d all engaged
his attention previously, particularly that relating to the gun-boats,
which he had frequently discussed with the late Sir Sidney Smith, who
contended that they might be made effective against a line-of-battle
ship. Sir Edward would always say, "I should choose to be in the
line-of-battle ship." On the day he went to the House, he observed in a
letter to his brother that he now quite understood why he had been
recalled from Ferrol.

On the 15th of March, Mr. Pitt brought forward his threatened motions.
He contended, that although the enemy had made the most formidable
preparations for an invasion, which would probably be attempted within a
few weeks, the effective force of the navy, from line-of-battle ships
down to hired armed vessels, was at that moment inferior, and less
adequate to the exigency of the danger, than at any former period.
Notwithstanding it was so evidently necessary to oppose to the enemy's
flotilla a force of a similar description, capable of acting in shallow
water, the Admiralty had ordered only twenty-three gun-vessels to be
built, of which five were to be completed in three, and the remainder in
six months, though the necessity for them was immediate and urgent. He
condemned the Admiralty for giving up the former approved plan of
building line-of-battle ships by contract in private yards. Two-thirds
of the navy, he said, had been thus built; for during a war all the
strength of the King's yards was required for repairing ships, and
building was necessarily suspended in them almost entirely. Through the
last war, of twenty-nine line-of-battle ships, twenty-seven had been
built in merchants' yards; while in the present only two had been
contracted for, although fourteen or fifteen slips fit for building them
were then unoccupied in the river. He contended, finally, that the
Admiralty had been very remiss and unsuccessful in raising men for the
navy. In the war of 1793 we began with 16,000 seamen and marines, and
had 75,000 or 76,000 at the end of the year. In the present war we
began with 50,000 men, and had raised them only to 86,000. Thus, in the
former war there had been an increase of 60,000 men in the year; but in
the present only of 36,000, though our mercantile marine was so much
greater. Upon these arguments he founded motions for an account of all
ships, from line-of-battle ships down to hired armed vessels inclusive,
in commission on the 31st of December 1793, 30th of Septem