yment has produced of late great
inconveniencies; for there has been frequently a necessity of removing
men from one ship to another; and it is the stated rule of the
pay-office, to assign every man so removed his full pay. These men, when
the government is no longer indebted to them, take the first opportunity
of deserting the service, and engaging in business to which they are
more inclined.

This is not a chimerical complaint, founded upon rare instances, and
produced only to counterbalance an objection; the fact and the
consequences are well known; so well, that near fourteen hundred sailors
are computed to have been lost by this practice.

The PRESIDENT of the commons, who always in a committee takes his seat
as another member, rose here, and spoke to the following effect, his
honour being paymaster of the navy:--Mr. Chairman, the nature of the
employment with which I am intrusted makes it my duty to endeavour that
this question may be clearly understood, and the condition of the
seamen, with regard to the reception of their pay, justly represented.

I have not been able to discover that any sailor, upon producing his
ticket, was ever obliged to submit to the deduction of any part of his
wages, nor should any clerk or officer under my inspection, escape, for
such oppression, the severest punishment and most publick censure: I
would give him up to the law without reserve, and mark him as infamous,
and unworthy of any trust or employment.

But there are extortions, sir, by which those unhappy men, after having
served their country with honesty and courage, are deprived of their
lawful gains of diligence and labour. There are men to whom it is usual
amongst the sailors to mortgage their pay before it becomes due, who
never advance their money but upon such terms as cannot be mentioned
without indignation. These men advance the sum which is stipulated, and
by virtue of a letter of attorney are reimbursed at the pay-office.

This corruption is, I fear, not confined to particular places, but has
spread even to America, where, as in his own country, the poor sailor is
seduced, by the temptation of present money, to sell his labour to
extortioners and usurers.

I appeal to the gentleman, whether the instance which he mentioned was
not of this kind. I appeal to him without apprehension of receiving an
answer that can tend to invalidate what I have asserted.

This, sir, is, indeed, a grievance pernicious and oppressiv