delaying to take part against England until the French navy was in
good order. He declared that our losses were far greater and our
successes far smaller than they were represented by government, and
inveighed against the inhumanity with which he asserted the war was
conducted on our side. He attacked the solicitor-general, who in
answering him pointed out that if, as he asserted, France was secretly
intriguing against us the bill was specially necessary. In a personal
encounter Wedderburn was a dangerous antagonist, and Fox met more than
his match. Dunning urged an amendment to prevent any abuse of the act;
and North, always averse from violent measures, accepted his proposal.
The bill was carried by 112 to 33. Public feeling had lately been
excited on the subject of treason by incendiary fires which did much
damage in the Portsmouth dockyard and destroyed some buildings on
Bristol quay. They were found to have been the work of one James Aitken,
commonly called John the painter, who had lately returned from America,
and who stated in his confession that he had acted at the instigation of
Silas Deane, one of the emissaries of congress in Paris.[119] He was
hanged at Portsmouth on March 10.

The expenses of the war were growing. For 1777 parliament voted 45,000
seamen, including 1,000 marines. The difficulty was to get them. A
seaman's service was not continuous; when his ship was paid off he could
go whither he would. The peace establishment of the navy was
ridiculously small, and when a war broke out it was always difficult to
get men in a hurry. Many of the best seamen would have taken service on
board merchant ships and would, perhaps, be at sea; and life on the
king's ships in time of war was often so rough that it is not surprising
that men should have avoided it. The usual difficulty of manning the
fleet at the beginning of a war was increased at the present time, for
it was calculated that the revolt of the colonies deprived England of
1,800 seamen. The navy in time of war was recruited by impressment, a
system which, though recognised by common law, entailed much hardship.
Seamen were kidnapped, often after a bloody struggle, and if caught
inland were sent to the ports ironed like criminals. Men who had been at
sea for years were liable, as soon as their ships neared home, to be
taken out of them, put into a press tender and sent to sea again.
Merchant ships were stripped of their best men, and were left to be