naval instructions for his conduct leave nothing to be desired by way of addition to them;* but, except in a few rare cases * By an order in council, dated March 4th, 1812, made by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and on behalf of his Majesty, the following regulations, in respect to half-pay or pension to be allowed to Chaplains of his Majesty's fleet, after long and meritorious service, as well as the pay and allowance during the period of such servitude shall be established in future, viz:- 1. That every ship in her Majesty's Navy, from a first to a fifth rate inclusive, shall be allowed a Chaplain on her establishment. (The fifth-rate embraces a very large class of vessels from one of between 30 and 40 guns down to the lowest number to which a post-captain is allowed, which is 20 guns. Ships therefore carrying as low as 20 guns are entitled to a Chaplain.) 2. That every Chaplain, after eight years of actual sea-service (or, if in a guard-ship, ten years), during which period he shall not have been absent from his duty six weeks at any one time, except by special leave from the Board of Admiralty, who shall produce certificates of his good conduct and moral behaviour from the Captains he may have served under, shall be entitled to a pension in the nature of half-pay; but no Chaplain to be entitled to half-pay or pension, if he shall accept any preferment with cure of souls, during the term of his required service at sea. 3. That the amount of this pension or half-pay to each Chaplain shall be 5s. per day. The 4th and 5th Articles provide, that if a Chaplain shall by circumstances, not depending on himself, be prevented from serving his full period, he may receive a proportionate pension; and if he serve more than the required period, a larger allowance. 6. That length of service and meritorious conduct shall render Chaplains eligible to all the chaplaincies of all naval establishments whatever, the disposal of which, shall or may be left to the consideration of the Board of Admiralty; and that no other Clergyman shall be eligible to any of those pieces of preferment than a Navy Chaplain; and that the presentations to any of those pieces of preferment, whose emoluments may amount to 400l. per annum, shall cause the half-pay of the respective Chaplains to cease, as is provided by law, in the case of the divided living of Simonbourn. 7. That the pay of a Chaplain, while in actual service, shall be according to the following rates, viz: 150l. per annum, and the established compensation of 117. 18s. a year for a seniority in each rate, and to have a cabin allotted to him in the ward-room or gun-room, where he is to mess with the Lieutenants, and to be rated for victuals; and when the Chaplain shall be willing to act as Schoolmaster, he shall be entitled to the bounty of 20l. a year, granted by her late Majesty Queen Anne, by her order in council of the 21st of April, 1702, provided he shall pass an examination before the Lieutenant-Governor, professor and preceptor of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth, instead of at the Trinity House, as required by the above-mentioned order in council; and he shall be further entitled to 5l. per annum, to be paid to him by every young midshipman and volunteer of the first class, as a remuneration for his education; the same to be stopped out of the said young gentleman's pay. 8. That a Chaplain-General shall be appointed with such emoluments as may be deemed proper by the Board of Admiralty, to whom all applications for appointments shall be made, or will be referred, and all regulations entrusted relating to the establishment of Chaplains for the Royal Navy, in the same manner as is practised with regard to Army Chaplains. 9. That no warrant will be granted by the Board of Admiralty to any candidate for an appointment, unless recommended by the Archbishops of Cauterbury and York, and Bishop of London, through the Chaplain-General, as in every way properly qualified. 10. That Chaplains now serving in the Navy, who may, upon due examina of singular personal firmness of character, such as falls to the lot of few, we will defy him to comply with a tithe of the spirit of those instructions, until his situation be materially improved -until he be placed, in fact, on a totally different footing, as regards his charge. Let us look at what the Chaplain really is. He is, in fact, so far as regards spirituals, Commander of the ship. The ship is his floating parish-his cure of souls amidst the waters. But, if this be the case, as it undeniably is, then why not grant him privileges more in accordance with his high station? Every one knows and confesses the necessity of the Captain's not being herded with the rest of the officersevery one feels the necessity of seclusion for him, in order to the proper maintenance of his power. But the authorities appear to have strangely overlooked the fact, that seclusion is no less necessary for the Chaplain. It may be asked, how can this be secured him? How can his present anomalous and difficult position be improved? Our reply is, that the remedy is at once obvious and easy. Let it be so arranged that he mess with the Captain. This ought not to be considered any unseemly intrusion on the privacy of the first in command nor indeed would it be so in reality, since, except where the Captain has not the means of keeping a table, the officer and one of the mates of the watch always dine with him as it is, and generally one or two others besides. So that, though in proposing this arrangement, we should be as sincere "non-intrusionists" as Dr. Chalmers himself, it is evident that "intrusion," in this case, there would be none; or, like the General Assembly of the Kirk, we should be inclined to vote the Captain the privilege of a "Veto." The pecuniary part of the matter might be easily arranged. Then, as regarded a berth. We agree with Sir Jahleel Brenton, that in line-of-battle ships the Chaplain should, undoubtedly, have one of the cabins in the ward-room; and that, not as a favour, but as a matter of right; as enjoined by the 7th Article of the Naval Instructions, quoted above; and in ships of smaller rating accommodation ought to be provided in proportion. ; If it be objected to all this, that at present he only classes as tion, be deemed proper to be continued, shall be allowed the time they may have served as part (not exceeding one-half) of that required to entitle them to the pension or half-pay. The regulations for the Chaplain's conduct are very satisfactory; they state perspicuously his duties of preaching, reading, teaching, visiting and catechising, and provide that he shall, before receiving his pay, obtain the certificate of the Captain, senior Lieutenant, and Master, to his due performance of those duties; and a similar certificate is required to be sent to the Lords of the Admiralty, on any Chaplain leaving his ship, in default of which, he cannot be appointed to another. a warrant officer, then, by all means, let him have a commission. It might easily be worded so as to suit his office, and there would be a good deal in the name of the thing; for all sensible people know how much a name has often to do with the maintenance of authority. If it were considered advantageous for him to have a fixed rank on board, he might stand immediately after the Captain, or at lowest, after the senior Lieutenant. He would thus possess the authority of a superior officer, over all but one or two persons in the ship; and his having this recognized position, would add to his advice or rebuke the weight and gravity of command, and enable him to speak with proportionably greater authority. The principle of assigning a becoming degree of rank to the Chaplain, is fully and fairly recognized in the Army, where he regularly ranks with a Major, and senior Chaplains in the East India Company's service with Lieutenant-Colonels. What then in common reason is to prevent their brethren in the Navy from holding the precisely equivalent rank in that service; that, namely, of Commander? The marvel is that any other arrangement should ever have been adopted. Hitherto the neglect of the comfort of the Chaplains, on the part of the Government, has been most disgraceful. If the position of the Chaplains afloat has improved, as it no doubt has, it is certainly owing, rather to the individual gentlemanlike feeling of the Commanders of the respective ships in which they have served, than to any wish to provide for their comfort on the part of the authorities at home. Their systematic slights put upon the Church, and their encouragement of popery and every other form of dissent, at the beck of a ruffian agitator and his unprincipled pack, are too well known and felt throughout this land-aye, and felt too in a manner which shall yet recoil upon them, to their own undoing to require any more than a passing allusion to it here. Their treatment of the Church in the Navy is of a piece with the rest. The Secretary to the Admiralty is, of course, the person with whom the Chaplains have to communicate on all matters of business. While Mr. Wood held that office there was no cause for complaint. So far from it, indeed, that the Clergy attached to the Naval service seem to have been, as far as known to us, unanimous in expressing their sense of his attentions, and of the readiness which he always showed in meeting their wishes, as far as lay in his power. But the case has since been far otherwise. On the secession of Mr. Wood, our O'Connell-ridden Ministry thought proper to appoint Mr. More O'Ferrall to the office. Mr. O'Ferrall, as all the world knows, is a Roman Catholic. Here then is one of the anomalies which result from the advancement of Romanists to high places under Government, which our precious Ministers seem to lose no opportunity of doing, with the intention, no doubt, of strengthening the Church, which they are sworn to defend. A Roman Catholic is vested with the whole superintendence and controul, as far as regards seculars, of our whole Protestant Ecclesiastical Establishment afloat! The monstrosity of this arrangement was too glaring not to be observed, even by the leaden optics of the first Lord of the Admiralty; and accordingly, he has nominally taken the superintendence of all matters concerning Chaplains into his own hands. But how does this delightful arrangement work practically? Just like all other Whig measures, it is so managed as to result in nothing but confusion and injury to the best interests of the country. Lord Minto will see no one under the rank of a Captain; and since a Clergyman on service ranks below a Captain, in the manner we have shown, (though society on shore, of course, owns no such distinction) by this precious regulation all Chaplains are, at present, excluded from "the presence," and are, therefore, virtually left without any one to whom they can personally apply on any subject connected with their duties afloat. So much for Whig derangements at the Admiralty. The next point which attracts our attention regards the union of the offices of Chaplain and Schoolmaster. This is by no means so late an arrangement as is generally supposed. Previously to the appointment of regular naval instructors, it was always held out to the Chaplain as a desirable thing, that he should pass an examination at the Naval College at Portsmouth, with a view to uniting the offices; but the proposed arrangement did not come much under public notice, until after the appearance of two valuable papers, one by Capt. Basil Hall,* in the first series of his entertaining "Fragments of Voyages and Travels," in a chapter headed the "Schoolmaster afloat," and the other by Captain the Hon. F. de Ros, "On the State of Education in the British Navy," printed in the United Service Journal for October, 1830, Part xi., to both of which we have much pleasure in referring our readers. In consequence of these and other representations, a naval instructor was appointed to every ship above a certain rate, at a handsome salary, and the Chaplain was invited to accept the office wherever he should be judged duly qualified to accept the same. The union of the offices in the person of the Chaplain would be clearly most * We are happy to observe that this distinguished officer is engaged in bringing out a new edition of his delightful works, at a price which cannot fail to render them accessible to all classes, advantageous, wherever attainable. The Clergyman must have superior means of gaining the respect of his pupils. The two offices act and react upon each other; the tuition giving to the Clergyman access to the intimacy of the young officers which he could obtain by no other means, while his clerical character gives weight to his scientific instruction. The Captain would also probably attend more readily to his suggestions. Such being the presumed effect of uniting the offices, there seems no good reason why the holder of them should not be paid for both. It will be seen, however, from the list which we have published, that there are not above two or three Chaplains who combine the duties. The reason of this has its origin partly in a gross piece of injustice on the part of the authorities. A naval instructor, if not a Chaplain, has the Schoolmaster's pay, according to the ship's rate, beside provisions, and 57. per annum for every young gentleman; he becomes, likewise, entitled to half-pay, after two or three years' service. But if the fittest person of all, according to the best authorities, accept the office-if the Chaplain becomes naval instructor, then, by a recent regulation, he is to have no Schoolmaster's pay, but only 207. per annum, which is the allowance from Queen Anne's bounty, and the 57. per annum for each young gentleman, and no addition to his halfpay, that is, no half-pay for having been naval instructor.* One or two individuals have already been robbed in this way. After having been at much pains in providing themselves with the requisite acquirements, after having passed the examination and received the appointment, the regulation was made which deprived them of two-thirds of the reward of their labour. Is it, then, to be expected that men will accept a laborious and often thankless office on such terms, or that they will be at the pains to fit themselves for it? But, besides this, there is another difficulty connected with the union of the office, which is, that unless he be cordially supported in his authority by the Captain and first Lieutenant, the Chaplain will be lowered into the Schoolmaster, instead of the Schoolmaster being raised in the Chaplain. Under the old regulations, the Schoolmasters (heu infelices!) ranked with the ship's cook, and messed with their amiable pupils, the meek and obedien tmids. And we have actually known an over-bearing first Lieutenant endeavour, on one occasion, while the Chaplain held the office (which he did, moreover, gratuitously), to treat him in matters of leave, * We may observe here that, by an error of the press, which remained unnoticed for the space of nine years !! many a future widow of Naval Chaplains will be cruelly deprived of her pension. The altering one little conjunction has made this fell difference. It would require a world of writing fully to explain this; we must, therefore, content ourselves with briefly stating the fact. |