Though returns of the numbers impressed have not been discovered, we have strong evidence that this ‘general press,’ notwithstanding the secrecy with which it had been arranged, was a failure.  On the 6th December 1803, just a month after it had been tried, the Admiralty formulated the following conclusion:  ’On a consideration of the expense attending the service of raising men on shore for His Majesty’s Fleet comparatively with the number procured, as well as from other circumstances, there is reason to believe that either proper exertions have not been made by some of the officers employed on that service, or that there have been great abuses and mismanagement in the expenditure of the public money.’  This means that it was now seen that impressment, though of little use in obtaining men for the navy, was a very costly arrangement.  The Lords of the Admiralty accordingly ordered that ’the several places of rendezvous should be visited and the conduct of the officers employed in carrying out the above-mentioned service should be inquired into on the spot.’  Rear-Admiral Arthur Phillip, the celebrated first Governor of New South Wales, was ordered to make the inquiry.  This was the last duty in which that distinguished officer was employed, and his having been selected for it appears to have been unknown to all his biographers.

It is not surprising that after this the proceedings of the press-gang occupy scarcely any space in our naval history.  Such references to them as there are will be found in the writings of the novelist and the dramatist.  Probably individual cases of impressment occurred till nearly the end of the Great War; but they could not have been many.  Compulsory service most unnecessarily caused—­not much, but still some—­unjustifiable personal hardship.  It tended to stir up a feeling hostile to the navy.  It required to work it machinery costly out of all proportion to the results obtained.  Indeed, it failed completely to effect what had been expected of it.  In the great days of old our fleet, after all, was manned, not by impressed men, but by volunteers.  It was largely due to that that we became masters of the sea.

VI

PROJECTED INVASIONS OF THE BRITISH ISLES[62]

[Footnote 62:  Written in 1900. (TheTimes_.)]

The practice to which we have become accustomed of late, of publishing original documents relating to naval and military history, has been amply justified by the results.  These meet the requirements of two classes of readers.  The publications satisfy, or at any rate go far towards satisfying, the wishes of those who want to be entertained, and also of those whose higher motive is a desire to discover the truth about notable historical occurrences.  Putting the public in possession of the materials, previously hidden in more or less inaccessible muniment-rooms and record offices, with which the narratives of professed