pungent saying as its official creed. It exists, in spite
of mur- He generally prefers to adopt some expedient sufficient for the murs, not by reason either of its strength or its use, but through day, and as sailors, even when sitting at Boards, are usually men the expense and annoyance of carting it away. Scarcely a of resource and brains, the difficulty is once more tided over. Session passes without one great effort for its removal. A naval But Micawberism is not organization, and invariably ends some officer cannot write a letter without a hit at the antiquated ob- day or other in a crash. The country requires a force which
atruotion. Every pamphleteer on marine affairs starts by a frank surrender of the Admiralty system to its foes. Yet it lives on, and tial
seems indeed like a mud wall, only the stronger for the artillery Manning, though the most important, is but one of the many before which granite would inevitably shatter down. The truth defects of the Admiralty organization. The author of Faults of that illustration seems to be recognized by the last assailant, and .Defaults examines all, and especially the dockyard system, the author of Admiralty Administration, its Faults and De- with a clearness which only fulness of knowledge could secure. faults, for his method of approach is somewhat novel. He makes We have preferred to limit argument to the constitution of the
no attack on the Admiralty, wastes no shots on the mud wall. governing Board, for it is there that reform, to be effective, must His weapon is the shovel, with which he quietly clears away the commence. While the Navy is intrusted to seven gentlemen, the power, with the knowledge, and one all debris which have hitherto obscured the inherent ugliness of the six of whom have all
structure. Every rent and fissure, every soft place and tottering separate functions and only collective responsibility, eflimener corner is exposed to view, and the nation is then asked if that must be as impossible as thrift. To expose the waste in 404- is the foundation they desire for the construction of their new yards, and the blunders in experiments, the dislike of seamen 24,000,000/., said the orator, with a most effective touch of rhe- the Minister of the day that the office of Lord High Admiral was toe tonic, amounted to the wages of a million persons at 251. a year. great to be filled. The constitutional system which makes an iedi- The Birmingham artisans, who would call ten shillings a week vidual responsible to Parliament for every department not directly starvation wages, and who earn thirty by aid of the war expendi- dependant on the prerogative, was, therefore, broken through.. ture the orator denounced, of course roared their applause. It The high office was "placed in Commission," that is, supplanted did not occur, apparently, either to speaker or audience, that of by a Board, which, with one brief interval, has endured to the that 25,000,0001. three-fourths must be already spent in wages, present day. This Board seems to have been constructed with no small proportion going to the very men who cheered the fierce the direct view of dividing power, and destroying responsibility.. diatribe on waste. Mr. Bright felt, however, that his illustration The First Lord, the nominal head of the department, is simply the was incomplete, for he instantly essayed a second. Lancashire, talking officer. His authority is nominally unlimited, but as he told the electors, manufactured cloth and yarn to the value of marine organization is a specialty, requiring the study of a life,. 70,000,0001. a year, " well, then, our governing classes, our his powers are crippled by the absence of even elementary know- rulers, with the most docile, the most industrious, and, probably, ledge. He may compel the construction of a certain number of the most church and chapel-going people in the world, devoured ships, but their lines, manning, equipment, and even destination, every year, this year, and last year, certainly more than the must be left to heads more experienced than his own. Under whole produce of the most gigantic industry the world had ever these circumstances, he has of course a double, or ad- seen." The figure is a bold one, almost as bold as that of the laths, intended to supply his professional deficiencies. This. nurse who delights children with tales of the Dragon of Wantley double, or First Sea Lord, is usually an officer of real
scheme, he is individually powerless. He may suggest, and if his the existing system does not and cannot secure. shall be at hand, however pressing the emergency, and this essen- eloquent of admirals may declaim in vain. The problem to be solved is to organize a system under which the heads of Departments should act as under-secretaries to a single officer, who should be at once responsible to Parliament, and the real chief of our Naval administration.
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