by
compulsion cannot be properly called compulsory.

The Plymouth reporter of _The_Naval_Chronicle_ does not give
many details of the volunteering for the navy in 1803, though
he alludes to it in fluent terms more than once. On the 11th
October, however, he reports that, 'So many volunteer seamen
have arrived here this last week that upwards of L4000 bounty is
to be paid them afloat by the Paying Commissioner, Rear-Admiral
Dacres.' At the time the bounty was L2 10s. for an A.B., L1 10s.
for an ordinary seaman, and L1 for a landsman. Taking only L4000
as the full amount paid, and assuming that the three classes were
equally represented, three men were obtained for every L5, or
2400 in all, a number raised in about a week, that may be compared
with that given as resulting from impressment. In reality, the
number of volunteers must have been larger, because the A.B.'s
were fewer than the other classes.

Some people may be astonished because the practice of impressment,
which had proved to be so utterly inefficient, was not at once
and formally given up. No astonishment will be felt by those
who are conversant with the habits of Government Departments. In
every country public officials evince great and, indeed, almost
invincible reluctance to give up anything, whether it be a material
object or an administrative process, which they have once possessed
or conducted. One has only to stroll through the arsenals of the
world, or glance at the mooring-grounds of the maritime states,
to see to what an extent the passion for retaining the obsolete
and useless holds dominion over the official mind. A thing may
be known to be valueless--its retention may be proved to be
mischievous--yet proposals to abandon it will be opposed and
defeated. It is doubtful if any male human being over forty was
ever converted to a new faith of any kind. The public has to
wait until the generation of administrative Conservatives has
either passed away or been outnumbered by those acquainted only
with newer methods. Then the change is made; the certainty,
nevertheless, being that the new men in their turn will resist
improvements as obstinately and in exactly the same way as their
predecessors.

To be just to the Board of Admiralty of 1803, it must be admitted
that some of its members seem to have lost faith in the efficacy of
impressment as a system of manning the navy. The Lords Commissioners
of that date could hardly--all of them, at any rate--