in those days have been regarded by the greatest potentate as
formidable. But it existed only on paper. When the reign of Charles
terminated, his navy had sunk into degradation and decay, such as would
be almost incredible if it were not certified to us by the independent
and concurring evidence of witnesses whose authority is beyond
exception. Pepys, the ablest man in the English Admiralty, drew up,
in the year 1684, a memorial on the state of his department, for the
information of Charles. A few months later Bonrepaux, the ablest man in
the French Admiralty, having visited England for the especial purpose
of ascertaining her maritime strength, laid the result of his inquiries
before Lewis. The two reports are to the same effect. Bonrepaux declared
that he found everything in disorder and in miserable condition, that
the superiority of the French marine was acknowledged with shame and
envy at Whitehall, and that the state of our shipping and dockyards
was of itself a sufficient guarantee that we should not meddle in
the disputes of Europe. [47] Pepys informed his master that the naval
administration was a prodigy of wastefulness, corruption, ignorance,
and indolence, that no estimate could be trusted, that no contract was
performed, that no check was enforced. The vessels which the recent
liberality of Parliament had enabled the government to build, and which
had never been out of harbour, had been made of such wretched timber
that they were more unfit to go to sea than the old hulls which had been
battered thirty years before by Dutch and Spanish broadsides. Some
of the new men of war, indeed, were so rotten that, unless speedily
repaired, they would go down at their moorings. The sailors were paid
with so little punctuality that they were glad to find some usurer who
would purchase their tickets at forty per cent. discount. The commanders
who had not powerful friends at court were even worse treated. Some
officers, to whom large arrears were due, after vainly importuning the
government during many years, had died for want of a morsel of bread.

Most of the ships which were afloat were commanded by men who had not
been bred to the sea. This, it is true, was not an abuse introduced by
the government of Charles. No state, ancient or modern, had, before that
time, made a complete separation between the naval and military service.
In the great civilised nations of antiquity, Cimon and Lysander, Pompey
and Agrippa, had foug