THE NAVY.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 10, 2 September 1842, Page 4

THE NAVY.

abolition of the office of surveyor of THE NAVY. The corruption in the surveyor’s department of the royal navy became so glaring under Sir Robert Sepping’s management, that Sir James Graham found it necessary to abolish the Navy Board, and remove from the Navy Office and the dock-yards the persons who had mixed themselves up with practices no longer to be tolerated; and he appointed a captain in the navy to the office of surveyor, against the sound advice which had been given him by those of great experience in the service. Instead of controlling the power of the new surveyor (now Sir William Symonds), he was allowed to construct vessels at variance with every scientific rule in the art of ship building. Agreeably to the anticipations of experienced men, and the expressed opinions of Sir George Cockburn, the Hon. Captain Rous, and others, who took a part in the recent debates on the state of the navy, they have proved complete failures; and the country has been, consequently, saddled with the expense of three millions of money, incurred for party purposes. Those persons dependent on the surveyor and his supporters for promotion, agreeably to the old rule, endeavoured to make it appear' that the new system was perfect; and it became impossible for any officer in the service to escape displeasure at the Board of Admiralty, if he ventured to give a report, or make an unfavourable remark against the ships of which they had sanctioned the building. On the last change of naval administration, those who were kept quiet through fear, felt at liberty to give their honest opinion unconnected with party, aware that the evils were becoming extremely dangerous to the best interest of the country; and the present Admiralty determined to get at the facts by proper inquiry. Finding the complaints against Sir William Symonds’s ships perfectly correct, they have stopped the building of a great number in the different dock-yards, and appointed a committee of master shipwrights to sit at Woolwich on the subject, in order that their Lordships may be able to act in future on more solid grounds than their predecessors, in the construction of “ wooden walls;” and place the navy in a position to meet the foe in the Atlantic, or any open sea, such as the “ intuitive” ships could not venture to sail in, without hazarding a defeat by their great imperfections, which unfitted them to contend with rough and heavy weather. Unfortunately, the committee has been confined to practical operations, without calling in. the aid of eleven scientific men to assist in the arduous duty selected; and a personal .feeling against the surveyor seems to have been displayed by more than, one in the committee, who

look upon the Captain Surveyor as an intruder, who*n they are anxious to remove. The feeling, it appears, has been carried to such an extent, that the Admiralty consider it requisite to abolish the office of surveyor, and appoint another captain in the navy as civil architect, to see vessels built upon plans which may be approvec. of by persons competent to give an opinion in this important branch of the public service, without any power, on the part of the architect, to adopt such crude notions, as he might choose to introduce in the navy, if left to his own free will as heretofore. The country has. sufferec. quite enough from the neglect of .former nava administrations, not to attend to the/complaint so frequently made against the abuses in the Surveyor’s department; and their Lordships cannot receive too much praise for their determination to correct the evil without further loss of time.

Destruction of London. —Some of the daily journals have announced, that a number of poor Irish families residing in the neighbourhood of St. Giles’s, have taken the alarm at the predicted earthquake, and are actually packing up their wardrobes, with a view to their , departure for their native land. Nearly a century ago, in 1750, a prophet of the Dr. Dee school, in the person of a crazy Lifeguardsman, foretold that London would be swallowed up by an earthquake, on Wednesday the 4th of April, in that year. By a reference to the second volume of Bentley’s Collective Edition of Horace Walpole’s Letters, it will be seen that the panic of that day was confined principally, not to what Daniel O’Connell calls “ the beautiful pisintry of green Erin,” but the nobility and gentry partook equally in the alarm. “ Several families,” he writes on the 2d of April, “ are literally gone, and many more going to-day. I am almost ready to burn my letter now I have begun it, lest you should think I am laughing, but it is so true that Arthur, of White’s Club, told me last night, that he should put off the last ridotto, which was to be on Thursday, because he hears nobody would come to it. Dick Leveson and Mr. Rigby, who had supped and stayed late at Bedford House the other night, knocked at several doors, and in a watchman’s voice cried ‘ Past four o’clock, and a dreadful earthquake !’ This frantic terror prevails so much, that within these three days, 730 coaches have been counted passing Hyde Park Corner, with whole parties removing into the country. Here is a good advertisement which I cut out of the papers to-day — f On Monday next will be published, price 6d., a true and exact list of all the nobility and gentry who have left, or shall leave, this place for fear of the earthquake. Several women have made earthquake gowns — that is, gowns to sit out of doors all night. These are of the more courageous. One woman, still more heroic, is come to town on purpose. She says all her friends are in London, and she will not survive them. But, what will you think of Lady Catherine Pelham, Lady Francis Arundel, and Lord and Lady Galway, who go this evening to an inn 10 miles out of town, where they are to play at brag till five in the morning, and then come back, I suppose, to look for the bones of their husbands and families under the rubbish ? The prophet of all this is a trooper of Lord Delawarr’s, who was yesterday sent to Bedlam ?” Military Court Martial. A General Court Martial, of which Colonel Love, of the 73d Regiment, has been nominated the President, will sit on Monday next, at Chatham, to try Lieutenant Plunkett, of the 95th Regiment, on a series of charges preferred against him by Brevet Major Trevor, in command of the depot. The charges were originally four in number; which are said to have had their origin in a recent evening spree in the barracks at Chatham. —United Service Gazette. Keshen. —This eminent personage, it is now beyond a doubt, has been doomed to be be- ' leaded. The Imperial will has been received. “ I order that the already degraded from being a Great Minister of State, Keshen, according to the Great Council of the Imperial Kindred, be detained' in prison until autumn (9th moon,’ Oct. 15 to Sept. 12), when he is to be beheaded according to his sentence. Respect this.” — Canton Register, of Oct. 12. A. certain orator at Athens having lost his election, was afterwards found to be exceedingly cheerful. A friend who soon after met him, accosted him, to know why he seemed in such good spirits, since they had not returned him j to office. “ Oh,” said he, “I am rejoicing to : think there are twelve better men than myself.” ; Languages. —There are 4500 languages throughout the world, besides the language of the eyes.— American Paper. * The heart has no avenue so open as that of flattery, which, like some enchantments, lays all , its guards asleep. ; Good Advice. —Keep out of bad company; for the chance is, that when the devil fires into ; a flock, he will hit somebody. The army will, it is said, .be immediately , strengthened by the enlistment of 5000 men. ; Morning Herald. The Sydney Morning Herald denies the appointment of Sir B. D’Urban, as the new Go- . vernor of New South Wales.