bourhood thereof on the night of Monday next,
the 7th instant, you are therefore (after taking the proper
preparatory measures with all possible secrecy) hereby required
to impress and to give orders to the lieutenants under your command
to impress all persons of the above-mentioned denominations (except
as before excepted) and continue to do so until you receive orders
from us to the contrary.' As it was addressed to officers in
all parts of the United Kingdom, the 'general press' was not
confined to London and its neighbourhood, though it was to begin
in the capital.

Though returns of the numbers impressed have not been discovered,
we have strong evidence that this 'general press,' notwithstanding
the secrecy with which it had been arranged, was a failure. On
the 6th December 1803, just a month after it had been tried, the
Admiralty formulated the following conclusion: 'On a consideration
of the expense attending the service of raising men on shore for
His Majesty's Fleet comparatively with the number procured, as
well as from other circumstances, there is reason to believe that
either proper exertions have not been made by some of the officers
employed on that service, or that there have been great abuses
and mismanagement in the expenditure of the public money.' This
means that it was now seen that impressment, though of little
use in obtaining men for the navy, was a very costly arrangement.
The Lords of the Admiralty accordingly ordered that 'the several
places of rendezvous should be visited and the conduct of the
officers employed in carrying out the above-mentioned service
should be inquired into on the spot.' Rear-Admiral Arthur Phillip,
the celebrated first Governor of New South Wales, was ordered
to make the inquiry. This was the last duty in which that
distinguished officer was employed, and his having been selected
for it appears to have been unknown to all his biographers.

It is not surprising that after this the proceedings of the
press-gang occupy scarcely any space in our naval history. Such
references to them as there are will be found in the writings
of the novelist and the dramatist. Probably individual cases
of impressment occurred till nearly the end of the Great War;
but they could not have been many. Compulsory service most
unnecessarily caused--not much, but still some--unjustifiable
personal hardship. It tended to stir up a feeling hostile to
the navy. It required to work it machinery co