsistent with each other; and there is
strong reason to believe that both are, to a great extent, true. Orford
was covetous and unprincipled; but he had great professional skill and
knowledge, great industry, and a strong will. He was therefore an useful
servant of the state when the interests of the state were not opposed to
his own; and this was more than could be said of some who had preceded
him. He was, for example, an incomparably better administrator than
Torrington. For Torrington's weakness and negligence caused ten times as
much mischief as his rapacity. But, when Orford had nothing to gain
by doing what was wrong, he did what was right, and did it ably and
diligently. Whatever Torrington did not embezzle he wasted. Orford may
have embezzled as much as Torrington; but he wasted nothing.

Early in the session, the House of Commons resolved itself into a
Committee on the state of the Navy. This Committee sate at intervals
during more than three months. Orford's administration underwent a
close scrutiny, and very narrowly escaped a severe censure. A resolution
condemning the manner in which his accounts had been kept was lost by
only one vote. There were a hundred and forty against him, and a hundred
and forty-one for him. When the report was presented to the House,
another attempt was made to put a stigma upon him. It was moved that the
King should be requested to place the direction of maritime affairs
in other hands. There were a hundred and sixty Ayes to a hundred and
sixty-four Noes. With this victory, a victory hardly to be distinguished
from a defeat, his friends were forced to be content. An address setting
forth some of the abuses in