like a heavy sea.  Many of them are pierced for, and actually carry fourteen to sixteen guns; but, as effective fighting vessels, ought not to have been pierced for more than eight.  I have no hesitation in asserting that an English cutter is a match for any of them, and a French privateer has, before now, proved that she was superior.  The crews are composed of a small proportion of English seamen, a small proportion of Portuguese sea-cunnies, a proportion of Lascars, and a proportion of Hindoo Bombay marines.  It requires two or three languages to carry on the duty; customs, religions, provisions, all different, and all living and messing separate.  How is it possible that any officer can discipline a ship’s company of this incongruous description, so as to make them “pull together”?  In short, the vessels and the crews are equally contemptible, and the officers, in cases of difficulty, must be sacrificed to the pride and meanness of the Company.  My reason for taking notice of the “Bombay Marine” arises from an order lately promulgated, in which the officers of this service were to take rank and precedence with those of the navy.  Now, as far as the officers themselves are concerned, so far from having any objection to it, I wish, for their own merits and the good-will that I bear them, that they were incorporated into our navy-list; but as long as they command vessels of the above description, in the event of a war, I will put a case, to prove the absurdity and danger which may result.  There is not one vessel at this present time in their service which would not be sunk by one well-directed broadside from a large frigate; yet, as many of their officers are of long standing, it is very probable that a squadron of English frigates may fall in with one of these vessels, the captain of which would be authorised by his seniority to take the command of the whole of them.  We will suppose that this squadron falls in with the enemy, of equal or superior force; can the officer in command lead on to the attack?  If so, he will be sent down by the first broadside.  If he does not, from whom are the orders to proceed during the action?  The consequences would be as injurious as the arrangement is ridiculous.

The charter of the East India Company will soon expire; and if it is to be renewed, the country ought to have some indemnification for the three millions which this colony or conquest (which you please) annually draws from it.  Now there is one point which deserves consideration:  the constitutional protection of all property is by the nation, and as a naval force is required in India, that force should be supplied by the armaments of the nation, at the expense of the Company.  I have already proved that the Bombay Marine is a useless and incompetent service:  let it be abolished altogether, and men-of-war be sent out to supply their place.  It is most important that our navy should be employed in time of peace, and our officers gain that practical knowledge without which the theoretical is useless.  Were this insisted upon, a considerable force would be actively employed, at no expense to the country, and many officers become valuable, who now are remaining inactive, and forgetting what previous knowledge they may have acquired of their nautical duties.