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ed by the presence of a few vessels of
respectable force ; and that I consider
professional knowledge, on the part of
our officers, which can be best acquir
ed abroad, as of high national impor*
lance.
With respect to the expediency of
modifying the, laws in relation to the
navy department, it appears to me that
some altenuion* are necessary.
By the act authorising the employ
ment ot an additional naval force, pas
sed at the last session of Congress, it
appears that the executive is restricted
from sending our vessels, equipped un
tier 'hat act, beyond our coast. If it
shall now be deemed expedient to send
any of them to the Mediterranean, or
any oilier foreign station, this restric
tion ought to be removed, or so modi
fied as to give to the executive power
adequate to the purpose.
1 avail myself of tins occasion, res
pectfully to submit to consideration the
memorial of the officers of the navy,
some lime since presented to Congress,
a copy of which, with copies of a letter
from my predecessor to Mr. Montgo
mery, chairman of a committee of the
Mouse of Representatives, dated Ist
April, 1808, and of a letter from cap
tain liainbridge to me, upon the same
subject, are herewith transmitted, and
marked D. Having attentively perus
ed this memorial, I cannot withhold the
expr-ssion of mv opinion that the pray
er thereof is perfectly reasonable. Na
tional considerations ought surely to in
duce ns to foster that just and honora
ble pride, that truly patriotic .ambition,
to which our navy officers, and especi
ally those well skilled in seamanship,
obviously sacrifice their pecuniary in
terests.
To another and not an uninteresting
subject, embraced by the queries which
you have propounded to me, I will also
invite your serious attention. By the
act further to amend the several acts
for the establishment and regulation of
the Treasury, War and Navy Depart
ments, it is p-ovided that the commis
sions to navy agents shall not exceed
one per centum, nor in any instance
the compensation allowed by law to the
purveyor of public supplies. The Trea
sury construction of this statute will ap
pear by the letters F. and F. herewith
1 sent. That construction prohibits any
allowance under any circumstances, for
either clerk hire, porters, office rent,
fuel, or stationary. The whole receipts
of the agents are confined to one per
centum, and the product of that per
centage is limited to 2000 dollars per
annum.
In our large sea-port towns, and es
pecially in Norfolk, Baltimore, Phila
delphia, and New-fork, our purchases
will necessarily lie extensive; often so
much sn, as to occupy exclusively the
time of the agent. In these places
clerks must he indispensable, and por
ters highly useful—and wherever we
have an agent, it appears to me proper
that the public should allow whatever
the agent may reasonably pay for office
rent, fuel, and stationary. It is not
probable that the commissions to the
agents will in any other places than
those mentioned, viz. Norfolk, Balti
more, Philadelphia, and New-York,
amount to 2000 dollars; and in either
of these places will the clear receipts of;
either of the agents amount'to more
than 550 dollars' per annum, as will
\ more particularly appear by the accom
/ punying exhibit marked Cl. In other
places, the commissions will not amount
to as much as is now given to the most
common clerk in a meichant’s counting
house.
To make the commissions amount to
2000 dollars, it \vould require that 200,-
000 dollars should be disbursed; and if
agent should disburse one million of
dollars, or any sum exceeding that, the
gross amount of his pay for such dis
bursements is limited to 2000 dollars;
the nett amount of which cannot rea
sonably be calculated at more than 550
dollars.
Willi this view of the subject, 1 can
not rely upon the present agents con
tinuing to hold their appointments, or
upon other fit persons accepting such
appointments, without the law in ques
tion being so modified as to make them
a reasonable allowance for their servi-
S cos, and the expenses inseparably con-
J nected with the discharge of their offi
cial duties. In disbursing so large a
sum of money as an agent must dis
burse to entitle him to the smalt com
pensation of 550 dollars per annum, he !
hazards the loss of ten times as much,
from irregularity in vouchers, errone- j
Sous calculations, misinterpretation of j
instructions, from not strictly conform
ing in each and every purchase to the
specific restrictions of the existing law, j
and from various other causes, to which j
the most correct are and ever will be li- {
c
ab'le "n a greater or less degree.
The copy of a letter from General
Strieker, navy agent at Baltimore, a
gentleman justly of high standing in so
ciety, and I am told as good an agent
as could be procured in any country,
herewith sent and marked 11. will ex
plain to you his situation under the ex
isting law ; and other agents of equal
merit, are similarly situated.
Deeming it my duty, under the lati
tude you have allowed, to be perfectly
explicit and full in my communication
to you upon this subject, and being sin
cerely anxious to manage the business
of the department in such mannei as to
promote the interests of the nation, I
trust 1 shall not be thought presump
tuous, when I suggest the indispensa
ble necessity of being aided by able
agents.
I flatter myself, Sir, with a belief that
I have afforded the information requir
ed, and I regret that I have not been
able to do it at an earlier moment.
I am, with great respect,
Sir, your obedient servant,
PAUL HAMILTON,
lion. Joseph Anderson,
Chairman of the Committee of the Senate.
[C-]
Lstimate of the Annual Expense of
maintaining one Gun-Boat in actual
si rvicc ; and of the Annual Expense
, of maintaining twenty fourGun-Boats
in actual service at Ncw-Orleans.
One Cun-Boat—Pay and Subsistence.
1 Lieutenant, commanding, 50 dollars i
per month, 4 rations per day, gj 892 |
1 Lieutenant, 40 dollars, 3 rations, 699 !
2 Midshipmen, 19 dollars, 1 ration, 602 I
1 Boa swain, 20 dollars, 2 rations, 386 i
I Gunner, 20 dollars, 2 rations, 386
1 Steward, 18 dollars, 1 ration, 289 i
3,554 !
Deduct one ration per day for
each officer, it being estimated
in the article of provisions, be
cause each officer will -draw
one ration in kind, 2,555 ra
tions, at 20 cents, 511 !
2.,743 |
8 able Seamen, 12 dolls. 1150" j
rations, • j
16 ordinary do. 8 dolls. 1536 [
, rations,
Marines, 1,500
Provisions, 3,570
Repairs, See. 750
Medicine Sc Hospital Stores, See. 250
S 11,499
(Say, 11,500 dollars.)
As one gun-boat will cost 11,500
dolls, per annum, twenty-four • j
guu-boats will cost 275,000 i
Estimate of the Annual Expense of main
taining■ in actual service , twenty-four
Gun-Boats, at j\cw-Orlcans .
1 Captain commanding, 100
dollars per month, 16 rations
per day, 2,368 j
5 Surgeons, 50 dollars per
month, 3,000 !
1 Purser, 40 dollars, 4*o |
4 Surgeon’s Mates, 30 dollars, 1,440 !
5,110 rations, at 20 cents, 1,022
i
8,310 j
j Annual Expence of 24 Gun-
Boats, not including the a
bove essential officers, 276,000 j
— _______ *
Total amount of expense of 24
Gun-Boats, in actual service
at New-Oiileans, S 284,310
Note. —ln the above Estimate, full
crews are allowed to the gun-boats;
but orders have been given to reduce f
the crews of the Gun-Boats at New-Or
leans, to a number merely sufficient for
their navigation and safety. The reduc
tion is left to the commanding officer at ;
New-Orleans, who from a full view of;
all circumstances, can form the most 1
satisfactory judgment upon this point, j
We have not bad time to hear from him
what the actual reduction has been— i
hut we may estimate that this reduc- j
tion, from the time it shall be made, !
will reduce their annual expense to ;
250,000 dollars.
The following Political Picture of j
Great-Britain we extract from the I .on- !
don Sunday Review of April 16.
Democratic Press 1
patrioticaieetings.
Never lias the tide of public spirit!
ran so high or so extensive as at the
present moment, since the institution;
of the ConespondingSocieiy, and the
plan of reform projected and suppor
ted by Mr. Pitt and the duke of Rich-.
mond, in their best days of patriotism i
& independence. The important fae’ts
disclosed by Mr. Waddle’s very extra
ordinary investigation, has roused the
whole Country into one unanimous
vote of thanks to him for bis boldness,
circumspection, and perseverance ; and
it has also roused it to a general demand
of a Reform in Parliament, as the only
means of effectually guarding against
similar atrocities in future ; and more
especially as the only means of bring
ing such attrocitesto light, by distroy
ing the corrupt influence of ministers,
whose perpetual object it appears to be
to quash, instead of promoting, all en
quiry into their nature; and more es
pecially still, as the only means of
obtaining honesty and independency
in the majority of the representative
house, and verdicts founded upon the
evidence before the house, and conse
quently in unison with the plain blunt
sense and honest feeling of the people
at large.
We have already noticed the meet
ings of this sort that have taken place at
Westminster Hall, and Guildhall, the
former very numerously attended by in
habitants of the highest respectability,
and the latter by as many of the Liveif
as cold crowd within the walls.
We have also noticed, that a meet
ing for the same object we held by the
common council of the Metropolis, who
concurred almost unanimously, not
only in voting Mr. Wardle the free
dom of the city in a gold-box, but in re
solving that the ministry had lost the
confidence of the nation, and in assert
; ing that the late decison of the majori
j ty of the house wus in direct opposition
J to the evidence before them, and apa*
. rently given from corrupt motives.
We now proceed to state that the
metropolitan county has haJ. a meeting
of a similar description, and that a
j series of similar Resolutions has been
followed up with equal unanimity and
l spirit; that the Borough of Southwark
! has imitated so patriotic an example ;
! and while it has foreborn to pass a vote
of censure on its representatives who
: was in the majority, in consequence of
! Ids general respectability of character,
was as severally done in the cases of
the city and of the Middlesex meetings,
it has exacted a pledge of both its mem
bers, that they will support the principle
of a parliamentary reform whenever it
shall be introduced before the house.
Liverpool, Nottingham and a multi
tude of other cities and towns have felt
the same impulse, and ptrsued the
same conduct; and Norwich and many
others are on the point of proceeding
passibus .Equis. At Liverpool, a
piece of plate of 1000/. value was voted
to Mr. Wardle, with an appropriate
inscription.
! We trust therefore we shall not stop
where we are ; other meetings, and in
connection with the grand object of pre
venting simular abuses in future, by
more effectual means than the mere
dead-lettered report parliamentary com
i mittees, and parlimentary commission
ers, are already arriving and, as we
| hope, are about to bring forward with
! temper and moderation, the great na
| tional question that has been so long
suffered to lie dormant. “ England,”
“said Montesquieu, most admirably,
can only be ruined by her own parlia
ment;’’ and it is now high time to
take care that she fall not a sacrifice to
; tins only means of her distraction,
j But should nothing more be done than
: has been accomplished much would
; have be en accomplished already ; for
j ever y CILIAAXwho may chance to be
I employed by government will be in no
triding degree deterred from pursuing
the suggestions of his o\»n base heart , by
a dread of speedy and condign punish
ment.
1 iiis, however, is not the whole that
has flowed from Mr. Waddle’s most
salutary investigation. A prosecution
I has already taken place, under the di
rection of the minister himself, against
i a set of wretched agents concerned in
I negociating for the sale of places un
der government. The church is likely
j to he purified in some degree from the
; same contaminating spirit of barter :
one reverend gentleman has actually
; been discharged from a lucrative office,
: in consequence of the late disclosures ;
; and if report speak correctly, the prince
S of Wales and the duke of Clarence, are
I both on the point of discharging sever
al of their chaplains from their patron
-1 age, for having bemired their hards in the
j same filthy stream.
j The East India Company is likely to
| bo as much benefited by this most
1 wholesome investigation; as the nation
i ‘it large. One of its directors has al
; ready fallen a victim to the searching
; spirit that is abroad ; and he is by no
means the only one that is likely to suf
j for. The case of Mr. G. W. Thelius
■ son is as clear us the day-light, not
witnstanding all the f-;Sorts that have
been made to white-wash him also from
the charge of connivance or corrupt
participat’on. He stands convicted In
ins own evidence, and that of other
witnesses, before the committee of the
house of commons, of having (exclu
sively of an improper distribution ol ca
detships) from year to year, for three
years successively, sold to his cousin,
Mr. Emperor Woodford, his nomina
tion to a writership, valued at from
30001. to SSOOI. each, in purchase of
the place of receiver of rents issuing
from freeholds, bought under the will
of tlie late .Mr. Thellusson, by the a
foresaici Emperor Woodford, as one ch
the executors named in the said will,
and as one of the trustees o*' the estates
purchased.
Lord Castlereagh hffords, however,
a more atrocious instance still of a cor
rupt application of means to a political
?»</».. This immaculate minister stands
at this moment convicted, by evidence
given before the same committee, of
having endeavored to purchace a seat
in the house of commons for his friend
lord Chncarty, by giving to the person
who could procure it a writership in the
East-India Company, value, we have
before observed, at 35001. It may be
said here was no actual offer of money;
but it was a much worse negociation
than H it had been ; for, where money
is offered, the traffic is only dishonor
able and corrupt on the one side of th«
barter: in the present instance it is a
dishonorable anti corrupt traffic on both
sides : it is a double sale of illicit com
modities, equally atrocious towards tne
East India Company as towards the
purity and privileges of parliament;
and unless parliamentary precedents go
for nothing in the present day, the no
ble lord must either, like the duke off
\oik, ww-volunturily resign, or be for
cibly expelled. But the question is al
ready before the house, and in the able >
hands of Lord A. Hamilton, who has
given notice of his intention to bring it
forward on Friday next; and in this
nobleman’s hands vve shall leave it for
the present.
Translated for Jackson's Register.,
Extract of a letter from the Havanna,
dated sth of June, ISOtf.
“ The news from Spain by a king's
packet brig just arrived, is very favor
able. La lfomana has taken Tuy in
Gallicia, and besides the killed * and
wounded of the enemy, he has made
2,500 prisoners ; we have great hopes of
the ultimate success of the patriotic
cause of Spain.”
Tetter Jr om a person of note in Spain , to
hisjritnd in the Havana ;
“ The battle of Medellin, has been |
the most bloody one fought this war !
the enemy had 24 cannons, we 10;
theirs very badly served, ours discharg
ed for the space of two hours and a half,
a continual shower of grape. Our in
fantry charged with bayonet up to the N
very walls of the houses of the village
in pursuit of the enemy. The impe
rial guards fled, as well as gen. Vic- '
tor at the head of his staff. The ma
rine battalions and the Spanish guards-,
have, covered themselves with glory—
they threw away their muskets, and O
seizing hold their bayonets by the han-
die, they fell upon, stabbed, overthrew f
and pent up the invincible. \
“ If our cavelry had not fallen hack, '
it w-ould have been the most memora
ble battle of the Campaign. Never-f
theless, the enemy has no* seen, to his
sorrow, what we are. Much blood has
been spilt; 11,000 dead on both sides,
covered the banks of the Guardiana :
they have lost upwads of 7000 and we
nearly 4000 men.
“ As the right wing was abandoned
by the cavalry, although the centre, *
composed of the infantry, had consider
ably the advantage, and was advancing
in pursuit ol the enemy, it was neces
sary to retreat, to avoid the enemy '
from outflanking the army. At 4o’clock
in the afternoon of Wednesday the 29th
of March, (the day of the battle) the l
enemie’s cannonading ceased, and both
armys have retired to their respective
positions, leaving the field of battle in
the middle, neither of the armies re
mained masters of it.
“ Although we have not gained
much yet vve have lost nothing by it :
on the contrary, we have obtained some
advantages, namely, that of making
head against the enemy, and causing
them to fly—l he retreat of the cavaj
ry, it appears, was owing to a mistake, at
least with respect to those regimels who
followed that of Maria Louisa, whom
they understood had received orders to
retreat. Gen. Cuesta retreated with
his army to \ illanueva to rest his troops
he afterwards pioceeded with hjs staff
to Campillo, to re-unite his cavalry,
partially dispersed Sc he informs ofhav
already accomplished this.