TO HIS ILLUSTRIOUS HIGHNESS JAMES DUKE OF YORK LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND MAY it please your Highness, The discourse herewith humbly presented to your Highness's view was for some years past digested as part of the fruit of that observation and experience I reaped in the navy after thirty years' service; wherein I have endeavoured not only to declare matter of fact in the past government of the navy, and to discover some few of the many obliquities of that government, but also propounded and hinted those ways of its future regulation which I conceive may conduce to its better and more regular administration. I am not ignorant of my own insufficiency for so great an undertaking, nor that when I and all others have done all that can be done yet there is and will be much abuse in that affair, such and so great are the trusts of subordinate instruments employed therein, and such and so various are the transactions thereof. Yet I held it my duty to do something, not only to prevent some of those intolerable mischiefs that have too long attended a business of so great concernment to his Majesty and the welfare of his dominions, but also to whet and invite others, more able to detect those abuses, to manifest the same loyalty to his Majesty and zeal for their country by a more exact discovery of what is fit to be reformed, and the ways and means conducing thereto. It is not so much to be admired as lamented that among the great crowd of books upon all subjects, both jocal and serious, the navy hath been so unhappy as not to be thought worthy the pen of one author, though yet I dare affirm that it is as copious a subject for an able pen as most that I know, and would (if done to the life) be far more beneficial to his Majesty and his Kingdoms than most pamphlets or books of another nature. Yea, I dare say that men of as eminent parts and ability for such an undertaking have been employed in the time of your illustrious Highness's Grandfather and Father of happy memory in the service of the navy, as most in England. But the truth is, the navy is so great a sea, and brancheth itself into so many streams and small rivulets, that it is not easy for an able, much less for an ordinary, pen to treat upon it otherwise than at random; and such is and hath been the sloth and avarice of the most judicious employed therein, that they chose rather to fish for the profit that might be gained by it than to make it their business to promote the honour and profit of their late Majesties and their country by methodising its government in a regular way. 1 I cannot say that what I have done hath more than a tendency thereunto; yet I can say, and say truly, that I have done nothing but with a sincere intention to his Majesty's honour and the navy's welfare; though hapily it may not answer the expectations of some nor yet concur with the opinion of others—yea, though it may instead thereof anger and provoke many too nearly concerned therein. I am not positive in anything propounded, nor desire to pin any man's faith upon my opinion, but shall submit what is said to your Highness's wisdom, and the wisdom of those his Majesty or your Highness shall think fit to employ as regulators of the navy for the future. I most humbly beg your Highness's pardon of my plain dealing and rude and indigested style in the whole discourse, it being impossible for me (that am no scholar), or any other though never so learned, to treat upon the administrative part of the navy without more than ordinary reflection; and the discourse itself being many years past penned according to the dialect of those times, and persons that were then in power, I was necessitated to write according to their temperament, and as things then stood; it being altogether unsafe to my person, and equally hazardous to my estate, to write otherwise at that time, though I must also say that after I had finished it I dared not make it public. Such was the corruption of those times and the unworthiness of some then upon the stage, that though by its publication I might hapily' have saved and prevented the wasteful expense of many thousands of pounds, yet I chose rather to be silent than to expose myself to ruin by endeavouring to serve those that minded nothing less than the welfare of the nation or the navy. Such as it is I humbly lay it at your Highness's feet, being encouraged thereto by your gracious commands; and do humbly take the boldness to subscribe myself, Your Highness's most obedient and humble servant, See note on p. 288, infra. |