ber 1801, and
31st of December 1803, specifying the service on which they were
respectively employed; for a copy of the contracts made, and the orders
given by the Admiralty in 1793, 1797, and 1803, with respect to the
number of gun-vessels to be built; for a list of ships built in the
King's yards for 1793 and 1801; but if it should be thought that any
intelligence on this head might be a channel of improper information to
the enemy, he would abstain from pressing it, for he was aware that
there would still be grounds sufficiently strong to convince the House
that it was the preferable plan to construct vessels in the merchants'
yards; and, finally, for a similar list of vessels built by contract in
private yards.

Mr. Tierney, who led the defence for ministers, would agree only to the
first and second motions; and he moved, as an amendment to the first,
that it should include all other armed ships and vessels employed in the
public service. He denied Mr. Pitt's assertions, and combated his
arguments. It was an extraordinary proceeding, he said, that an inquiry
should be proposed, having for its object the censure of the Admiralty,
when every port of the enemy was sealed up, our commerce protected in
every direction, and our trade prosperous in an unexampled degree. Our
naval force was immense, and admirably calculated for a great variety of
service. We had 1,530 vessels employed, of which 511 included the force
from line-of-battle ships to hired armed vessels; and 624 were a
flotilla completely equipped and ready for immediate service; besides 9
block-ships supplied by the Trinity-house, 19 ships furnished by the
East India Company, and 373 lighters, and small craft, fitted in the
King's yards. Of 100,000 seamen and marines voted by Parliament, 98,174
had been raised, besides 25,000 sea-fencibles; and this, although the
volunteer force of the country was 450,000. He strongly condemned the
practice of building ships in merchants' yards. He alluded to the
_Ajax_, which had been thus built. She had cost 41,000_l_., and the
bargain was thought a good one, yet in three years she required a
further sum of 17,000_l._ to fit her for service.

Two parties in the House supported the motions; Admiral Berkeley, Mr.
Wilberforce, and others, because they agreed with Mr. Pitt in condemning
the measures of the Admiralty; Mr. Fox and his friends, because they
considered that an inquiry would redound most highly to the credit of
Earl