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UNDER the pressure of those accumulated wrongs, which constitute the extensive frauds, embezzlements, pillage, and plunder, known and acknowledged to exist in the Dock-Yards and other Public Repositories, it is not easy, at first view, to assign a reason for that apparent supineness, on the part of men of known honour and integrity, who have heretofore presided, and who now preside at the Public Boards, in not using the means necessary to remedy so great an evil.

This may possibly be accounted for, by the extreme difficulty which men, constantly occupied in a laborious business, find in pursuing inquiries, or forming arrangements, out of their particular sphere; more especially when such arrangements require those powers of business, and that species of legal and general information, which do not usually attach to men whose education and habits of life have run in a different channel.

Under such circumstances, it is scarcely to be wondered at, that greater efforts have not been used, (for great efforts are unquestionably necessary,) to correct those abuses, which have long existed; and which have been progressively increasing; by means of which, not only the property of the Public suffers a vast annual diminution by frauds and embezzlements, but the foundation of all morals is sapped; and the most baneful practices extend even to men in the upper and middle ranks of Society, who are too seldom restrained by any correct principle of rectitude in transactions, where the interest of Government only is concerned; either in the supplying, or afterwards in the taking charge of the custody of Public Stores.

When the object in view is to acquire money, the power of example, sanctioned by usage and custom, will reconcile men by degrees, to enormities and frauds which at first could not have been endured.—Acting under this influence, it too often happens that a distinction is made, as regards moral rectitude, in the minds of many individuals, between the property of the Nation, and private property.—While the most scrupulous attention to the rules of honour prevails in the latter case, principles, the most relaxed, are yielded to in the former.

And thus it is, that in such situations, inferior agents also, induced by example, become insensibly reconciled to every species of fraud, embezzlement, and peculation.

It is no inconsiderable source of the evil, that large gratuities are given, under the colour of fees,[69] to those who can assist in promoting the views of the fraudulent, or in guarding them against detection.—What was at first considered as the wages of turpitude, at length assumes the form, and is viewed in the light of a fair perquisite of office.

In this manner abuses multiply, and the ingenuity of man is ever fertile in finding some palliative.—Custom and example sanction the greatest enormities: which at length become fortified by immemorial and progressive usage: it is no wonder, therefore, that the superior Officers find it an Herculean labour to cleanse the Augean stable.

A host of interested individuals opposes them. The task is irksome and ungracious. The research involves in it matter of deep concern, affecting the peace, comfort, and happiness of old servants of the Crown or the Public, and their families; who have not perhaps been sufficiently rewarded for their services; and who, but for such perquisites, could not have acquired property, or even supported themselves with decency.

It is an invidious task to make inquiries, or to impose regulations which may ultimately affect the interest or the character of dependants, who have heretofore, perhaps, been regarded as objects of partiality or affection. Those whose duty it is to superintend the departments, knowing their own purity, are unwilling to believe that the same principle of rectitude does not regulate the conduct of others in inferior situations: and matters, of apparently greater importance, constantly forcing themselves upon their attention, the consideration of such abuses is generally postponed: while those who detect or complain of their existence, seldom meet with much encouragement; unless some specific act of criminality is stated, and then it is referred, as a matter of course, to the proper Law Officers.

These circumstances, however, only prove the necessity of some other and more effectual agency to remove an evil, which (if the assertions of those whose efficient situations give them access to the very best information as to its extent and enormity are correct) is of the greatest magnitude, and calls aloud for immediate attention.

To understand how this is to be accomplished, it will be necessary in the first instance to develope the means which are employed to commit these abuses, frauds, and embezzlements.—Then to take a general view of the property exposed to depredation, and afterwards to examine the nature and effect of the Laws and regulations now in being for the purpose of preventing these evils; and last of all, to suggest remedies.

The abuses, frauds, and embezzlements, are multifarious, and are perpetrated through the medium of a vast variety of agencies, which naturally divide themselves into two distinct branches.

The first relates to frauds committed by the connivance and assistance of Clerks, Store-keepers, and inferior officers in the Dock-yards, and other repositories, and in ships of war and transports; in receiving and delivering Naval, Victualling, and Ordnance stores;—in surveys;—in returns of unserviceable stores;—in what is called solving off stores;—in fraudulent certificates;—in the sale of old stores; and innumerable other devices; by which a number of individuals are enriched at the Public expence; and a system of plunder is supported by fraudulent documents and vouchers of articles which have no existence but upon paper.

The second branch relates to the actual pillage of new and old Cordage, Bolts of Canvas, Sails, Bunting, Twine of all sorts, Fearnought and Kersey, Leather and Hides, old and new Copper, Locks, Hinges and Bolts, Copper Bolts and Nails in immense quantities, Bar-Iron, old Iron, Lead and Solder, Ship's-Plank, Oars, Timber of small sizes, Blocks, Quarterstuff, Candles, Tallow, Oil, Paint, Pitch, Tar, Turpentine, Varnish, Rosin, Beer and Water Casks, Iron Hoops, Biscuit Bags, Beer, Bread, Wine, Brandy, Rum, Oil, Vinegar, Butter, Cheese, Beef, Pork, &c.—All these articles suffer a vast annual diminution, by means of that plunder which has become habitual to a number of the inferior servants of the Crown, who have in their respective situations, access to such stores.[70]

This species of plunder is much encouraged by the difficulty of detection: Vast quantities are constantly provided, and the store-houses are generally full; it happens therefore as a matter of course, that the articles which were recently deposited are issued first; and hence many valuable stores, it is said, have remained untouched and unseen for forty or fifty years, until a number of articles perish or become unserviceable from length of time.—An annual inventory, upon the plan suggested at the close of this Chapter, rendered practicable by more extensive store-houses, would remove this obvious inconvenience.

All stores being delivered under the authority of warrants signed by the Commissioners and proper officers, the clerks, or in their absence the foreman of the warehouses, where the articles stated in the warrants are deposited, deliver the stores; and, if opportunities offer, large additional quantities are said to be frequently sent out, by the connivance of the inferior officers; sometimes stores are even delivered two or three times over, under colour of the same warrant, without discovery.

A similar System prevails with regard to stores sent to the public repositories from dismantled ships of war and transports.

Many vessels in the coasting trade, and even ships of foreign nations, it is said, touch at Portsmouth and Plymouth, merely for the purpose of purchasing cheap stores;—and it is well known, that many dealers in naval stores in the neighbourhood of the Dock-Yards are chiefly supplied in this way.

The plan which prevails at present with regard to the sale of old stores, not only proves a kind of safeguard to these fraudulent dealers; but is also in itself subject to great abuses, from the delivery of larger quantities than are actually included in the public sales, by which the parties concerned are said frequently to pocket considerable sums of money.[71]

The artificers in the Dock-yards, availing themselves of their perquisite of Chips, not only commit great frauds, by often cutting up useful timber, and wasting time in doing so; but also in frequently concealing, within their bundles of chips, copper bolts, and other valuable articles, which are removed by their wives and children, (and, as has appeared in judicial evidence, by boys retained for the purpose) and afterwards sold to itinerant Jews, or to the dealers in old iron and stores, who are always to be found in abundance wherever the Dock-yards are situated.[72]

The Naval, Victualing, and Ordnance Stores pillaged in the Dock-yards and other public Repositories, and also from ships of war, transports, and navy and victualing hoys, in the River Thames, and Medway, must amount to a very large sum annually. The detections, particularly in the victualing hoys and transports, since the establishment of the Marine Police, prove the existence of the evil, and the wide field which it embraces.

The vicinity of the Metropolis;—the assistance afforded by old iron and store shops on the spot;—by carts employed in this trade alone, constantly going and coming from and to the Capital;—by the advantage of an easy and safe conveyance for ponderous and heavy articles, in lighters and other craft passing up and down the River; and the extensive chain of criminal connection, at every town and village on the Thames and Medway, which a course of many years has formed, joined to the ease with which frauds are committed, have combined to render this nefarious traffic a very serious and alarming evil.

Among the multitude of persons concerned in it, some are said to keep men constantly employed in untwisting the cordage, for the purpose of removing the King's mark, or coloured stran, which is introduced into it as a check against fraud; while others (as has been already noticed) are, in like manner, employed in knocking the Broad Arrow out of copper bolts, nails, bar iron, and other articles, on which it is impressed, so as to elude detection.

It is scarcely to be credited, to what an extent the sale of the cordage, sail-cloth, and other Naval articles, including victualing stores, thus plundered, is carried, in supplying coasting vessels and smaller craft upon the River Thames, at a cheap rate.[73]

If the actual value of stores deposited at the different Dock-yards and public Repositories in the course of a year, is to be considered as a rule whereby a judgment may be formed of the extent of the losses sustained by frauds, plunder, and embezzlement, it will be found to be very erroneous, since a large proportion of what forms the great aggregate loss sustained annually by Government, does not arise from the actual stealing of stores, but from frauds committed in fabricating documents both at home and abroad.

Reasons have already been assigned, why many individuals reconcile their minds to devices, whereby they may be suddenly enriched at the Public expence, who would be shocked at the idea of over-reaching an individual. For the purpose, therefore, of estimating truly the probable extent of the evil, a general view must not only be taken of the Naval, Victualing, Ordnance, and other Stores at all times deposited in the Public Arsenals, but also the stores and provisions on board of the numerous ships of war, and transports, constantly consuming and replacing in all quarters of the Globe; and to measure the whole by the great annual expence, which is incurred in this necessary service, The Bulwark of Britain, and the Glory and Pride of the Nation.

Looking at the subject in this point of view, where the ramifications are so extensive, and the opportunities so numerous, whereby in the hurry and confusion of carrying on a most important public service, frauds and embezzlements may be committed with impunity, the question is, Whether measures are not practicable, whereby the public loss, by the rapacity of individuals, may not lie greatly diminished, and what system would be best adapted to the attainment of this object?

To illustrate this proposition it may be necessary to form an estimate, in the first instance, of the stationary and floating property belonging to his Majesty, in the different Public Arsenals and ships of War.—The following statement is hazarded with this particular view, not as an accurate detail of facts; for accuracy to a point under the present circumstances is neither practicable nor absolutely necessary. It is sufficient if it tends to elucidate and explain an important point, on the subject of the frauds and depredations committed on the public stores, which would not be otherwise intelligible or useful to the public, to the extent which the Author contemplates.—

Estimate of Floating Naval, Victualing and Ordnance Stores, in
the different Repositories and Ships of War.

Naval, Victualing and Ordnance Stores at	Deptford and Red House	£.1,800,000
——	Woolwich	150,000
——	Sheerness	100,000
——	Chatham	200,000
——	Portsmouth	1,300,000
——	Plymouth	900,000
——	Ireland, Leith, and other parts	50,000
——	in the Arsenals at Halifax, and the East and West Indies	150,000
——	Gibraltar, Minorca, &c.	50,000
——	in 900 Ships of War and Transports in Commission	2,300,000
	Total	£.7,000,000

The annual pecuniary Supplies for the Navy may be estimated at Thirteen Millions a year during war; of which sum about Six Millions may be applicable to the pay of the Officers and Seamen, and Seven Millions to Ships-Stores, Provisions, &c. The last two, namely, the stores and provisions being in a constant state of movement, both at home and abroad, furnish abundant resource for frauds and depredations, which may certainly be greatly diminished, though perhaps impracticable to be eradicated entirely.

The object, therefore, is to devise means whereby this diminution may be accomplished: and in pursuing this important inquiry, it will be necessary to precede it by the following general view of the Laws now in being, which relate to offences committed in the Naval and other Public Departments.

A very superficial view of the above Laws will demonstrate their insufficiency to the object of Prevention. And even if they were complete, the task imposed on the public officers, who are on every occasion to act as Justices, has proved from experience to be a measure ill calculated to attain the object in view, namely, the detection of offenders; otherwise the evil would not have increased.—Other remedies must therefore be applied. It is not, however, by any single act of the Legislature, that the enormous frauds and depredations in the Navy and Victualing Departments of his Majesty's service, which the Commissioners and chief Officers, under whose management they are placed, are so anxious to suppress,[74] can be remedied: This important object must be obtained by a combination of various salutary measures, calculated to afford collateral aid to specific Legislative Regulations, and to secure their effectual execution, by means which are now to be explained under their respective heads.—

I. A General Police System.

By the Establishment of a Central Board of Police, on the Plan strongly recommended by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, in their 28th Report, ordered to be printed in June 1798:—It is there proposed to bring under regulations by licences, all those classes of dealers in old and second-hand ships' stores—old iron and other metals, and several other dangerous and suspicious trades, the uncontrolled exercise of which, by persons of loose conduct, is known to contribute to the concealment and multiplication of crimes.—Infinite embarrassments would, through this collateral medium, be placed in the way of those particular Dealers, who reside in the vicinity of the Dock-yards, and who, by a variety of criminal devices, while they are instrumental in doing much mischief, have been able, in many instances, to elude Justice, and to carry on their nefarious practices with impunity.

A Board of Police so organized, by means of Licences and subordinate Officers, as to keep the conduct of these classes of delinquents in view who, by giving facilities to the embezzlers and stealers of naval and other stores, are the chief sources from whence the evil springs; and with power to refuse Licences to those who are known to have been guilty of criminal conduct; would operate very powerfully in limiting these classes of dealers to the honest part of their trade, by which infinite mischief would be prevented.

II. A Local Police for the Dock-yards.

Salutary as the Central Board, recommended by the Select Committee on Finance, must certainly be in controlling and checking the Naval plunder, in common with the general delinquency of the whole country, it would seem indispensably necessary, under circumstances where the moving property is so extensive, and where there exists so many resources and temptations leading to the commission of crimes, to fix on some one person the responsibility of carrying the Laws into effect, and of controlling and overawing the various classes of Delinquents, whose attention is directed to the Dock-yards, as a means of obtaining plunder: That for this purpose, one able and intelligent Magistrate should preside in a Police Office, to be established by Law, at or near the Dock-yards, at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Plymouth, with an establishment consisting of one Clerk, two House and four Boat Constables, with two Police Boats attached to each Office. One Magistrate would be sufficient at each Office, as assistance from the neighbouring Justices could always be procured in case of sickness, or absence, or where any judicial proceeding would require two Magistrates.

No establishment would be necessary for the Dock-yards, and Public Arsenal, at Deptford and Woolwich, as the great civil force, and the number of boats attached to the Marine Police Office at Wapping, when strengthened, extended, and improved in the manner which is proposed, would be competent to carry into effect the Laws now in being, and such as may hereafter be enacted, for the prevention and detection of offences in every part of the River Thames, from London Bridge to the Hope Point.

The Magistrate proposed to be established at Chatham, could occasionally administer justice at Sheerness, while the Boat Officers belonging to the Institution, might be employed advantageously in traversing the River Medway, and in keeping a watchful eye on the various Receivers of stolen goods, who reside in the vicinity of that River, between the two Dock-yards.

At Portsmouth and Plymouth there would be regular employment for the respective Magistrates, and the Boat and other Officers on these establishments.

These three Institutions may be conducted at an expence not exceeding one thousand pounds a year each, viz:—

	£.	s.	d.
To the responsible resident Magistrate	300	0	0
To his Clerk	100	0	0
To the Constables, 6 in number, 50l. each	300	0	0
To House Rent, Coal, Candles, Stationary, tear and wear of Boats, and Rewards for meritorious Services	300	0	0
Total	1000	0	0

Towards defraying this expence, the fees which would be received, and the penalties inflicted for minor offences, under the Legislative regulations hereafter to be proposed, would go a certain length in reducing the expences of the three Police Institutions. But considering the advantages likely to result from those Establishments, were the expence to be incurred even fifty times the amount of what is estimated, it would in all probability be much more than compensated by the savings to the Public, which will result from the preservation of the Public property, independent of the advantages which must arise from an improvement in the morals of a numerous class of delinquents, who have long been in a course of criminal turpitude.

A Police System thus organized under the direction of a Magistrate in each situation, whose attention would be solely confined to this one object, could not fail to be productive of the greatest good, especially when aided by officers, well selected and encouraged to be vigilant and pure in their conduct, from the advantages they would derive from a moiety of the pecuniary penalties, when offenders were convicted, in addition to their salaries, thereby rendering their situations comfortable and desirable, and fortifying them against seduction and connivance with Receivers and Thieves, as too often has been discovered to take place, with respect to parochial Constables resident near the Dock-yards, by which Public Justice has been frequently defeated. The terror which such a System would excite, and the extensive evils a Boat Police are likely to prevent, can only be conceived by those who have witnessed the effect of the Marine Police on the River Thames.

But still apposite Legislative regulations will be necessary to give full effect to this design, and the following heads are suggested as likely to be productive of infinite public advantage, when passed into a Law.

III. Legislative Regulations proposed in aid
of the general and local Police System.

From such Legislative Regulations infinite would be the advantages which might reasonably be expected, when by the establishment of a Naval Police System, their due and proper execution would be rendered certain; and also, in all cases, where the evidence against offenders, although perfectly conclusive as to the fact, may be deficient in some points of legal nicety, by putting the onus probandi on the offender, and treating it as a minor offence: the ends of Public Justice will, in a great measure, be answered by inflicting some punishment on the offender, and however inferior it may be to what he deserves, it will still have an excellent effect, since it is not so much by severe punishments, as by the certainty of some punishment being inflicted, and the obloquy of a conviction when offences are committed, that Delinquents of this class are deterred from the commission of crimes.

Having thus traced the outlines of such remedies, for the protection of his Majesty's Naval, Victualing, Ordnance and other stores, as certainly require Legislative Regulations; it remains now to consider, what other measures may appear necessary, within the limits of the authority with which the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty are invested, for the purpose of rendering the Preventive System complete.

Those which have occurred to the Author of this Work will be classed under the following Heads:

IV. Old Stores.

The mode at present practised in disposing of unserviceable Naval and Victualing Stores by Auction, in the Public Arsenals and Repositories, is productive of infinite evils, independent of the cover which is thereby afforded to many purchasers, of loose conduct, in protecting them, by means of the certificates they obtain against the penalties of the Law, as Receivers of stolen and embezzled goods of the same species and quality; thereby not only defeating the ends of Public Justice, but operating as an encouragement to these criminal dealers to extend the iniquitous part of their trade, by holding out facilities and incitements to those who have access to commit depredations on the Public Property, which possibly would never have otherwise taken place.

The Public Sales at the Dock-yards and other Repositories, draw together men of loose and depraved morals; who, in order to obtain bargains, do not hesitate (wherever it can be done) to seduce, by means of pecuniary gratuities, the inferior officers and labourers into the evil practice of mixing superior stores with unserviceable articles, ordered to be made up in lots, so as to elude discovery. New and valuable cordage has been detected coiled within old cables,[75] while frauds also are practised as to the weight, and in the delivery of greater quantities than are actually sold.—Such practices have taken place in spite of the vigilance and attention of the superior officers, by which a two-fold mischief arises,—in the immediate loss which is sustained by the frauds thus practised, and in the cover which is thus afforded for the protection of additional stores purchased clandestinely; perhaps from the persons who have been thus corrupted.—An evil so prominent, in the view of a very able and penetrating Judge now upon the bench, as to induce him to declare publicly in Court, immediately after a trial, where a notorious offender (as many notorious offenders do) escaped Justice, under the cover of his certificates: "That Government had better burn their old Stores than suffer them to be the means of generating so many offences"—or to the same effect.

It is however humbly presumed that a remedy may be applied without the destruction of such valuable materials; and the following suggestions are offered with a view to this object.

Plan for an improved mode of disposing of unserviceable Naval and Victualing Stores.

1st. That instead of selling those stores upon the spot where the criminal connections are formed, the Naval articles shall be made up in assorted lots suitable to the London, Bristol, Liverpool, Whitehaven, Glasgow, Newcastle, and Hull Markets. That a responsible Agent should be appointed to conduct the sales at each of these Ports.—That they shall be men of the first respectability in the commercial line, who can give ample security for their fidelity in the execution of the trust reposed in them.—That they shall receive the stores at the yards or repositories where they are made up, and convey them to their respective Warehouses at their own expence: on having an allowance of 6 per Cent. for Freight-charges, Warehouse-rent, Insurance against Sea-risk and Fire, and all other expences; and 4 per Cent. for commission on the amount of the Sales.