by naval officers. Of course every shot, and for the
matter of that every other article expended, has to be accounted
for. One of the most important duties of the gunner of a man-of-war
is to keep a strict account of the expenditure of all gunnery
stores. This was more exactly done under Queen Victoria than it
was under Queen Elizabeth. Naval officers are more hostile to
'red tape' than most men, and they may lament the vast amount
of bookkeeping that modern auditors and committees of public
accounts insist upon, but they are convinced that a reasonable
check on expenditure of stores is indispensable to efficient
organisation. So far from blaming Elizabeth for demanding this,
they believe that both she and Burleigh, her Lord Treasurer,
were very much in advance of their age.

Another charge against her is that she defrauded her seamen of
their wages. The following is Froude's statement:--

'Want of the relief, which, if they had been paid their wages, they
might have provided for themselves had aggravated the tendencies to
disease, and a frightful mortality now set in through the entire
fleet.' The word 'now' is interesting, Froude having had before
him Howard's and Seymour's letters, already quoted, showing that
the appearance of the sickness was by no means recent. Elizabeth's
illiberality towards her seamen may be judged from the fact that
in her reign their pay was certainly increased once and perhaps
twice.[78] In 1585 the sailor's pay was raised from 6s. 8d. to
10s. a month. A rise of pay of 50 per cent. all at once is, I
venture to say, entirely without parallel in the navy since, and
cannot well be called illiberal. The Elizabethan 10s. would be
equal to L3 in our present accounts; and, as the naval month at
the earlier date was the lunar, a sailor's yearly wages would
be equal to L39 now. The year's pay of an A.B., 'non-continuous
service,' as Elizabeth's sailors were, is at the present time L24
6s. 8d. It is true that the sailor now can receive additional
pay for good-conduct badges, gunnery-training, &c., and also
can look forward to that immense boon--a pension--nearly, but
thanks to Sir J. Hawkins and Drake's establishment of the 'Chatham
Chest,' not quite unknown in the sixteenth century. Compared with
the rate of wages ruling on shore, Elizabeth's seamen were paid
highly. Mr. Hubert Hall states that for labourers 'the usual rate
was 2d. or 3d. a day.' Ploughmen received a shilling a week. In
these ca