C-NRLF B 315 132 ■j jK?Sfei. ^ 4fl M ^•^ SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM LONDON PRINTED BX SPOTTISWOODE AND CO. NEW-STREET SQUAEE THE LIFE OF BRIGADIER- GENERAL SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM, K.S.G. FORMERLY INSPECTOR-GENERAL OF NAVAL WORKS IRATELY A COMMISSIONER OF HIS MAJESTY'S NAVY ■WITH THE DISTINCT DUTY OF CIVIL ARCHITECT AND ENGINEER OF THE NAVY > . . > ■> > > J o ' ' BY HIS WIDOW i » * , i , . >• ■> > i • ■> > > » > > > . > ■» M. S. BENTHAM LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1862 By fbf I , c (i PREFACE. The following Memoirs will give some account of a life of singular activity, attended by great successes, yet not without vexations and disappointments. The latter involved some personal imputations, from which it was necessary to vindicate the memory of Sir Samuel Bentham ; while the results of his incessant labours have tended to diminish the burdens, or to add to the resources of the country. To him are to be traced some of the most important changes in Naval Administration ; and to him we are indebted for many inventions which have effected an incal- culable saving in pubhc expenditure, as weU as for Dockyard and other reforms which closed the sources of many long-continued and most pernicious abuses. Official opposition, which sought to uphold all vested interests, prevented him from carrying out many things which he had at heart ; while, even in what he was enabled to accomplish, he had to struggle with the obstacles furnished by a passive resistance, and sometimes with personal animosity. A 4 m VI PKEFACE. But at this distance of time a plain narrative of his intentions and his acts can cause no pain or injury to those who may have differed from him or opposed him, while they who may personally have known and valued him will not regret that a narrative so fully justifying all his acts, so clearly attesting the wisdom of his conclusions, should be laid before the public. Many things which he first asserted to be abuses have, since that time, been acknowledged to be such ; and if others which he strove to check or to suppress still continue, no evil can arise from allow- ing his protest to be heard. ISTo full account of his position at the Navy Board, and with reference to the Admiralty, has yet been published. While the following memoir furnishes a complete explanation of all the events which preceded and accompanied the abolition of his office, and of the various motives and influences which animated his opponents, this vindication is the more conclu- sive, as every statement rests not merely on his own assertions in letters and journals, but can be attested by public and official documents, as well as by his works themselves. Few men have followed out the object of their lives with such unswerving perseverance ; few haw shown greater fertility of invention, a wider range of observation, and a keener insight into the adapta- tion of means to ends. Few have worked with more unwearied energy against difficulties which to men PREFACE. VLL of less vigorous mind, and less disinterested integrity, would have been overwhelming. The task of vindicating his memory from every aspersion has been accomplished by his widow, who has shown in the following narrative a rare compre- hension of the most minute details, as well as of the general character of the technical works in which her husband was engaged. . If her last years were occupied with that which clearly was to her a labour of love, her full knowledge of mechanical science, and her clear apprehension of the general bearing and results of mechanical designs, show at the same time that she was actuated by no mere feelings of a partial affection. She has defended the acts of her husband, where they appeared to need any defence, on grounds which can be examined by all acquainted with such subjects, and on which they can pronounce their judgment whether of approval or disappro- bation. The manuscript of this work, which had not been corrected throughout at Lady Bentham's death, was intrusted to the care of her youngest daughter, who, much as she desired to carry out her mother's wishes, would have shrunk from the responsibility of publishing the Memoirs in their imperfect state, but for the kind encouragement which she has received from eminent engineers. NOTE BY LADY BENTHAM. The materials from which the following Memoirs have been drawn up, consist, previously to the year 1790, of private letters and of parts of a journal kept during travels in Siberia and to the frontiers of China; and, after his return to England, of his patents ; and, from the time of his re-eno-a^ements in the British Service, of official docu- ments, and a journal of proceedings, in which were noticed transactions with the First Lords of the Admiralty and other members of that Board ; as also with other officers in the Naval Department, and with the Speaker of the House of Commons. For a later period many documents have been consulted which may be considered as official^ since they are on record at the Admiralty ; but throughout the whole nothing is stated which cannot be proved to be correct. X NOTE. Sir Samuel Bentham published the following pamphlets, now out of print; but in addition to those he had dis- tributed, a copy of each was presented by his widow to the Libraries of the Admiralty, the War Office, the Great Seal Patent Office, the United Service Institution, the Kensington Museum, and the Society of Arts : — "Naval Papers, containing (1) Correspondence on the Subject of various Improvements in His Majesty's Dockyards, and relative to the Institution of the Office of Inspector-General of Naval Works." " (2) Letters and Papers relative to the Mode of arming Vessels of War." " (3) A Statement of Services rendered in the Civil Department of the Navy." " Letters on Certain Experimental Vessels, on Contracts for providing Naval Stores," &c. "Answers to the Objections of the Comptroller of the Navy." " Desiderata in a Naval Arsenal, or an Indication of several Particulars in the Formation or Improvement of Naval Arsenals ; together with a Plan for the Improvement of the Naval Arsenal at Sheerness." " Representations on the Causes of Decay in Ships of War, with pro- posals for effecting the due Seasoning of Timber," &c. " Services rendered in the Civil Department of the Navy, in investi- gating Abuses and Imperfections in effecting Improvements in the System of Management, the Formation of Naval Arsenals, the Construction of Vessels of War, &c. &c. &c. 1813." u Letter to Lord Viscount Melville on the real Causes of the Defeat of the English Flotilla on the Lake Erie. 1814." " Naval Essays ; or Essays on the Management of Public Concerns, as exemplified in the Naval Department, considered as a Branch of the Business of Warfare. 1828." "Financial Reform Scrutinised, in a Letter to Sir Henry Parnell, Bart., M.P. 1830." " On the Aim and Exercise of Artillery. 1830." " Notes on the Naval Encounters of the Rus« iauri and Turks in 1788, 1829." (United Service Journal.) " On the Diminution of Expenditure without impairing the Efficiency of the Naval and Military Establishments." (Ibid.) "Breakwaters. — Sir Samuel Bentham's Plans. 1814." (Mechanic's Magazine.) CONTENTS. CHAPTEE I. Birth and Parentage of Samuel Bentham — Education at Westminster School — Apprenticeship under the Master-Shipwright of Woolwich Dockyard — He is removed to Chatham Yard — Proposal to the Navy Board for an improved Chain Pump — Eesidence at Caen — Return to London — Introduction to Sir Hugh Palliser, and Captain Jarvis, after- wards Lord St. Vincent — Offer from Captain Bazely of H.M.S. Nymph declined — Leaves England, August, 1779; visits Rotterdam and the Hague, Amsterdam, Mittau, &c. ...... Page 1 CHAPTER II. Arrival at St. Petersburg — Reception by Sir James Harris, the English Ambassador — He declines the Offer of the Director- Generalship of Marine Works — Visit to Cronstadt, Moscow, and Cherson — Return to St. Petersburg — Sets out to visit the great Factories and Mines of Russia, Feb. 1781 — Ship-building at Archangel — Catherinaburg — Crosses the Ural Mountains into Siberia — Mines at Verskatouria — Sect of the Raskolniks — Visit to Nijni Taghil — He constructs a Vehicle to serve both as Boat and Carriage — Invents a Machine for Planing Wood — Raskolnik Marriage Rites — Raskolnik Resistance to Persecution — Gene- ral Aspect of the Country 15 CHAPTER in. Perme — Improvements in Mining Pumps — Cavern near Perme — Collection of Minerals — Arrival at Tobolsk, January, 1782 — Introduction to the Anchree — Population of Siberia — State of Crime — Arrival at Krasno- jarseh — Mines at Narchinsk — The Chinese Frontier — Kiaehta — Visit to the Chinese Governor — Chinese Temples and Images — Fortune-telling — Intercourse between Russians and Chinese .... 36 XU CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV Condition and Treatment of Exiles in Siberia — He descends the Angora from Irkutsk — Letter to his Brother Jeremy Bentham — Fanaticism of Russian Peasants — Appeal on the Murder of a Tonguse — Slave Trade of the Kirgees — Fertility of Siberia — He visits Nijni Novgorod — Returns to St. Petersburg, and presents a Report to the Empress — Declines Lord Shelburne's Offer of a Commissionership of the Navy — Sir James Harris leaves Bentham as Charge d' Affaires at St. Petersburg — He is appointed a " Conseiller de la Cour," and entrusted -with the Works of the Fontanha Canal — Engagement with the Niece of Prince " Galitzin — Letter of Sir James Harris — The Engagement finally broken off — He is appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the Russian Army, with the Command of the Southern Part of the Country . . . Page 57 CHAPTER V. Journey to the Crimea — He is settled for a Time at Cricheff — Preparations for Ship-building — Extent of his Engagements — Military Duties — Manufacture of Steel — Building of the River Yacht Vermicular — Arming of a Flotilla at Cherson — Defeat of the Turkish Fleet, June, 1788 — Bentham receives the Military Order of St. George, with the Rank of full Colonel, and other Rewards — Privateering — Appointed to a Cavalry Regiment in Siberia — Excursion in the Country of the Kirgees, 1789 — Expedition to the Mouth of the River Ob — Kirgee Ignorance of Fire — Ship-building at Kamschatka for the American Fur Trade — Visits Paris on his Way to England 74 CHAPTER VI. Journey through the Manufacturing Districts of England, 1791 — Classifi- cation of Mechanical Works — Death of his Father — Prison Archi- tecture — Mechanical Inventions and Improvements — He is commissioned by the Admiralty to visit the Naval Dockyards — Resigns the Russian Service — Report on Portsmouth Dockyard, 1795 — Improvements and Alterations in the Dockyard — He is ordered to build seven Vessels on his own Plans — Changes introduced in their Construction — Appointed Inspector-General of Naval Works — The Appointment sanctioned by the King in Council, March, 1796 — Increased Calibre of Guns on Shipboard 97 CHAPTER VII. Marriage — Prison Architecture — Invention of a Mortar Mill for grinding Cement — Chemical Tests and Experiments on Ship Timber —Means for guarding Dockyards — Dock Buildings and Fittings — Choice of Materials — Supply of Water — Precautions against Fire — Introduction of Steam CONTEXTS. Xlll Engines — Copper Sheathing — Coast Defences — Eeport on the Office of Inspector- General ordered by the Select Committee of the House of Commons — Interconvertibility of Ship Stores — Cost of Mast Ponds — Effect of the Report to the Select Committee — Alterations and Improve- ments in Plymouth Dockyard — Abuse of Chips — Bad Conversion of Timber — Illness — Smuggling Vessels at Hastings . . Page 121 CHAPTER VIII. Dock Entrances at Portsmouth — New South Dock for Ships of the Line — Choice of Stone in building — Mast Ponds — Reservoirs for Clearing Docks — Treatment of his Experimental Vessels — Floating Dam — Steam Engine and Pumps — A Russian Fleet at Spithead — Interviews with the Officers — Daily Occupations — Character of Dockyard Work- men — Steam Dredging Machine — Enlargement of Marine Barracks at Chatham — Artesian Well — Deptford Dockyard — Sheerness— Proposals for a Dockyard at the Isle of Grain — Improved Copper Sheathing — Success of the Experimental Vessels — Principle of Non-recoil in mount- ing Guns — Engagement between the Millbrook and the French Frigate Bellone, and between the Dart and the Desiree .... 146 CHAPTER IX. Correspondence with Lady Spencer on Reforms in the Civil Management of the Navy — Payment of Dockyard Workmen — Principles of his new System of Management — Report to the King in Council — Objections urged against a Reform — Office of Master- Attendant — Principle of Dock- yard Appointments — Wages and Employment of Workmen — Navy Pay Books — Education for the Civil Department of the Navy — Naval Seminaries — Changes in the Accountant's Office — Interest of Money sunk in Public Works — Dockyard Working Regulations — Opposition of the Comptroller of the Navy — Official Tour to Portsmouth, Torbay, and Plymouth — Renewed Acquaintance with the Earl of St. Vincent — Dock- yard Abuses at Plymouth — Designs for a Breakwater — Return to London — Opposition to the Report — The Earl of St. Vincent succeeds Lord Spencer as First Lord of the Admiralty — The Report sanctioned in Council, May, 1801 — Suggestions for arming Vessels of War — Green- wich Hospital — Office of Timber-Master in the Royal Dockyard — Efforts on behalf of Convicts — Management of Timber Stores — Report to Lord St. Vincent, February, 1802 — Opposition — Commission of Naval Inquiry — Provisional Plan for the Education of Dockyard Appren- tices 170 CHAPTER X. Tour to visit Cordage Manufactories, January 1803 — Report, and Adop- tion of his Proposals — Treatment of Workpeople in Factories — Services of Mr. Brunei in the Introduction of Block Machinery — Method of XIV CONTENTS. rewarding Inventors — Advantages of Non-recoil Guns — Abuses in Job Payments — Proposals for a Government Ropery, 1804 — Contracts for Timber — Opposition of the Navy Board — Arming of the Mercantile Marine — Timber Coynes — Dockyard Machinery at Portsmouth — Mission to build Ships in Russia, 1805 — Arrival at Cronstadt — Diffi- culties of his Task — Opposition of the Emperor — Illness — His Pro- posals rejected by the Emperor — Importation of Copper for Sheathing — Detention at St. Petersburg during the Winter — Panopticon of Ochta — Departure from St. Petersburg — Revel — Carlscrona — Return to England — The Office of Inspector- General of Naval Works merged in the Navy Board Page 220 CHAPTER XL Changes of Administration at the Admiralty — Influences at work during his Absence in Russia — Acceptance of Office in the Navy Board' — Letter from General Fanshawe — Compensation to Mr. Brunei for Savings on Blocks — Proposal for a Canal from Portsmouth Harbour to Stokes Bay — Mixture of Copper and Tin — Faulty Method of Ship- building — Covered Docks — Modes of Seasoning Timber — Seasoning Houses — Sheerness Dockyard — Northfleet and the Isle of Grain — Breakwater at Plymouth 250 CHAPTER XII. Designs for Chatham — Improvements in Dredging Machines — Inadequate Assistance in carrying out his Designs — Works at Portsmouth — Ply- mouth Breakwater — His Office abolished — Remuneration and Com- pensation — Count er-Claims of the Navy Board — Continued Designs — Sheerness — Employment of Women — Anonymous Charges — Departure for France, 1814 — Return of Napoleon from Elba — Removal to Tours and Paris — Death of his Eldest Son, 1816 — Journey to Angouleme — Return to England, 1827 — Fate of the Experimental Vessels, Arrow, Netley, Eling, &c. — Transport Service — Interest of Money sunk in Public Works — Form of Vessels — Payment of the Navy — Illness and Death . 291 ERRATA. Page 31, line 1 (and elsewhere), for " Prata-Pope" read " Proto-Pope." „ 41, „ 29, for " Listvenishna" read " Ustvenishna." „ 53, „ 17 (and elsewhere), for " Naimatchin" read " Maimatchin." LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. CHAPTEE I. Birth and Parentage of Samuel Bentham — Education at Westminster School — Apprenticeship under the Master-Shipwright of Woolwich Dockyard — He is removed to Chatham Yard — Proposal to the Navy Board for an improved Chain Pump — Eesidence at Caen — Return to London — Introduction to Sir Hugh Palliser, and Captain Jarvis, after- wards Lord St. Vincent — Offer from Captain Bazely of H3I.S. Nymph declined — Leaves England, August, 1779; visits Rotterdam and the Hague, Amsterdam, Mittau, &c. Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Bentham, K.S.Gk, was the youngest son of Jeremiah Bentham, Esq., of Queen Square Place, Westminster. His only surviving brother (his senior by ten years) was the celebrated Jeremy Bentham, well known by his works on jurisprudence. Their father and grandfather were both lawyers. One of their ancestors was Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry, who died in 1578. Samuel was born on the 11th of January, 1757. He was first placed at Mr. Willis's private boarding school, then at Westminster School at the age of six. Their mother having died soon after his birth, their father mar- ried again, in October, 1766, the widow of John Abbot, and the mother of two sons, Farr and Charles, the latter so distinguished in after life as Speaker of the House of Commons, and subsequently raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Colchester. From the time of Mr. Bentham's second marriage Charles and Samuel became in affection B £ • LIFE OF £IR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. to each other as real brothers : their treatment in the pa- rental home was the same, their education similar, their recreations alike. Jeremy Bentham, in a letter to his cousin Mulford, said, " It is with pleasure that I can confirm the favourable account you are pleased to say you have heard of my father's choice, and from the best autho- rity, for such in that case is that of a stepson, who is but too often the last person to do it justice. I became acquainted with her soon after my own mother's death, as soon, or I believe a little sooner, than my father. For some years there has been the strictest intimacy between the two families ; she always had my esteem in the highest degree, and it cost me but little to improve it. Since their marriage, she has ever behaved to me and my bro- ther in the same manner (making an allowance for the difference of ages) as to her own children, whom she ten- derly loves : they form a little triumvirate, in which, very differently from the great cabals distinguished by that name, there reigns the most perfect harmony." This is but a tribute justly due to a lady who has been mentioned in print in less flattering terms, and is moreover a proof that the bias of Samuel, which led him early away from home, did not originate in any discomfort experienced under the parental roof. The first circumstances which may have led eminent men, to the choice of some particular career, cannot be devoid of interest ; but Samuel never indicated what was the origin of his predilection for naval concerns. Possibly it might have been stimulated, by the circumstance of a building in his father's coachyard, being occupied by a carpenter as his workshop : for there he worked in all his spare moments as a carpenter. Doubtless he must have acquired some dexterity ; for, in after life, he often spoke with delight of his having witli his own hands manufactured a carriage for his playfellow, the afterwards celebrated Cornelia Knight, whose father, Admiral Knight, APPRENTICESHIP IN WOOLAYICH DOCKYARD. 3 was an intimate friend at Queen Square Place. Samuel's progress at Westminster school distinguished him from the generality of boys, so that he was destined for a liberal profession, and was preparing for the University, when an uncontrollable desire to become a naval constructor, in- duced his father to gratify the inclination, and to procure for him the best education, which the country at that time afforded in the art of ship-building. This was secured by placing him as an apprentice to the master-shipwright of a royal dockyard, and Mr. Gray of Woolwich was selected as the master. Some months before Samuel attained the legal age of fourteen, he was bound apprentice to that gentle- man, and regularly entered His Majesty's service as soon as he had attained his fourteenth year. At that now distant period, it was conceived that the apprentices to such an officer, being usually of a superior class and education to those of the common shipwright, were training for future officers. The occasional absence, therefore, from the dockside, of lads so circumstanced, was winked at, though the master received from Government the full wao-es for them, as if their work had been unre- mitted. Much abuse arose therefrom, but the practice still continued, till Samuel himself at a future time was the means of its abolition. In his own case, however, it was fully understood that he should be allowed ample time for the acquirement of such knowledge, as might tend to the advancement of naval construction and equip- ment. He was boarded in the house of Mr. Gray, to whom was paid the then very ample sum of £50 a-year, besides a considerable apprentice fee. A distinguished master of mathematics, Cowley, of Woolwich Warren, was engaged to give Samuel lessons in that science, in which he made such progress as to write during his apprentice- ship a treatise, which had the reputation of having ex- hibited unusual ability. He was removed with Mr. Gray to Chatham Yard, where his ardent thirst for know- B 2 4 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. ledge was gratified by intercourse with men distinguished in various branches of science ; but at the same time he did not neglect the handicraft branch of his profes- sion. In a note-book, which still exists, is set down the manner in which he allotted different parts of the day to his several occupations : " Geometry before breakfast ; working ship-building between breakfast and dinner ; Mr. Davis (his tutor) with me at my cabin from dinner till six o'clock, while I am drawing. Music just before dinner, some light reading immediately after." These note-books exhibit the great variety of subjects in which he was acquiring knowledge, — chemistry, electricity, painting, grammar, especially of the French language, and many other subjects, besides those more immediately connected with naval architecture, such as mechanics and ship- building, the defects of which, as then practised, he already perceived. He was also alive to the many abuses that existed in the Eoyal Dockyards, and from his unpretending- station as apprentice was allowed an insight into many abuses, which otherwise he might never have been able to ascertain. His residence at Chatham also afforded fre- quent opportunities of gaining experience in sailing boats and small craft, and he often went out to sea from the Medway, cruising sometimes as far as Portsmouth and round the Isle of Wight. At the early age of fifteen, by Mr. Gray's advice, he made his first official proposal to the Navy Board of an improved chain pump, and the Navy Board in reply, to use their words, " admit the improvement and commend his ingenuity," but decline it as they had already a con- tract for pumps. He afterwards learnt that the Board really was convinced of the superiority of his pump, but they had a contractor whom "they did not like to turn off." In the year 1775, Mr. and Mrs. Bentham took their three sons Farr and Charles Abbot and Samuel Bentham, by permission of the Navy Board, to Caen, for the jmrpose VIEWS OX EXPIRATION OP APPRENTICESHIP. 5 of giving them fluency in the French language, and for effecting this they had previously provided for the recep- tion of the lads in three different French families. The parents left the lads, that nothing might impede their speedy acquirement of the language ; and this judicious arrangement was rewarded by success. Samuel particu- larly spoke and wrote French with purity and taste. During his apprenticeship, he was the contriver of several improvements relative to naval matters, such as a Cur- vator for measuring crooked timbers, together with seve- ral small alterations in the form or equipment of sailing and rowing boats. The views which he had for his future employment when that apprenticeship should expire, will best be described by quotations from a letter of his, which commences thus : — " On the 2nd of August next I shall have served out my seven years : at the expiration of that time some alteration must take place, I have not as yet determined what. I should not wish to be there (in the yard), if I were not to continue to be as much my own master as I am at present, and this would be almost impossible. I should like much to superintend the building of some one ship under the foreman of the new works, but as this is not practicable, at the expira- tion of my time I shall apply myself closely to geometry, and finish the fifth book for publication : you know I have some reason to believe that by this means I might acquire interest enough to get master boat-builder. In such an office, I should have very advantageous oppor- tunities of perfecting myself in the knowledge of the busi- ness as it is, and should have sufficient leisure to make some experiments, and apply myse]f to gain that know- ledge of it which would enable me to investigate what it might be. Practice alone may show how work has been done, but practice is insufficient to teach how it ought to be done. To confess to you the truth, had I not thoughts of the possibility of being at the head of my profession, I B 3 6 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTIIAM. never would have engaged in it. It is a profession I am exceedingly fond of : I prefer it to any : it is one that affords the largest field for the exercise of that kind of knowledge, which I seem to have gotten the clue to. Money, you know, I consider in no other light but as affording the means of satisfying my darling passion. In the King's service, although the profits are not large, yet could I have confidence put in me, could I but have the favour of those in power, although I should not have money, yet I should have that for which alone I should want it — I might have assistance in trying my experiments, in pur- suing my researches : what I should have of my own, with the addition of the little I should have as salary, would satisfy me in such circumstances. " Very little encouragement now would set me alive. I am acting against the advice of all my friends ; they want me to engage in a private yard ; to spend my whole life, or at least the younger part of it, in the drudgery of buy- ing timber and patching together ships, for which I must court all such folks as masters of colliers, &c. Supposing in that time I may amass 20,000/., when those faculties are weakened by which alone I could enjoy the spending it : I should then be living for the sake of living after- wards, and should be doing all the while the contrary of what it would be my greatest ambition to do." There were, however, no means of enabling him to re- main in the King's service, excepting in a very inferior office. His determination therefore was to employ some time in acquiring further knowledge, previously to deciding on what should be his future career. He attended chemi- cal lectures in London, acquired the German language, became a pupil at the Naval Academy at Portsmouth, and spent two more years in improving himself in the practices of the several different Eoyal Dockyards, as also a part of that time on shipboard, as a volunteer in Lord Keppel's fleet. In a letter to his brother, 5th July, 1778, he says, VISITS TO THE ROYAL DOCKYARDS. 7 these gentlemen, affords an example of the difficulty with which improvements then, as up to the present time, are introduced in the English naval department. In a letter of September 10th, 1779, he writes: " It is now upwards of twenty years that they (the Mays) have experienced the efficacy of a method they have discovered of preparing the timber at the expense of a very few pounds. Their father, being master-builder of the public yard here, applied his method to several ships of war he built about this time. These ships have since had but the most trifling repairs imaginable, and the timbers remain now as sound as at first ; whereas before that time a ship had often been so much decayed in the space of five years as to be broken up as unfit for service. These ships of May's have already outlasted seven such ships. The Dutch wished to keep this secret to themselves, but as nothing can escape the notice of Sir Joseph Yorke, our Admiralty were informed of it, at least in part, and it was ordered to be put in practice ; however, it shared the fate of all other proposals. It was at first badly conducted, and by a change in the Admiralty entirely neglected. Our ships were left to rot ad libitum, and the Dutch hug themselves and laugh at us. I know a good deal of the manner in which this was communicated, and of the reception it met with ; but what is much more to the purpose, I know, pretty nearly at least, the whole of the method itself." Bentham remained successively at various ports in the Baltic, long enough to obtain such information as could be acquired at them. At Mittau the Grand. Duke of Cour- land honoured him with much distinction, and here it was that his evident stock of information and judgment ob- tained for him the first offer of place and pecuniary emolu- ment. The Duke offered him very advantageous terms if he could be induced to take a part in the management and disposal of the timber of the country. Many letters and facts indicated that he was already distinguished by the 14 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. epithet " le savant voyagewr? and that a all who knew him were astonished at the great modesty they discovered in him." It is not surprising therefore that in addition to the valuable letters of introduction which he took from England, many others not less flattering were given to him from the friends which he made wherever he spent some time. 15 CHAP. II. * Arrival at St. Petersburg — Reception by Sir James Harris, the English Ambassador — He declines the Offer of the Direct or- Generalship of Marine Works — Visit to Cronstadt, Moscow, and Cherson — Return to St. Petersburg — Sets out to visit the great Factories and Mines of Russia, Peb. 1781 — Ship-building at Archangel — Catherinaburg — Crosses the Ural Mountains into Siberia — Mines at Verskatouria — Sect of the Raskolniks — Visit to Nishnai Taghil — He constructs a Vehicle to serve both as Boat and Carriage — Invents a Machine for Planing Wood — Raskolnik Marriage Rites — Raskolnik Resistance to Persecution — Gene- ral Aspect of the Country. Mr. Bentham arrived at St. Petersburg in March, 1780, when he was for some time confined to the house in con- sequence of illness brought on by the overturning of the carriage in which he travelled. In a letter written whilst still laid up he says : " Count Tchernicheff has heard of me, and knows a great deal about me, and expresses a wish to see me every day. He makes me offers before he has spoken to me or seen me.'' Mr. Samborski, the Eussian chaplain attached to the Embassy in London, had before this expressed a strong desire to engage Mr. Bentham in the Eussian service. Bentham's first visit on his recovery was, of course, to the ambassador. His reception was most flattering. He said himself : " Although I expected, from his character and from the letters I carried with me, to be received with a great deal of politeness, yet the reception I met with ex- ceeded my expectations." Indeed, far from confining his civilities to a first visit, or to such as are usually bestowed on persons recommended, Sir James Harris bestowed on 16 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. Mr. Bentham many proofs of friendship. The young man was permitted to consult him on all occasions, and thence- forward took no step without Sir James's advice and con- currence. The ambassador also introduced him to the first society in St. Petersburg, and Mr. Bentham had reason to say that, " it was not by invitations to dinner that I measure his friendship ; he gives me other proofs of it." Shortly afterwards Count Tchernicheff offered Mr. Bentham the Director-Generalship of all the ship-building and mechanical works relating to the Marine. This was declined, as it would have fixed him in Eussia. His wdshes always led him home again, though his acceptance of the office would have enabled him to carry on experiments with a view to improvements in his profession. It appears, too, that he doubted his father's approval of such a step ; but when he alleged this to Sir James as one reason for his refusal, the reply was that, " no employ would be pro- posed to him but under such advantages that even his father could not but approve of it." In May he visited Cronstadt, furnished with letters from Sir James Harris and from Count Tchernicheff to the Com- mander-in-chief of that port and arsenal, Admiral Greig. From this double recommendation, Mr. Bentham said, " I got the confidence as well as the civilities of the Admiral." So that he had full opportunity of acquainting himself with all the various naval arrangements of that port, and of all the accommodations in the arsenal there provided for the construction, equipment, and management of every- thing connected with the outfit of a fleet. Mr. Bentham then set out on a journey through the interior of Russia, to visit the seaports on the south, making some little stay at places of interest on his way. On his arrival at Moscow the Governor honoured him with an invitation to his table. A young Russian with whom he had already formed a friendship (Serge Plescheff), being SECT OF THE KASKOLXIKS. 17 also at Moscow, engaged to convey Bentham to the Gover- nor's, and promised to bring him home. After dinner the party adjourned to the theatre. During the performance the house took fire, and the greatest consternation of course arose. PleschefT hurried out his sister ; Bentham assisted other ladies, and escorted them safely to their carriages, when they drove off and in the confusion left him alone and helpless in the road. He was in the full dress of the time, with glittering shoe and knee buckles and the cha- peau de bras. The police accosted him. He had not yet learnt Euss, yet he contrived to understand that they asked his place " of residence.!' He could not say that PleschefT had engaged it for him, nor could he name the house of his friend. The good-natured police endeavoured in vain to understand his signs, till at length he managed to make them comprehend his wish to be taken to the Governor. The request seemed extraordinar} 7 . They hesitated, and were taking him to prison, after much dumb-show parley, when PleschefT appeared, who, having seen his sister safely lodged at home, bethought himself of Bentham and re- turned just in time to explain matters, and to save him from being placed in durance for having presumed to ask for an escort to the Governor. Further south, in passing through a village of Easkol- niks, he asked for food and a draught of water. Both were cheerfully and abundantly supplied, but payment was positively refused. When the repast was over, he saw every vessel which he had used dashed to pieces on the ground. The Raskolniks are schismatics from the Eussian Church, with which in certain respects they will have no inter- course ; and one of the peculiarities of the sect is that they never eat or drink from any vessel that has been used by a person of the orthodox Church. He visited Cherson, little dreaming of his future occu- pation there. The town then consisted of no more than 180 houses. In a letter of August 10th, 1780, he says : "The}- C 18 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. are establishing, or attempting to establish, a marine in the Black Sea. This is at present the favourite object of the Court. General Hannibal, of black parents, though born in Kussia, has the entire management of it under Prince Potemkin. He (Hannibal) has the command of building, fortifying, and settling the new town of Cherson, as well as the first command of all the naval department there. He chose the spot not above two or three years ago, when there was not even a hut there. In a few years he expects to see in it a fleet of thirty-two ships. Sheds to cover them are also to grow up with them. He has the favour of the Empress and her ministers, and snaps his fingers at the Admiralty. He gave me a general descrip- tion of his plan. Timber they get chiefly from Chernobyl in Poland, for there is scarcely a single tree within 200 miles of Cherson." Bentham returned to Moscow by Chernobyl and Mittau. Many incidents during this tour show the estimation in which he was held ; to notice one of them, after staying some days with Count Chadkiovitz he was not allowed to proceed to Mittau, otherwise than in the count's carriage. " In this manner was I brought all through Poland, and not permitted to be at a farthing's expense." At St. Petersburg, to use his own words, "in a little time I returned to my old hankering," and in October " con- trived a new mode of composing masts," perhaps the same that he afterwards introduced in England with complete success. " I hope I shall be able to show," he says, " by the principles of mechanics, the advantage in point of strength, as well as of economy, of this mode over the pre- sent practice." The saving which he afterwards effected in England was twenty-five per cent, in workmanship, be- sides a considerable sum in timber. In a letter to his father at this time he laments the expenses which he had unavoidably incurred : " A carriage," he said, (( was as necessary as a pair of gloves, more so than ARRIVAL AT ARCHAXGEL. 19 a shirt;" — he then related the economical arrangement which he had now made to diminish his expenditure, and avoid altogether much of the cost of a vehicle. " To Sir James Harris's, unless when there is much company in had weather, I walk, yet contrive to save my reputation, not- withstanding the great aversion every class of people here has to the idea of walking. You tell me, Sir, that I used to make more shifts and undergo more hardships from economy : believe me, never so much then as now, though perhaps never with so good a will and so great a necessity. Coarse bread, black and sour, with sometimes milk, some- times water, was my food the greatest part of my journey; not because I could not get other, but really because I would not be at the expense of it. In a bed I did not sleep during my journey, except while I was at my friend Count Chadkiovitz's, neither have I since my return. A sofa on which I sit with a great table before me by day, serves me as a bed at night. The same cloak, which served me so well on my journey, serves me now as sheets and blankets. Apples arid bread are my food when I stay at home ; indeed I might have princely fare if I would bestow time and trouble to go out for it." But Bentham was not yet satisfied with the amount already received of what he considered his education. He wished to improve himself still further by witnessing actual practice in mechanical operations as it existed in foreign manufactories, to investigate the art of management where there were great assemblages of working men, and to im- prove himself in the knowledge of metallurgy. Accordingly, in February 1781, he set out to visit the great factories in the Eussian dominions, and the most important of the mines, those especially in the Ural Mountains, and to the eastward of them. He arrived at Archangel in March. The greater part of the vast extent of country through which he passed is still but little known, and its inhabi- tants were then, as even now, considered coarse and brutal C 2 20 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. in manners as in mind: he, on the contrary, found the higher classes possessed of much information and polished manners, and all orders he found good-natured and good- humoured, with a sincere desire to assist and to oblige. The greater part of the journal kept at this time has unfortunately been lost, but letters to his brother and other friends afford much curious and valuable informa- tion. A heavy fall of snow occasioned the driver of his carriage to lose his way at a distance of eight versts from Archangel. He walked into the town, lodged with General W^exel, and was everywhere received most flatteringly. He after- wards was received in the house of M. Sereptzova, the judge appointed by Government, from whom he received much information relative to judicial matters. He learnt that it was a common practice at Archangel to build ships with the money, and on account of English merchants. The vessels were sent to England loaded with Eussian produce, and then were permitted to sail as mer- chantmen, the greater part of the profit being secured to the English. A vessel built at Archangel cost 10,000 roubles (the rouble about 3s.), made four voyages in two succeeding years, and was then sold to the British Govern- ment for 5000?. Among the few of his notes that remain, he says, " I have used my utmost endeavours to inform myself whether the peasants do not suffer oppression under the government of officers whom it is so difficult for the wisest laws to restrain, but hitherto I have not been able to discover instances of exaction or injustice. Here and there I have found some villages poorer than others, but according to what I have learnt, poverty in those villages arose from over-population, the surrounding land not being sufficient in extent or fertility to furnish food in abundance." At Archangel he engaged an Englishman to accompany him as interpreter, and as a sort of companion ; for RUSSIAN HOSPITALITY. 21 although he had already acquired some familiarity with the Russian language, he did not consider himself suffi- ciently master of it to understand the technical terms. Pallas, with whom Bentham had made acquaintance in the south, and with whom a strict friendship ever after existed, furnished him with a note of places and mines par- ticularly worthy of notice ; and in prosecution of this plan so marked out, he left Archangel before the winter roads had broken up. At one town at which he made a halt on the 21st of March, a sort of contest sprung up between the Commandant and a rich merchant, as to which of them should have the privilege of entertaining him. He urged to the merchant that the Commandant's hospitality had been already accepted. The merchant hied him to the Commandant, and obtained permission from him for the transfer of the traveller to himself. They were splendidly lodged and entertained — magnificent counterpanes on their beds, silk dressing-gowns, two valets de chambre to attend on each of them ; (l in short," says the interpreter, " everything was noble " — but they lacked the China ware thought indispensable in an English bed-room. At length the valets contrived to pick up one wash-hand basin. This must not be set down to want of cleanliness. In Kussia the bath is the place for ablutions, and a heated one was ready for the guests next morning. The difference from our habits may appear strange ; but it must be remembered that this reception took place nearly seventy years ago. Since that time Russia has adopted much from countries to the westward of her ; yet she still retains many usages widely differing from ours. Indeed, persons of distinction not many years since, travelling on the main road from the Crimea to St. Petersburg, were attended by a cook carry- ing his culinary apparatus in his kibitka. In after life Bentham often related the straits to which he had frequently been put in Russia and Siberia, by the overwhelming quantities of provision with which he had c 3 22 LIFE OP SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. been presented. An example of this embarrassment oc- curred at Solikamisoi. The wife of the Commandant of the place, on the morning of his departure, sent what she thought necessary to allay hunger till Bentham and his interpreter should reach their carriage station. The luncheon for the two consisted of a pie composed of fowls and eggs, a cooked ham, two roast geese, two ducks, be- tween four and five pounds of fresh butter, with bread in proportion to the other fare — all this to be stowed away in a simple kibitka. In his notes he says, " It is a custom, I am told, amongstthese hospitable people, the first time aper- son comes to take up his quarters at their house, to make him some kind of present. I at least have found it so invariably. The satisfaction they seem to feel in making their present in- creases its value immeasurably. They have seemed to con- sider a present as a kind of duty they owe me, and are only anxious to find what would be most agreeable." Further on he says : — " One cannot but be surprised that crimes of all kinds are not more frequent in this country, where the parties must go perhaps a thousand versts to bring an affair to trial. At Cherkinska the peasant at whose house I slept, observing that my servant was looking out of the window to watch the kibitkas, told me there was no fear they would be dis- turbed. At present, however, the Empress is giving an entirely new face to her vast dominions ; different tri- bunals are establishing in every town. All economy, domestic and public, is, 'tis true, in a sad condition. The passion for gaming may, in a great measure, be the cause of the neglect of the former." An instance of the mechanical ingenuity of some of the native Russians was seen at Selsty, where a Euss shopkeeper, without educa- tion or instruction, made clocks that chimed the hours and quarters. But in Russia, as elsewhere, the aged adhere to old customs. At a place thirty-four versts from Verska- touria, the son of a peasant had cut a road through the woods to that place which shortened the way considerably. The VISITS OF CEREMONY. 23 old father never would use it, saying, that " the road which God had made was the best." 26th March. — At Catherinaburg the General immedi- ately ordered Mdme. Turchisen's house to be prepared for his reception, and two gentlemen were deputed to conduct Bentham to his lodgings — " a very palace ' (as noted by his interpreter), " both in outward appearance and internal arrangements." In less than half an hour the General paid his visit of ceremony to congratulate Mr. Bentham on his arrival. This formal affair accomplished, the General proposed a walk together through the town. The opera- tions at the Tanetskoi Don were particularly noticed, money being there coined with extraordinary expedition. Each piece passed through eleven hands ; yet coins to the amount of 12,000 roubles were finished daily. After entertaining him at dinner, the General accompanied the traveller to pay visits of ceremony — in a coach of six, of course, Another house of Turchisen's, at which he apparently resided, was remarkable for its grandeur and for the very fine hothouses in its gardens. Turchisen had a factory where forty workmen were employed in manufacturing beautiful articles of metal solely for his use. Having crossed the Ural Mountains into Siberia, Bentham arrived at Verskatouria on the 28th of March, and was conducted to the principal proprietor in that neighbour- hood, Gregory Pogodaskina. This young man, though only sixteen years of age, had a month or two before been left by his father sole and uncontrolled proprietor of all his wealth, including mines, one of them amongst the richest of the upper mines in Siberia. The youth, attended by the chief persons of the place, came out upon the steps of his house to receive his guests. After coffee, Pogodas- kina accompanied them to the commander of the town. Verskatouria is a place of some commerce in furs, such as white bear skins, sables, and ermines. Two live sables were given to Bentham, so tame that the}^ would C 4 24 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. take raisins or sweetmeats out of a person's hand or mouth. Bentham then proceeded to the gold mines, fifteen versts from the town ; they are three in number, and at a depth of ten Kussian fathoms, seventy English feet. Specimens of this mine he afterwards sent to England to Sir Joseph Banks, together with a large collection of other of the mineral productions of Siberia. What remained of his own collection he received twenty years later in England, but the valuable specimens of gold had disappeared. The next morning he set out to visit Pogodaskina's iron and copper works at a distance of 130 versts, where he arrived about nine the following morning. Pogodaskina, young as he was, was, it appears, chief manager of his immense concerns, and having indispensable business to transact at home, regretted that he could not accompany the traveller himself, but deputed this duty to another in his stead. At these works 114 poods, that is to say 4560 pounds of copper, are run from the furnace at one time. "Near the factory of Kashan is the great iron mine of Slagkodat ; a new road had been made over a steep hill, from which there is a magnificent prospect. The inhabi- tants of the village have taste enough in summer time to repair to a summer-house built on the summit of the hill, a distance of eighty versts. A village, seven versts from Catherinaburg, inhabited by Raskolniks, gave Bentham a favourable opportunity of informing himself of their religious ceremonies. Under the guidance of an officer sent by the Governor, he in- quired of several persons, on entering the village, where the chapel was situated ? and to this they replied that they did not know. Recourse was then had to a merchant of the place, an acquaintance of the officer's. This mer- chant, whilst a messenger was sent to learn when the chapel could be visited, showed his guest a small chapel which he had built for the use of his family, and where CUSTOMS OF THE RASKOLXIKS. 25 he himself daily said morning and evening prayers. On entering the Raskolnik chapel, two flat pieces of iron were seen suspended. They are struck with an iron hammer, when the people are assembled ; and five large bells, one of them weighing a pood, are then rung. They have no altar, and their saints are without ornament, but are merely painted resemblances. Except St. Nicholas, whom they say they do not honour, they do not acknowledge any of the saints reverenced in the Eussian Church. The women assemble in a separate apartment, that they may not be seen by the men. Each person is provided with a square flat cushion to lay on the ground when he lies down. On being asked whether they were persecuted by the Russians they replied in the negative, but added that they had formerly been so, and were afraid of it even now, as they were determined to adhere to their own re- ligion. Her Imperial Majesty has commanded head money of thirty-five copecs to be paid by Raskolnik women, which is never imposed upon those of the Russian Church, and an addition of seventy-five copecs per man above what a Russian pays — this tax, Bentham subse- quently added, is now taken off. They are (in common with Russians) obliged to supply their quota of recruits for the army, but take care to send those that are least attached to their religion. He learnt, on return- ing to the Governor's, that, while the Raskolniks were persecuted by the Government, they inflicted great cruelties on themselves and on their families, rather than change their religion. The Empress on hearing the tortures which they imposed upon themselves, decreed that twenty years should be allowed them for reflection, and in the mean- time, that by means- of persuasion an endeavour should be made to unite them with the Russian Church, but this leniency did not appear to have any good effect. 9th April. — He set off for Nijni Taghil in the Go- vernor's calesh with four post horses, a hussar behind the 25 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAtf. carriage, and a soldier in advance to order change of horses. Xij ni Taghil, an iron factory, the property of Count DemidofT, is 140 versts northward of Catherinaburg. The owner of the works had furnished him letters to the intendant, containing orders to show him everything that he wished to see, to afford him all the information he might require, and moreover to do any works for him that he might have occasion for, as carriages, &c. Bentham had travelled thither in kibitkas on sledges with the winter roads, and now needed a carriage on wheels for summer travelling. The people proposed making him one of the usual description, but considering the journey which he had in view, he said that one of the ordinary construction would not content him. He therefore con- trived a vehicle that might suit his purpose as a wheel carriage on land, a boat in water, and a sledge on ice. This carriage was manufactured while the winter roads were broken up, and the summer ones were not yet passable. He had not only to mark out himself every single piece of wood put into it, but was often obliged to work as hard as any of the workmen in executing those parts which could not be explained to them. In a letter to his brother, dated April 25th, from Nijni Taghil, he says, " The inhabitants, with regard to their manners, are very falsely described," and afterwards in speaking of the hospitable reception which travellers in general receive in this country, he says that the proprietor, Mr. DemidofT, was then at Moscow, but that " his house here, his servants, table, equipage, &c, I am at present master of. If you are not engaged some day next week, and will come and take a dinner or supper with me, whichever is most con- venient, I shall be very glad to see you. I mention it only lest, hearing that nobody comes to the table here without my express invitation, your bashfulness might deprive me of the pleasure of your company. Besides soups, you will find, every day beef, mutton, pork, dressed each in RUSSIAN COOKERY. 27 several different ways, also geese, ducks, and fowls. You need not, however, criticise the etiquette in serving up the poultry, or find fault with the sauces. Don't make it a tea-table talk at your return if you should see one dish contain a goose and a fowl, another a duck and a fowl laid head and tail on, one up on end against the other, all shrunk by the heat of the oven to half their former size, and the dry remains of the flesh ready to drop from the bones at the first touch — dry, I mean only in the inside, for the outside shines from the oily butter in which they almost swim. You love pastry, you will find some of different sorts, or rather in different shapes, and a great abundance of each. AVith such fare, however, by the assistance of champagne and other French wines and English beer, you may be able to exist for a single day. The wines are brought about 2000 versts overland. So much as I have seen of this country of Siberia, I have always found something more than the bare necessaries of life. At Tolchamskaja, a town further to the north, though without the boundaries of Siberia, I saw, besides other hothouse plants, 500 as fine orange and lemon trees as I ever saw an) r where. By-the-by what an infamous, ma- licious, lying work that is of the Abbe Chapuis ; have you read the antidote to it ? It is said to be written by the Prin- cess Dashkoff; her criticisms are in general, as far as I am able to inform myself, exceedingly just, but now and then her partiality for her country carries her too for." In reference to the growing practice in Russia of availing themselves of aid from abroad, he says : " To pretend to say that arts and manufactures are brought to the same degree of perfection here as in other countries, would be to condemn the practice of engaging foreigners ; " but turning his thoughts to the unjust accounts that travellers had given of Russia, particularly the eastern parts and Siberia, he adds, " If I were disposed to criticise and condemn (yet from what I have seen there is more done here for the 28 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. good of the country than there is done at home), I might say that in some places there are too many people here who have more interest in injuring than in benefiting others ; but when I have made this remark, I have found that the interest of the superior is rather to protect than to injure those under him. When I have noticed anything that seemed to the prejudice of Government or of those who are disposed to favour it, I proposed questions to the most intelligent people in the country. I propose them in such a way as to get their opinion before I give my own, and it frequently happens from the reasons which they give me that I feel ashamed of having formed such an opinion. I wish the Abbe could have done the like ; his book would have been as opposite as possible to what it is." April 12th. — The design for the amphibious carriage being completed, the work was begun, and it afforded occupation for Bentham a great part of every day, in chalking out upon the floor the form and dimensions of the boat and the disposition and scantlings of its parts. When the carriage was built he described it to his brother as nothing more than a vehicle hung as usual on springs, and when intended for land service suspended on wheels, but the body was of the novel shape of a boat. For water service, easy means were provided for detaching the carriage from the wheels, so that when taken to pieces they might be stowed away in the bottom of the body, serving then as ballast when the vehicle is used as a boat. When it was completed, he set out in it for Perme, where it afforded no small amusement to the inhabitants. Beins: engaged to dine with the Governor, Bentham just before the appointed hour sailed up the river in his amphibious vehicle in full view of the well-filled windows of the Government house; after dinner it presented itself in another form upon wheels and drawn by three horses to the door. It fully answered the purpose for which it was contrived, — rapid .and certain means of conveyance in a MACHINERY FOE WORKING- IN WOOD. 29 country intersected with rivers, but ill provided with bridges. During the construction of the carriage, Mr. Bentham's observation of the slowness with which workers in wood operated, and of the frequent inaccuracy of their work, led him to think that machinery might be substituted with great advantage for manual labour in the fashioning of that material. In consequence of this opinion he considered various means of realising his ideas ; and here it was that the first foundation was laid of his subsequent inventions of machinery. He first caused a working model to be made of a machine which he devised for planing wood. As this model was found to answer its intended purpose, he forthwith had a planing machine made of full size for large works, which did its duty equally well. He after- wards consulted Sir James Harris as to the bringing his invention forward, and whether there were any probability of his deriving some such advantage from it in Eussia as in England might be derived by patent. Sir James counselled him to " look forward to old England for the first recompense of his ingenuity." Eelating this to his brother, Mr. Bentham observes, " this, however, does not prevent my trying some experiments, although it sets me wavering in regard to some of my inventions." During a drive round Nijni Taghil on Sunday the 16th of April a number of fine houses were noticed, indi- cating that the inhabitants were rich and at their ease, the people about all of them lively, smartly dressed, and very clean. In one street a number of girls assembled together were dancing, singing, and running about, while the men were standing round to look at them ; others were playing cricket and other games. In this and other streets several hundreds were so assembled and seemed to enjoy them- selves greatly. A great magazine of flour was kept up by Count Demi- doff when flour was to be purchased at a low price, as 30 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. fourteen copecs a pood, he caused a large quantity to be stored ; and when the price rose to twenty-two copecs, the magazine was opened and the flour sold to the poor at its cost price. Some days were spent in examining the man- ner in which the iron is sent off in barks to St. Peters- burg, and in a letter dated April 14th he says: "You may know, perhaps, that there is no communication whatever by water between the European and Asiatic parts of this country. Mr. Demidoff 's fabrics being on the Asiatic side, he has a wharf on the river Chasavry on the European side. By transporting his iron in winter by sledge roads, he can send it from thence entirely by water to St. Peters- burg. I went to this place to see the loading and setting off of his barges. He sent this year fifty-four of them, each carrying about 7000 poods of iron, about 111 tons English." 18th. — Bentham contrived a machine to be applied to General Bashkin's carriage to show the number of versts it travelled over. To-day he went to the painters. In the same street lived several Baskolniks, who take all their water for washing or drinking, not from rivers, but from wells, of which they use several in the street. Bentham, who in going along saw one of the poles for drawing up buckets fixed at an unusually great height, tried whether much force was required to immerse and then raise the bucket filled with water. He found it was easily effected, but as he looked to see whether the water was clean, an old Baskolnik, imagining the heretic was about to drink, called out to him to wait till he had brought a glass. Bentham was preparing to throw the water back into the well when the old man ran to prevent him. He afterwards learnt that the Raskolniks, besides considering it a sin to drink after a person not of their own religion, even do not drink out of a vessel that has been used by their wives ; and had Bentham thrown the water into the well again, it would have been reconsecrated. RASKOLXIK MARRIAGE RITES. 31 May 5th. — The Prata Pope having sent to say that he was about to marry a couple, Bentham went to the church to witness the ceremony. As the bridegroom had no parent alive, one of the priests stood at his right hand as father, the bride's mother at the left of her daughter. The bride's face was covered with a handkerchief, which was taken off by the mother, as the priest, advancing, put a piece of coarse linen on the ground for the bride and bridegroom to put each of thern one foot upon. The bride stood with the air of a criminal, not daring to raise her eyes from the ground. One of the priests then brought two wax candles to the Prata Pope, who took one of them, and having it in his hand, crossed the bridegroom thrice. The young man then crossed himself, received the candle from the priest, and kissed his hand. A similar ceremony was repeated with the other candle and the bride. The priest read a prayer, after which, turning to the couple he took both their rings, and went behind the altar, another priest reading a prayer the while. At the Prata Pope's return he asked the young couple their names: whether it was from true love they wished to be united, and whether either of them were under promise to another person. These questions having been satisfactorily answered, prayers were again offered up, and incense brought by a priest to incense the images. The Prata Pope then returned the rings to the young couple with the same forms with which he had received them. They change rings, the bride- groom putting his ring upon the bride's finger. A silver cup of wine is then brought to the Prata Pope; — the young couple cross themselves; — the cup is given to them to sip from alternately two or three times, till between them its contents have been sipped up. Two gilt cups with crosses upon them are then brought to the priest which, with the same ceremonies, are put into their hands, which he after- wards joins together. Then taking both their hands so joined, he leads them round the Holy Bible three times, 32 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. singing to them the whole time. A boy reads the duty of a husband to his wife, and of a wife to a husband ; the Pope gives them his blessing and desires them to kiss one another thrice, and thus the ceremony ends. The Prata Pope was invited to dine with Bentham, which he did at half-past twelve o'clock (that, and till one o'clock, being the usual dinner time ; from nine to ten supper ; breakfast at about seven, tea at all times of the day and upon every visit of ceremony or friendship). May 12th. — The Prata Pope dined with Bentham. The conversation turning on the Kaskolniks, the Prata Pope said that, rather less than fifteen years since, when they were obliged by the Russian authorities to change their religion, these Raskolniks used to assemble in numbers of from twenty to thirty, to burn themselves alive — they even burnt and murdered their children. They assem- bled in a house prepared for the occasion, with fire- wood, hemp, pitch, and whatever combustibles could be obtained, in the midst of which they seated themselves. Some, not considering themselves worthy of God's blessing, or fearful of being able to endure the pain, ordered them- selves to be tied ; the pile was then set on fire. The priest said he had received information that a party of thirty had assembled for the purpose of burning themselves, though it is seldom that notice is taken of such self-sacrifices till they are accomplished. On that occasion the Prata Pope, with all his priests, set out for the place indicated, but had the misfortune not to arrive till too late. He saw several dead bodies burnt to ashes ; his clerk took up bones of the dead, and lingered in the smoke till it had such an effect upon him, together with general excitement, that he would not leave the place, saying that he too should be blessed if he burnt himself also. He was influenced to so great a degree, that the Prata Pope was obliged to keep him under strict guard for four days. The Paskolniks (or Kirgakies, as otherwise called) used to put their GENERAL ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 33 children to death in various ways, as by burning, drawing, stifling, &c. Sometimes they burned their bones to ashes, and pounding them very fine, mixed a very little in food and drink. May 17 th. — A small boat was brought to the Factory to be fitted with sails of Bentham's contrivance, which should themselves change their position, and carry the boat on, steering straight, without even a man on board. The weather was so fine as to admit of drinking tea in the open air at the bottom of a hill, and to remain reading and writing till eight o'clock, by the water-side. May 2Mli. — Bentham made an excursion to the Factory of Kushva, distant forty-five versts, not setting out till three in the afternoon. It was eleven at night before he arrived at Kushva. His visit was unexpected, and the Colonel-Commandant had lately died, so that it rested with the Mayor to do the honours of the place. He assigned the Colonel's house as lodging for the travelling party of four persons, with their attendants. The supper was not on table before twelve o'clock, but it was excel- lent in kind, and exquisitely cooked and served. Amongst various other things there was fine fresh butter, Parmesan cheese, a delicious fowl soup, with vegetables, a fat capon, beef steaks — all this at an out-of-the-way place on the Ural Mountains. On the 19th of June Mr. Bentham set out on an excur- sion to Catherinaburg. Notes were taken indicating the return of warm weather by the progress of vegetation and otherwise. The first salad that appeared at table was on the 13th of May. On the 1 9th June the heat was so great, that bed-chamber windows were left open all night ; roses, and other wild flowers were gathered in the woods; snipe was shot on the 20th; and hay-making began on the 12th July. In a letter dated July 11th, Nijni Taghil, speaking of this long excursion of about 2200 versts, he says : " The D 34 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. country I have been riding through is in general very beautiful ; a great part of the way I appeared to be going through an English park. The weather was very fine, the hay perfumed the air, and one can seldom go ten or a dozen miles without seeing a river or rivulet. Birch trees and the several different kinds of firs form a principal part of the roads. The birch -tree is in great abundance, and grows to a large size, but it is a very unprofitable production in this part of the country, though so valuable near Arch- angel. It is the best of the fir-trees for building ships ; but as the woods are used here only to make charcoal for the mines — and this makes the worst of charcoal — it is almost entirely useless. Corn but seldom thoroughly ripens on the ground, so that the cultivation of it is not much followed. It is a good crop that produces tenfold what was sown, whereas in the Government of New Eussia it is said to produce a hundredfold. The puddles were covered with ice for some nights together, near three weeks ago, and the appearance of winter comes on apace." Eavens seem to have abounded, for he sends bundles of quills to his brother, " enough to supply your harpsichord for your lifetime. It is in this country that the happy effects of a reformation in jurisprudence is to be seen daily ; parts of the new code which make their appearance from time to time prove the attention that is still given to this subject. "What think you of a governor who rules over 110,000 people, whose sole object is to avail himself of the power given him only to produce as much happiness as he can ? Such a man it is my good fortune to have formed a friendship with. His name is Lamb ; he says he is English, or rather of Scotch extraction. An ancestor of his was taken into the service of a Czar before Peter the Great; but in short, this is a matter so little interesting compared to his good qualities that I have forgotten it.*' To account for delay in the completion of a machine for 3 COXDI'. N OF WORKMEN IN FACTORIES. 3-5 working wood, he says that it had been retarded by "the six weeks' holidays at this season of the year for the men to make their hay," — an instance of consideration for the workmen in an immense factory rarely to be met with in any country but Eussia. D 2 36 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BE^AM. CHAP. III. Perme — Improvements in Mining Pumps — Cavern near Perme— Collec- tion of Minerals — Arrival at Tobolsk, January 1782 — Introduction to the Anchree — Population of Siberia — State of Crime — Arrival at Krasnojarsch — Mines at Narchinsk — The Chinese Frontier — Kiachta — Visit to the Chinese Governor — Chinese Temples and Images — Fortune- telling — Intercourse between Russians and Chinese. He was present at the ceremony of the first opening, in October 1781, of the new Grovernmen; of Perme, but his chief object at this place was to collect information re- specting the country between that place and the frontier of China, as what he had already seen in Siberia led him to expect much useful addition to his knowledge by under- taking an extensive tour in that country. The greater part of the Government of Perme is the property of the Strogonoffs, and he had much satisfaction in rendering them some little service. They derive a considerable revenue from the salt mines, which they work on their own account, selling the salt at a fixed price to the Crown. On examining the several operations carried on in raising the salt water, and for crystallising the salt from it, Mr. Bentham found room for great improvements. He suggested means of confining the fire-heat to the boilers instead of losing, perhaps, some tenths of it, as also a manner of employing the heat of steam from the composition for warming a supply of the solution. But perhaps the most advantageous improvement that he devised, was an alteration of the pumps for raising the brine from underground. The pipes through which the CAVERN AT PEEME. 37 brine was pumped up were very small, the operation of boring holes to a great depth being laborious and costly, and the expense and difficulty of it increasing considerably in proportion to an increase of their size. The then existing pumps, though kept constantly going, never exhausted the solution, so that Count Strogonoff had determined on a costly work of two or three years' duration in boring more holes. But Mr. Bentham had noticed that the sucking- pumps in use only voided the fluid intermittingly, so that when the piston was raised, the fluid below was at rest during a time equal to that of the descent of the piston. His simple device, therefore, was to have the upper part of the pipe made double, with two pistons working in the two pipes, these terminating in one pipe at the fixed valve. Thus, by causing the pistons to work alternately, the fluid from the lower pipe rose in a perpetual stream. The double pipe, carried down to a depth of forty- nine feet, was in a part where the ground is always opened to a large diameter for other purposes ; it was in the remainder of the total depth of 245 feet that the great saving was effected. During his stay at Perme, he visited a cavern celebrated for its minerals, and relates his exploring adventures as follows : — "In the evening I set out for the cavern, in which I spent two days and a night, as I found when I came out, for all is darkness there, and I happened not to have my watch with me. The entrance to this cavern might well put me in mind of poor Gil Bias' residence. It is true the one I was in was not covered with a trap- door, but the hole was so small that such a precaution would have been unnecessary. Although there was snow on the ground, it was necessary to pull off all but my waistcoat not to run the risk of sticking by the way. Thus prepared we crouched on our stomachs for eight or ten fathoms. We then were able to raise ourselves up on our hands and knees, soon afterwards on our feet in a D 3 38 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. stooping position, and in about a hundred fathoms we came to a spacious vault-like opening : it was, as you may imagine, much warmer than above ground. My com- panions consisted of my interpreter and a servant, with ei^ht or nine peasants, some of whom had been several times, and had penetrated as far as their fears would let them. These gave an account of a lake which they had seen, or rather heard something plunge at their approach ; but no one had ever attempted to pass that lake. The site or rock in which this cavern is formed, consists of calcareous stone of a greenish colour. The water from above, as it filters through into the cavern, forms crystals of various figures ; it is in search of such curiosities that people have, from time to time, been sent here. I went partly with the same views, but more, perhaps, with the expectation of observing something which, in those who had been sent there, might through fear, ignorance, or laziness, have passed unnoticed. We had a provision of a pood, or thirty-six English pounds, of candles with us, so that, supposing they would burn, we were in little danger of wanting light. As our course was up and down pre- cipices, of ten or twenty feet in height, and we had each of us a basket or bottle of provisions of some kind to en- cumber us, we were not very expeditious. The distance to this lake had been magnified to about twelve English miles, but, however, after turning round and round two or three times to the same place, in about four hours we arrived where this lake ought to have been. Xothii , however, but a puddle, a little over one's ankles, appeared, and in a few fathoms we came to the end, which was no more remarkable than any other part ; but by my compass I perceived that in our course we sometimes turned quite round : I cannot conceive the distance to be above three- fourths of a mile. We now began to be hungry and f'.itigued, but found it necessary to return about halt* way before we found a convenient place to spread our table. ADVENTURE IN THE CAVERN. 39 Some fine English cheese, which Sir James Harris had supplied me with at my setting out from St. Petersburg, with some English beer which Baron Shwonoff had ordered to be packed up with a store of other provisions for the occasion, made the most remarkable part of my fare during my subterraneous residence. As nothing was to be had to lie on but stones, in the choice of a bed place the object was to find one stone, or a number of stones nearly in one level, of a sufficient length to stretch our- selves out upon. I had with me a large Spanish cloak, to which I have been under great obligations on such occasions. This I wrapped nearly twice round me, and stretched myself out on one entire stone with a small one, and my great coat upon it for a pillow. The rest did as well as they could ; and after seeing that half a dozen candles were fixed up, besides a little fire made up of bits of wood that had been left at other times, I, no doubt, in a few minutes made the cavern echo with my snoring, and slept very sound for four or five hours ; when at my waking, to my no small astonishment, all was dark- ness. My interpreter, who was just by me at the same time, let me know that the last candle was put out by some water that dropped upon it from above, and that he had just time, before that happened, to observe that all the men were gone away. This was enough to alarm me, as without light we neither of us could move a yard without danger of falling down a precipice of eighteen or twenty feet. It was absolutely in vain to have the least thought of making our way out of the cavern with- out assistance. However, I comforted myself and him with the idea of having provisions within my reach, which would be enough for a week or a fortnight, and that on any supposition whatever, the same, or other men, would come to see what would become of us in that time. We had not, however, the pleasure of making our reflections on tins situation above half an hour when a D 4 40 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHA^I. glimmering light appeared towards the way out. In any country but this (not excepting England) I should have been under some anxiety at seeing a light, from the doubt I should have whether it might be friends or foes who brought it. It proved to be two boys, whose business it had been to look after the horses which were left near the mouth of the cavern, and whom the men had sent to us in their stead. We could learn nothing from these boys as to the reason why the men had left us ; all that they could tell was that they were laid down to sleep on the outside of the cavern by a good fire. Although I was determined not to quit the place till I had explored all the windings in it, yet I thought the most certain way of getting the men back was to go and fetch them. Therefore, loading ourselves with some of the choicest stores we had collected, we made our way out into the open air time enough to find all the men asleep before a large fire. The reasons they gave for leaving us were simple enough : they were too tired to go through another day's fatigue without sleeping, and they could not sleep in so cold a place. You must understand that Russian peasants are used to sleep in a degree of heat which would be very disagreeable to those who were not accustomed to it. They said they had left six candles burning, and had sent the two boys as soon as they could. I stayed half an hour by the fire, and in the mean time divided my company into three detach- ments, for the purpose of taking different courses for the better exploring all the parts of the cave. I cut a great number of small pieces of paper of three different figures, of which each detachment took a different figure, so as that by scattering these pieces of paper in the way, one party might know where the other had been. Thus pre- pared we returned to our subterraneous employment. We were now so well experienced in the scrambling up and down the steep places, that in about seven or eight hours there was not a hole but what some part of the company COLLECTION" OF MINERALS. 41 had been in; after which, collecting together the stones that we had selected from the different parts, we, with no small pains, made our way out with them, and set off on our return. The colour of our clothes, skin, and every thing we had about us, however different they might have been before, were now all alike. After all, in this same cave, I could find no indications of its ever having served for habitation for either man or beast ; nothing alive was to be found but bats or winged mice and gnats. The former were in great plenty ; the latter, which more likely had taken shelter on the approach of winter, were but in small quantities, and these, though they settled on our hands and faces, had not seemingly strength to bite. All then I got for my pains, besides a good collection of calcareous crystallisations and stalactites, such as had already been procured from this cave, was some specimens of one or two sorts, such as I had not seen in the possession of anybody else. Hitherto everybody had been deterred from penetrating to the end of this subterraneous chasm from fear and impatience of fatigue. It was an affair of three days." The making a collection of minerals had become an object of no small importance to him. It now remained to have forwarded to St. Petersburg three or four thousand pounds' weight of cojmer and iron ores, specimens of crystals, (fee, " all chosen specimens, even here on the spot," which were afterwards transmitted to England, and distributed to Lord Shelburne, and other friends. These specimens had been collected in the course of the above-mentioned excur- sions of fourteen or fifteen hundred miles on horseback, during the time that his head-quarters were at Nijni Taghil. At Perme Mr. Bentham received a circular letter, under a flying seal from Prince Viasemsky, Minister of the Civil Department, requesting the commanders of the several districts through which Bentham might pass, to give 42 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. him all the aid in their power for the furtherance of his plans. At the same time an Imperial ukase gave orders that Major SoginofY should accompany Mr. Bentham to the borders of China and other distant places, as he had re- quested. Prince Viasemsky had also suggested by letter to Sir James Harris that Mr. Bentham on his return should pass by Taganrog, by the newly added Eussian provinces, to visit Cherson. The Prince also furnished him with no less than eighteen private letters of recommendation to different governors and other Bussians of rank, to which were added nine from Prince Potemkin, and about seventy others from various friends to different influential persons. "It is now January 1st, 1782, O.S. — I believe my birthday according to your heretical way of counting. If you have not forgotten me to-day at Queen Square Place, and have any sympathy in you, you will begin a letter to me this very evening. I am on my way to Tobolsk." He had dismissed his interpreter at Perme, and was now accompanied by Major SogiuorT, and was attended by a corporal and a grenadier, appointed especially to serve him during the journey. They none of them understood any language but Euss, but by this time Bentham had become master of it. 13f/i January. — Having arrived at Tobolsk at about eight in the morning, he found no news of quarters being- prepared for him. The Governor was ill in bed, and the Place Major escorted him to a cold house, on which Bentham says he "took miff," and ordered fresh horses immediately, as he had sent a letter to the Govern or, giving two days' notice of his arrival. He, however, sent Matrei Ivanovitch to the Governor to know whether the letter had been received. Then came apologies in answer, a pressing invitation to stay a longer time, and saying that the letter had not been forwarded. The Place Major took ARRIVAL AT TOBOLSK. 43 him to a better house and a warmer one; then further invitations to remain longer at Tobolsk were followed by the Governor's chariot and six, with two footmen, also a guard of honour, a serjeant and six soldiers, to learn how and where he would have them placed. He declined them as a guard, but accepted the services of three of them to attend in their turn, one at a time, as sentinel at his door. After dining with the Governor, Bent-ham took his leave, and called at the Ancliree's (Archbishop), with a letter of introduction from General Kashkin. The Anchree came to meet him at the very door, so that he was taken for a do- mestic, and not spoken to till Matrei Ivanovitch kissed his hand. They were presently seated in his apartment, the letter read, and conversation commenced. It turned upon the climate and productions of Eussia compared to England — the Anchree had a hot-house, but could not succeed with fruit — talked of China and the Archimandrite there. " His air and conversation showed him to be quite the simple bonhomme that I had heard he was, without the least eccle- siastical importance. From him went to the Vice-Governor; his wife to all appearance French, though really Euss. Three or four were at cards, one of whom addressed me to let me know it was an English game they were playing. He was a man between forty and fifty ; forty-six as he afterwards said ; very lively in conversation, which he seemed upon some occasions pretty much to engross. The Governor's lady exceedingly sprightly, gay, and pleasing, if not a beaut) 7 . Cards, on my account, were soon at an end, and this man placed himself between the lady and me. He spoke a few words of English, said he had known it, but for these dozen years had lost it for want of practice. It so happened we talked of laws and new government, and I of the clemency of the penal laws in particular, compared to those of other nations, not excepting my own. After taking my leave, I was not a little surprised that this facetious engrosser of 44 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. the conversation was Poushkin, the man banished for forging bank notes." I4:th. — " In the morning inquired about the fabric of lacquered furniture in the Chinese fashion, but found that there is only one man that does it, and that he has not always work ; at present he had none that I could see. So with respect to furs and Chinese commodities, no stock is kept here, the merchants only transport their commodities through the place. "Went to see Volodinenoff, one of the capital merchants; found him in a nasty saloop (a kind of loose dressing- gown). I asked him if the master of the house was at home. He told me he was the master himself. After presenting brandy, tea-kettle and tea apparatus was brought into the room, with bread and butter, cream in a cream-pot, which was set in an empty basin, serving as slop basin, into which boiling water was poured to heat the cream. He showed me some tiger skins, which the Buchanans bring to the borders; he deals also in other furs from Beresofska, where he had been himself; said much of the honesty of the people there; that they suffer any injury to themselves rather than molest a stranger ; that they have no bread ; they do not live in large villages, but dispersed about the banks of those rivers which afford them most fish, and in woods where there are most animals for furs. They give furs in exchange for linen for shirts, coarse cloth, tobacco, &c. "The Governor says the barks made use of are the worst possible for expedition ; they are square at both ends, frequently without even oars — sails are never thought of: this is the reason why water transport by the Irtish is not more used, but if they could be brought to build better vessels, it would be much more expeditious.*' " At the Governor's to dinner, he still in bed. Poushkin was there. We talked of the manner in which Siberia became peopled : lstly. Permission was given to the nobi- POPULATION OF SIBERIA. 45 lity to send any of their peasants there, in consideration of which they were excused from giving the like number of soldiers. 2ndly. By those sent for crimes. This may be considered as an artifice by which the required number of soldiers was kept up. 3rdly. By Easkolniks who came to take shelter from the persecution which they suffered in other parts of the empire. 4thly. Individuals purchased by barter from the Kirgees ; but these are all Calmucks, or at least go under that name, and do not amount to one hundred in a year; according to the reports of last year there were but twenty. 5thly. Eussians, who, even before consent was given by government, used to come hunting, and returned with what they procured, but by degrees settled themselves. Gthly. A colony of Bucharians, about thirty years ago, settled in the town, but they now are mixed in great part with the Eussians. 7thly. Tartars, ancient inhabitants of Siberia, with several other tribes, who scarcely, and but by slow degrees, mix with the Eussians. " Murders there have been none, during the three years that the Governor has been here, and only two attempts at robberies ; one of them was on a merchant, known to have much' money. He was attacked on returning from Irbit fair ; he fired a gun and they ran away : in the other case some merchandise was forcibly taken from a merchant, near Tomsk. In the town of Tobolsk, small robberies now and then happen, but are always discovered, as they are committed only by pilferers, who go immediately to the cabacs to get drunk with the profits of their thefts. They talk of thirty-four and thirty-six degrees of cold (Eeaumur)." " The part of the country called the Baraba desert is not without wood, but it is birch only, and for the most part consisting of old trees, without any appearance of young ones to supply their places. Within 150 versts of Tomsk, the face of the country changes, it becomes hilly 4G LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. about the rivers. The weather warm or scarcely freezing, and the buds on the trees begin to swell. " ^^ T hen we were within two posts of Tomsk, I sent the soldier on with the order from the Governor to the Com- mander, requesting, at the same time, quarters to be pre- pared, and the bath to be heated. The quarters assigned me were at the principal merchant's, where, soon after our arrival, came the Commander, a stout jolly subject, French- man by birth and family, but had been forty-five }^ears in the Eussian service. He eno-ao-ed me to take coffee at his house, and was so urgent in his request that I would dine with him next day that I could not refuse ; notwith- standing my wish to hasten on to Kiachta, sat with him till ten in the evening, after which a soft bed was not unwel- come." " On the 26th arrived at Krasnojarsh." .... Here a chasm occurs in his journal, but he appears to have passed some little time amongst the Bratski, nomades in the Government of Tobolsk, and to have obtained a good deal of information respecting this people. He says : " The Tonjmses and the Bratski have not the least commu- nication or intercourse with each other, their languages are totally different, and their religion also ; although in their manner of living, they so much resemble each other. The Bratski, Mongol, and Don Cossack languages are very nearly the same, as many of the Bratski read and write the Mongol language, which is all the writing they have. Their books are only religious. If they are super- stitious, they are neither fanatics nor intolerant. The principal religious injunctions are very moral, and as they are drawn up, they may be made to give sanction to any salutary injunctions whatever. The number of cattle they keep arises from religious sanction. The head Bratski has about seventy camels, which sell for about thirty roubles a piece ; he has also from six to fifteen horses. The camel's hair is cut off in the spring, and is used to make CUSTOMS OF THE BRATSKI. 47 thread and small string. Camels have young once in two years : they will carry forty pood ; but when loaded with only twenty-five, they will travel with it thirty versts a day." " One particular Bratski, Fedenka, seemed much to wish to go with me ; he is a servant to one of his tribe who serves the post ; he receives as wages ten roubles ; he is eighteen years of age, no wife or much hope of procuring one, as parents do not give their daughters without a good price in cattle, from six or eight to one hundred head of large cattle, camels, horses, ,or oxen. If few have no more than one wife, it is because they are not rich enough to afford more; those who can afford it have two, three, four or five wives. They suffer much from cold and from hunger ; they eat but once a day, and that of their dried meat. We treated them with fresh butter, and different meats I had with me. They devoured the feast with great expressions of joy. They are also very fond of bread, although not accustomed to it. Dirty scrapings flung on the floor they gathered up, and never left what a dog or cat would have eaten. " At about three versts from the village of Nicolai, a view of the sea of Baikal presents itself. It is seen be- tween the mountains where they divide and give an outlet to the Angora; at the same time the prospect between those hills is bounded by the great mountains near 100 versts on the other side of the sea. These mountains are still almost covered with snow, only those prominences the most exposed to the sun being as }^et thawed. We passed by Mcolai wharf to Listvenishna, ten versts further. The road was dirty on account of the late rains, and two or three rivulets, which we drove across, were not furnished with bridges, though . the water came up nearly over the fore wheels. These rivulets, falling with great velocity from the hills on the left, contributed to the forming some delightful spots. The young birch trees and a variety of flowers added to the general luxuriance of the ground, 48 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. giving all between the mountains and the river the appear- ance of those situations most prized in England. " To add to the repast we were preparing for ourselves at Listvenishna, I sent for wild nettles, of which two sorts were brought. The people were surprised that such things were good to eat, but when I had boiled them, the dish was relished by all the company. For myself I thought them little inferior to spinach. " On the way to Narchinsk chance presented an instance of the mechanical ingenuity of a peasant. It was a trap for wild animals, in which the bait was attached to the string of a bow in such manner that the elasticity of the bow was such as to occasion the fall of the trap on the slightest motion of the string. On reaching another fabric we made an excursion of half a dozen versts to a spring of Seltzer water. It is in a pleasant vale, sur- rounded by hills. The spring issues from a hole nearly in the lowest part of the vale. After spreading itself for about twenty yards it runs into the river. At present it is frozen so as not to run, but a hole of a foot diameter is broken through the ice (now six inches thick), and here the water is taken up." 25 th February. — At Narchinsk he found a serjeant waiting at the first guard-house to conduct him to the lodgings which had been for a week prepared for him. They be- longed to the possessor of the only silver mines that were in private hands. On examining plans of the different mines in the vicinity, there appeared a great w T ant of economy in the manner of their exploitation. In the smelting of the lead ore containing silver, he says that, " at the instant the last of the lead is drawn off the silver remains. This is taken out, in general, in lumps; but lest small pieces should remain, which might be pilfered, iron grates are put to the aperture, and a chain passing round them is sealed in the presence of an officer." From thence to the laboratory, where the director was proving a THE CHINESE FRONTIER. 49 mineral which he found to be a rich ore of bismuth ; then to that gentleman's lodgings, which were at the school. He had a small collection of minerals, and the beginning: of a cabinet, intended to be appropriated to the Crown. In this collection specimens of every variety of mine are lodged, with marks affixed, referring to like numbers on the plans of the several mines, showing the parts of them from which each specimen is taken. This cabinet when completed, at the same time that it will exhibit the several varieties which this part of the country affords, will give an excellent description of the component parts of each mine, in as far as it has been worked. Such a description of cabinet cannot but assist a judicious mineralogist in his researches as to new mines, and new manners of working them, as well as in continuing to advantage the working of the present mines." " The river Angora, which forms the boundary to the Chinese frontier, is but ten versts from Narchinsk. The water of the Angora is very good, and deep enough for the largest boats. The country all around, as far as could be seen, exceedingly hilly ; scarcely any wood to be seen ; what little there was, very small, but at the same time the country is fertile in iron." " At 9 in the morning on the following day we set out and alighted at a house, the cleanest and most orderly I had seen in any part of the empire. The owner of it was a criminal who, in Eussia, had been both robber and mur- derer. His wife presently set before us some brunitska berries and white bread. The man had not only become the most orderly possible, but was particularly noted for the good he does." " We reached the Zavod about 7 o'clock in the morning. The Commander, a German about fifty years of age, was an acquaintance and fellow-student of Dr. Solander. He had taken great pains in the chemical department, and they were not fruitless. A species of mineral which the E 50 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. others had been throwing away, not knowing its properties, or suspecting its value, he discovered to be a rich ore of mercury. Narishkin was at that time Commander, and in the name of the Empress gratified him with a reward of 1500 roubles for his discovery. He employed the sum in giving a kind of affluence to his menage until the end of Narishkin's command, when the 1500 roubles were re- quired back from him, on the pretence of Narishkin's having lavished the Crown money. The greatest part of this money had been employed, and much of it irrevocably spent ; therefore half his salary was kept back till this last year, when the whole of the money had been repaid. This same ingenious and industrious man discovered that another mineral, which had withstood the experiments and researches of other chemists, was a rich ore of zinc. For this he had not even been thanked. He seemed to hint that he knew of tin ore in the neighbourhood, but was not disposed to give himself much trouble in researches, having so much reason to regret those he had pursued. He gave me some ore of mercury and several other rare specimens. He has an excellent cabinet of Japanese as well as Eussian minerals. He had also, as well as several others, received promotion in rank from Narishkin, but was reduced as well as all the rest. Whatever crimes that man (Narishkin) had been guilty of, certainly he had in many cases attended to the reward of merit." Mr. Bentham, instead of being stopped at the gate of the suburbs of Kiachta, was met by a soldier, who desired the driver to follow him, "and then conducted us to quarters prepared for me. They were at a merchant's, the best house in the town. As soon as dressed, sent for sledges and drove to the Director's. There was something particularly amiable in the appearance of this gentleman, his lady and family, which consisted of eight children, from sixteen years of age downwards. I knew that I could have admittance to Chinese merchants; but as to the Chinese CHINESE CUSTOMS. 51 Commander, it seemed doubtful as to whether I should have permission to visit him. After refusing pressing in- vitation to stay supper, went out to call on the Com- mandant. He also doubted whether the Sergetsky would permit me to visit him. At my return to my quarters, found the supper I would not eat at the Director's sent here in readiness for me." " The next day, having dressed by 9 o'clock, set out, intending to call on the Director, but met him on his way to my quarters." " A note came from the Commandant, saying that the Sergetsky much wished to have the honour of my visit. This apparent change in his disposition seemed surprising. Immediately after dinner, Matrei Ivanovitch and I drove to Kiachta, and alighted at the Lieutenant's, who is the Commander there. The winter road is on the river Kiachta, and is not more than three versts. After settling the ceremony to be observed, sent to let the Sergetsky know that we were coming. Imagining that more parade would be expected if we went in sledges, than on foot, I proposed that we should walk, the distance not being more than half a verst." The notes of this first interview appear to have been lost ; the next remaining note runs thus : — " As I wished to see the Chinese manner of eating, we went by 11 o'clock to one of the merchants. He had dined, but understanding the purpose of my visit, he prepared a second dinner. This was shortly done, as it consisted of cold dishes, with one exception. This was hashed meat, enclosed in coverings of paste, and boiled — a kind of dumplings, not too large to be taken into the mouth at once. They were served in basins, about a dozen in each of them, one of which was presented to each of the company. Four of us sat crossed-legged to the table. Each person was provided with a saucer, in which was a piece of sugar-candy, and some thick, black, but not ill-tasted vinegar, poured upon it. This served as E 2 52 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. sauce, into which the dumplings were to be dipped when broken in halves, thus to be made two mouthfuls of. Two or three of the other dishes were filled with hashed meat, made into small lumps of different figures. Salt fish formed another dish ; a kind of isinglass another. There were fried batter cakes covered with sugar, but all in very small pieces. Different pickles, in still smaller saucers, were placed between the other dishes. The whole had the appearance of what children in their piny call making a feast, when all is in miniature, and seems more to look at than to eat. " When returned to the Eussian merchant's, came a mes- sage from the Commander, to let me know the Sergetsky was at his house, and to ask if I would take that oppor- tunity of seeing him again. I went immediately.. The Commander left the Sergetsky to come out to the steps to meet me, and as I came into the room the Sergetsky left his sofa to meet me. We shook hands in the Chinese manner with both hands. He had been seated on the sofa, to which a table had been put, the Commander on a chair by the side, according to the Russian custom. The suite were standing. Whether by accident or design I was placed on the sofa with the Sergetsky, but next to the Commander ; so that I was between them. The tea and three glasses of punch, which were successively served, the Commander handed to me first. The Sergetsky seemed the first time piqued at this, and declined accepting. The Commander, however, in the pressing manner of the Rus- sians, took the glass and put it down to him on the table. In conversation, the Sergetsky asked my age ; I did the like by him. Upon his answering forty-four, I observed that by his looks I should have imagined him to be much younger. He replied that possibly that appearance had been in consequence of the healthiness of the part of the country he had long lived in — Canton. This not a little surprised me, as he appeared to be so very ignorant of Euro- CHINESE TEMPLES. 53 pean concerns, notwithstanding the trade that is carried on with England at that place. To assure myself of his veracity I inquired if he corresponded with friends there, and if he did, would he favour me so far as to convey a letter from me to my countrymen, to which he readily assented ; and after some inquiries as to my object in writing, it was settled that my letter should be forwarded, if closed with a flying seal." " When we had drunk the stated number of glasses of punch, he took his leave, got into his two-wheeled cart drawn by one horse, two men leading it, and set off: his attendants were some of them on horseback, others on foot : his saddle-horse was led after the carriage." 66 Kiachta, the general mart for all the commerce carried on by the Russians with China, is, properly speaking, two separate towns — one of them, Kiachta, inhabited by Rus- sians — the other, Naimatchin, by Chinese. Naimatchin has three gates towards Kiachta, three towards China, and one gate on each side of the town. There is not any theatre at Naimatchin. On the site of a former one a new temple has been built : the merchants erected it in thanksgiving for the prosperity of their commerce. The principal figure in this temple is a goddess with a golden face, and other- wise richly mounted ; on her right hand a smaller figure, its hands in a praying position ; on the other side, a girl holding what they said was a cloth, and they added that both figures were servants. The pedestal on which the principal figure's feet rest, as she sits, is supported by two figures. Behind the goddess, and fronting the opposite way, is a rather smaller figure, which is said to be her son : he has a looking-glass at his breast, holds his hands in a praying position, his knees a little bent, and across them a piece of fanza. This, they say, is not according to their religion, but was permitted at the request of a Mogul, the commander of the limits." " Painted on the walls on each side are nine figures, E 3 54 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTIIAM. very much resembling Christian saints: they have all glories round their heads ; some hold beads, shorter indeed than the Catholic rosary, and two books. Above these are some little figures, one of them a man on his knees receiving punishment from a whip. A judge sits to see the exe- cution of the sentence. Near this group is a woman, a sister of their gods. Some of the saints on one side were hideously ugly, meagre, and attenuated ; on the other side a frightfully fat saint ; but all of them had glories." " All the gods look towards their country, excepting the goddess in the new temple, who looks towards the great pagoda, to which it is near and opposite. The principal god in the great temple has eight or ten dresses : the mer- chants, when he assists them, make vows to give him a new coat, and as no one is ever taken off, the new dress is put over the old ones. War instruments are kept on each side the platform leading to the pagoda from the portico." " For fortune-telling there is a vessel about the size of a quart mug full of fortune-telling pieces that have letters on them : any person desirous of learning his future fate takes one of these pieces and searches for a corresponding figure or letter in a book which lies by, and thus ascer- tains his future. This may be done at any time, but is chiefly performed either on the new year's day or on the man's own happy day. The fortune-seeker puts money through holes in the altar into a sealed drawer. By per- mission of the Sergetsky, this drawer is opened by twelve men chosen for the management of the affairs of the temple." " The god of the temple in the G-obirsky desert (which is between this and the great wall) died about five years ago. The great lama was immediately sent to, inquiring whither the soul had passed. The commissioners were informed that it had entered the son of the Mogul who was commander of the lines. This is a boy, at that time not three years old. He was taken immediately to the temple TRAFFIC BETWEEN RUSSIA AND CHINA. 55 to be taught his duty. It is sometimes asked, why teach a god ? The reply is, that the soul, being god, has no need of instruction; but that the body must be instructed. The boy's father must no longer call him son, but worship the child instead of receiving filial duty from him. " In the traffic between the Eussians and the Chinese, the China merchant always comes to the Russian, but only to his shop or dwelling-house, not to the storehouse. The Chinaman asks the Russian if he has such and such mer- chandise ; if so, and if the meeting be at the house, the Russian either accompanies the customer to his shop, or sends some one thither with him to see the goods. The Chinese merchant returns to the house, and over a cup of tea the price of the goods is settled in roubles : next has to be determined what kind of Chinese merchandise is to be received to that amount, and at what price. On this valuation of Chinese articles, not only species is inquired into, but also from whence they came, where fabricated, and every other circumstance influencing value. These preliminaries arranged, the Russian accompanies the Chi- nese home, inspects the goods, and, if according to agree- ment, brings them home with him." " The Chinese do not make use of sledges, but transport their merchandise either on the backs of camels or in two- wheeled carts drawn by oxen. The wheels of these carts do not turn on the axle, but are fitted on to it so that the whole turns together." " There is no interpreter provided by the Russian Crown, nor is there any allowance for such an office. That government allows only the insignificant sum of twenty roubles a year for the payment of spies and other political expenses ; nor is there anything allotted for shows or enter- tainments, excepting 30 vedros a year of common Russ brandy. This allowance is made to the major who com- mands the borders of China ; but as he does not himself E 4 5Q LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. receive the Chinese, he gives six vedros to each of the officers who reside at Kiachta. "The Sergetsky's duty is confined to the police of Naimatchin, and to the commerce between Russia and China. All matters that have reference to the frontiers are in the department of a Mogul styled Commander of the Frontiers. He is the superior in rank everywhere but at Naimatchin." "A few anecdotes were obtained indicative of the policy and manners of the two nations in their intercourse with each other ; amongst them a remarkable one relative to an endeavour on the part of the Russian Commandant of the Frontier to reconcile Russian law with the treaty existing between that country and China. According to the terms of that treaty, in the case of a man of the one nation passing its boundaries and committing robbery or murder, the punishment should be death ; yet, according to the then existing Russian law, capital punishment was abolished. It happened at two different periods, the one three, the other four years ago, that seven Chinese who had been guilty of these crimes were taken, tried by the Chinese, and condemned. Thereupon, the Russian major, fearing that should any Russians be guilty of the same offence the Chinese would require that they should suffer death, gave orders that the punishment of the condemned Chinese should not be required, or at all events that no Russian should witness it. The Chinese, however, to show the exactitude with which they fulfilled the treaty, endeavoured to engage Russians to be present at the execution ; but not being able to effect this, the Chinese commander invited the Russian in command to visit him on the day appointed for the execution. The Russian accepted, but on perceiving the object of the invitation, feigned sudden illness, and endeavoured to get home ; but the Chinese officer, running after him, retained him as it were by force to see the execution." TREATMENT OF CONVICTS. 57 CHAP. IV. Condition and Treatment of Exiles in Siberia — He descends the Angora from Irkutsk — Letter to his Brother Jeremy Bentham — Fanaticism of Russian Peasants — Appeal on the Murder of a Tonguse — Slave Trade of the Kirgees — Fertility of Siberia — He visits Nijni Novgorod — Returns to St. Petersburg, and presents a Report to the Empress — Declines Lord Shelburne's Offer of a Commissionership of the Navy — Sir James Harris leaves Bentham as Charge d' Affaires at St. Peters- burg — He is appointed a " Conseiller de la Cour," and entrusted with the Works of the Fontanha Caual — Engagement with the Niece of Prince Galitzm — Letter of Sir James Harris — The Engagement finally broken off — He is appointed Lieutenant-Colonel in the Russian Army, with the Command of the Southern part of the Country. On Bentham's return from Kiachta, he interested himself warmly in the fate of culprits exiled to Siberia. He observed: "I have had an advantage which could be obtained at this period only. I have had opportunities of witnessing the injustice which was habitual under the former mode of government, and at the same time the impossibility of committing it under the new. I have been in districts at the time when the old form still re- mained in sufficient force to judge of its effects, and I have witnessed the advantages of the new form in places where it has been introduced. I have seen proofs of the very mistaken notions that are entertained of the treatment to which exiles are subjected in Siberia. I passed through several villages in my way from Kiachta to Barnaval, which were inhabited entirely by exiles from different parts of Russia, and who had received the knout. There were no guards, nor any other people within the distance of 5S LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. perhaps a hundred versts. These exiles cultivate their land, and enrich themselves in a manner they never would have done in Kussia. The idea of fear never entered my head when amongst them. On setting out from St. Peters- burg I had thought it necessary to provide pistols and other arms, but I had never used, seen, or even inquired about them since I entered Siberia. Some of the men employed in the mines do, it is true, occasionally run away, and have in that case no other means of subsistence but that of pilfering in the villages they pass through in the course they take for escape ; but as this happens in summer only, they are generally taken before winter sets in. The punishment for such escape was formerly severe, and sure to be inflicted : this made them resolute in self- defence, and consequently blood was frequently shed on both sides ; but of late years, by making the punishment for simple desertion light, though still heavy in the case of violence committed, these runagates almost always return of themselves in the course of a few days." " The number of working days in the year is 270, but those who labour at the furnaces are allowed every third week as holiday. For some descriptions of work in which free people are employed, the pay given for it amounts only to twenty, eighteen, and even so little as fifteen roubles a year." In a letter to his brother, Bentham says : " I am now descending the Angora from Irkutsk to Jeneseisk in a bark in which merchants are transporting their goods from Kiachta to different parts of Russia. You never in your days beheld such a romantic scene as I have at present before my eyes : mountainous rocks descending into a broad and rapid river, and forming in it little islands, exhi- biting to the imagination the ruins of castles and towns of various figures. Farther on delightful meadow ground, with clumps of birch trees, bounded by a thick, deep green wood. A straggling village, with a white church, LETTER TO HIS BROTHER. 69 that has a gilded cross on it ; not a cloud to be seen ; and to complete the whole, a peasant on the shore, while his cattle are drinking at the river, sits on a willow stump and entertains us as we pass with a charming lively pastoral air on a Scotch bagpipe. I regret the swiftness with which we glide along out of hearing of these pastoral notes." To his Brothei" Jeremy Bentham. " Tobolsk, August 28th, 1782, O.S. "At Omsk fortress, on the frontiers of the empire, towards the Kirgisian territories, I learnt, by the Russian Gazette, of Rodney's success in the West Indies. The post, arrived to-day, brings the disagreeable news of the critical situation of Lord Howe, who, with only twenty-two sail of the hue, seems liable to be exposed to and even determined to engage the fleet of the enemy, amounting to forty sail. The same papers give some little hope that our fleet may be reinforced to thirty-five sail ; if so (as according to my calculation 35 + Lord Howe's abilities = 40), we shall be a match for them. Such very interesting public news, together with the circumstance of my not having received a single letter from England of a date later than October last, makes me anxious to an extreme degree to reach Petersburg, and almost incapable of supporting the least delay in my journey. The opening the new mode of jurisdiction in this government takes place here the day after to-morrow, and though this is what I wished much to be present at, and had pro- mised to stay for, yet upon the receipt of this last news I lost all patience. I went directly to the Governor-General for the purpose of taking leave. Nothing, however, would he hear about taking leave ; vowed he would not let me have post horses till the day after to-morrow, and in short Avill not permit me to set off before that time. In the mean time 'tis true I shall rest myself a little, which upon the whole may not be time lost. From Barnaval here I have not slept but in the carriage, and as the roads are bad at this time of year my sleep could not be very sound. From hence to Petersburg I shall not be disposed to give a single hour to rest. This letter goes by courier who sets off directly, yet I hope to be 60 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. at Petersburg a few days after him, notwithstanding the prefer- ence on the road with which couriers are served. " How vexatious it is that I cannot know a syllable of what you are about now ; at such a time as this you must certainly be other- wise employed than in pursuance of your former works. The re- inforcements for Lord Howe not being ready makes me, as it were, ready to jump out of my skin. Were I in authority I should, I believe, never sleep but in my way from one dockyard to another ; Messieurs the commissioners of the navy and dock- yard officers should have no more rest than I have now on my journey; the fear of such a whip before their eyes as one of my grenadiers puts life into when my postilions are lazy, would make these gentlemen a little more alert — a little Russian discipline would work wonderful changes in such lukewarm dispositions. The master shipwright himself, if he had nothing better to do, should blister his hands in setting an example to the workmen. Not one bit of ornament, or of accommodation for an officer should occasion a moment's delay. Is it possible that carved work and mouldings, planings and polishings, should, at such a time as this,, make part of the employment of dockyard workmen, whose labour is of so great moment ? Is an hour in the day, that is half a day in the week, still spent in the cutting up and secreting of chips ? Is it by such lying reports as are sent up that the Lords of the Admiralty as well as the Navy Board, and whomso- ever else it may concern, that the progress of works in the dock yards is still judged of? They would get better information from the newspapers." It will subsequently be seen that at a much later period, when Mr. Bentham engaged himself in the British service as Inspector-Greneral of Naval Works, he did effect the cessation of many abuses, that of chips amongst others ; but that instead of the application of the whip as thus play- fully threatened, all of his official communications exhibited that it was not men but the system of management that was at fault, and that it was the imperfection of accounts that gave rise to and fostered lying reports. Notes of the ceremony on introducing the new jurispru- TOXGUSE SOCIETY. 61 dence have not been found, but it appears that he collected a considerable mass of information as to facts illustrating the eccentricities no less than the general habits and opinions of the people. As an instance of the excesses to which mistaken religious enthusiasm sometimes leads, he noted particulars that had actually occurred about the month of May of this year, 1782 : " A common servant in the neighbourhood of Tobolsk, a man of a sect dissenting; from the established religion, happened, in reading the Holy Bible, to see that the end of the world was foretold to be near at hand. Struck with the importance of this pro- phecy, and considering it in some measure as a discovery of his own, and himself as it were the author, he became heated with a sort of sacred fire, and, conceiving that the discovery reflected importance on himself, he set about making his fanatic brethren proselytes to his opinions, and soon found many to embrace them. Preparations for this great event was now the business to which all else must give way. The Eucharist was administered, and the most severe fastings imposed. When the imagination of these visionaries was worked up to a certain height their frenzy rendered them impatient for the coming of the happy day, for which they were so preparing; three of them were already stoned to death, a woman and two children ; the rest, to the number of fifty, assembled at a lake, fathers, mothers, and children, and plunged themselves into it. The enthusiast, after plunging a child of his own, on its struggling to get out, rendered ineffectual its endeavours to save itself, and held it under water." " This man, however, enjoyed too great satisfaction in the sensation of his own importance to thus put an end to his own life, and so prevent him from making more prose- lytes; but the Government getting notice of his proceedings secured him, and he is now in chains awaiting his trial." An extraordinary case of appeal to the Grovernor- Greneral had been made in the case of a Tonguse who had 62 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. been killed in pity to his suffering state : " This man had lost his senses, and though in this condition, so long as he did no harm, he was allowed to follow his whimsies, and was supplied with necessaries by the community. At length, however, his madness took a mischievous turn, so as no longer to be bearable by his companions. They assembled together, therefore, to consult as to what should be done with him : the general decision was that, as he had become unhappy in himself and burthensome to others, he should be killed ! This judgment was accordingly carried into execution. The Tonguse, though a people living solely by hunting, and in a part of Asia 3000 versts northward of this place, are tributary to the crown of Russia, and are obliged to report deaths to the nearest seat of Government. The family of this man reported how they had put him to death themselves, and for what reasons. The tribunal to which the report came, knowing that according to the Russian law these people would be prose- cuted as murderers, appealed to the Governor-General for directions as to how they were to proceed in this extra- ordinary case. The Governor- General's answer was that 'as their motive had been compassion for the unhappy being, attention must be paid to their peculiar way of thinking, and therefore that in this case the letter of the law must be waived ! ' Many are the occasions on which a Governor-General in this land of various tribes is called upon to exercise his judgment and his humanity in the fulfilment of the difficult charge imposed upon him, and for the due execution of which he is individually responsible to his sovereign." " One source of increase to the population of Siberia arises from the depredations of the Kirgees : they seize people of every description who foil into their hands, con- sider their captives as lawful' property, and when they have no occasion for their services, change them away like other merchandise with Russian merchants ; merchants nut being SALE OF SLATES. 63 noble, cannot generally possess slaves, but to encourage this mode of acquiring subjects, the empress accords to merchants the privilege of purchasing and possessing as slaves people that they buy from the Kirgees. The heir of a merchant cannot inherit serfs, consequently at the death of the purchaser his slaves become free, and thus a number of additional subjects are obtained every year. These being the only kind of slaves a merchant can possess, competition enhances the price of the commodity ; a boy of ten years old will sell even up to 200 roubles. General Kashkin has a boy of seven, and a girl of four, which a merchant let him have at prime cost, 110 roubles for the boy, 50 for the girl. Sometimes the Kirgees, tempted by merchandise of which they are in want, will give their own children in exchange for it." " In the course of travels over such an extent of country, so circumstanced as is Russian Siberia, any unprejudiced foreigner would of course perceive many instances where the management of it might be amended. Thus the policy seems doubtful of entrusting the eastern confines of it to the protection of the Bratski, a people so little attached to Russia, or to any other country. It would seem that, were Government better acquainted than they are with details as to the habits of the different people in Siberia, with the capabilities of the country, with its actual cultivation and its commerce, a great increase of individual comfort to the inhabitants might result, at the same time that the revenues of the crown might be greatly augmented. It occurred to me that such information might be afforded in the most simple manner by means of charts and tabular printed forms. A chart, for instance, exhibiting the state of cultivation, and the population of the different provinces of the Russian empire, at the period of the close of the reign of Peter the Great ; another at that of Elizabeth ; and so at the conclusion of successive reigns down to the latest period. Were such charts to accompany the history G4 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. of the empire, they would give a much more striking and exact account of what improvements had taken place in these respects under each reign than can be obtained by words." " It is in this country that human nature may be seen in its greatest varieties, and where the most ample field for its study is afforded. There is an assemblage of tribes of various religions, several of which are intolerant in their belief; yet all these people are politically united under one Government, of which they all agree to be peaceable members." " Siberia has been thought capable of producing only a small pittance of corn, and that by infinite labour ; on the contrary, the peasants, who, in this country, are far more indolent than in other parts of the Kussian empire, without ever dreaming of bestowing manure on their ground, live for the most part in abundance. Were a sea communication formed from the mouths of the Siberian rivers, exportation of corn would be carried to a great extent. One reason why Russians have so long remained ignorant of the state of Siberia, may be that officers sent to it have been interested in representing it as unfruitful, in order to account for the high prices they gave it to be understood must be paid for necessaries. Having come to the country before the whole of it was under the new jurisdiction, I myself have known 1000/. English to have been sent to the meeting at where a person was sent to examine into abuses. This sum was as a conditional fee upon his resolving to see all as it should be. In the former mode it is impossible but that means the most inhuman conceivable should sometimes have been employed for the extortion of money by those in power ; but such practices are now effectually at an end. True, a degree of favour and countenance from those in power may now, in fault of other recommendations, be to be gained by small presents. And where is it not ? " On the 3rd September he arrived at Catherinaburg, RETURN TO ST. PETERSBURG. 65 visiting in his way manufactories as well as mines, pursu- ing his route towards St. Petersburg by Kazan to Nijni Novgorod, where he remained ten days. His halt at Ivan Volesta was at the same house where Peter the Great had dined. The monarch had come into it as a boor, sat down and eat with boors, and it was not till after dinner, when his people came in, that those in the house knew him to be their sovereign. He had worked here himself as a carpenter. " I had observed the good workman- ship of the vessels built here, as well as their being of the Dutch fashion : certainly it was Peter who had given them this model, and had engaged them farther to give much attention to the workmanship. At the pressing solicitation of the people here, I ate some bread and salt with them." In a letter to his brother, never completed, written at Nijni Novgorod, he says, — "I have been here now 'tis true a week, but it is with the utmost difficulty I have been able to take time to write, and more than once have been nearly taking resolution to quit the place in despair of writing to you in it. Various have been the obstructions ; for the most part over-pressing invitations of people bring- ing me out in the morning to see one thing or another. After dinner one day, a ball, another, a masquerade, and as the Governor gives these entertainments on my account, it was impossible not to stay them out. This made two late mornings. All the world paid me their visits, three or four of them at least I could not but return. Another plague is that melons and water melons are in great abun- dance, and finding that I was fond of them, I am crammed with them morning, noon, and night : five times I ate of them yesterday. Worst of all is that I am lodged at the house of a prattling, troublesome, civil, old woman, who has a pretty, good-natured daughter, who, unluckily for me, takes it into her head, notwithstanding all I say to the con- trary, that it must be irksome for me to sit at home by myself, and thrusts herself and a little officer upon me." F 66 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. By way of Novgorod and Moscow he returned to St. Petersburg, where he arrived on the 9th October, 1782. From the above it appears that he had reached Kiachta as early as February 1782, the utmost extent of his travels at this time, Kiachta being the frontier town in Siberia, where all the Chinese commerce with Eussia is transacted. It may here be mentioned that the Chinese authorities allowed him to enter their territory, received him and communicated with him amicably, and with a good deal of liberality of sentiment and manner. They also made him many small presents of teas and silks, which he afterwards sent to his father and stepmother in England. Altogether there was not evinced at Kiachta that jealousy of other nations which was observed by the Chinese in other fron- tiers of their dominions. During this excursion he visited nearly the whole of the mines in Siberia that he had not already explored, collect- ing specimens, with a view to their economical as well as geological importance. Amongst the copper ores, especially, were several varieties previously unknown, with others of great value, such as transparent crystals of copper, ma- lachites, and powerful natural magnets. Nor was he negligent of other branches of natural history. He sent a collection of seeds to Sir Joseph Banks, amongst which were several species that were new. From a lake in the neighbourhood of Irkutsk, he sent specimens of the alkali which it deposits, and which promised to be of value as an article of commerce. Prince Potemkin had great estates in the south of Eussia, and many concerns connected with traffic, chiefly about the Black Sea. He farmed the duties on many articles, built ships for the Crown, supplied the army and the Crown with almost all necessaries required in that part of the empire ; he had manufactories of various kinds, and was then clearing the waterfalls of the Dnieper at his oayii expense. The Prince expressed an ardent wish, before Mr. KEPOET TO THE EMPRESS. 67 Bentham set out on his Siberian excursion, that he would render assistance in the improvement of those concerns. Bentham declined any such engagement, as also others that had been pressed upon him by the Demidoffs and the Strogonoffs, " because," as he wrote to his brother, " such an employment in this country would not be sufficient for me — a man who is not in service under the Crown, however rich he may be, is but little respected." He had, however, promised that, on his return towards St. Petersburg, he would visit the Prince's estates, and did so in a manner which now enabled him to be of use when consulted by His Highness respecting those possessions, as also concerning marine matters in the Black Sea. On Mr. Bentham's return to St. Petersburg, Prince Potemkin undertook to present a paper prepared for the Empress, and contrary to his usual well-known dilatori- ness actually gave it to Her Majesty the day after he had received it. In this paper he stated that his " long stay in the Grovernment of Perme, had afforded opportunity of observing such defects of the system of operations in use there, especially in the mines and salt works, that he could no longer suffer himself to regard them with the eye of simple curiosity ; that it was impossible for him to perceive imperfections in matters of such importance, without em- ploying his thoughts in search of the means of remedying them ; that the table annexed exhibited the methods which appeared to him the best adapted to the operations carried on, and that those suggestions were in part the re- sult of his researches, some of them inventions of his own, some of them belonging to the department of mechanics, others to that of chemistry." The Empress approved of this paper, and desired the Prince to obtain further details of the proposed improvements. Princess Dashkoff, also in January 1783, presented to the Empress a chart which he had invented ; it was con- trived to exhibit, at one view, the absolute and compara- F 2 68 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. live state of the population of the whole, or of any part of the empire. te A little thing," he says on mentioning it, " too simple to have much merit." The Empress, however, ordered a chart of one of her provinces to be made on that plan. The details of Mr. Bentham's proposed improvements in the mines were speedily delivered to the Prince, who with his habitual dilatoriness for some time neglected to present them to Her Majesty, although she had thrice asked for them. This delay prevented Mr. Bentham from obtaining a private audience till the month of March. Her Majesty then expressed herself as obliged by his communications, and permitted him for the future to state through the Princess DashkofY whatever ideas of improvement he might entertain in regard to those parts of the empire with which he was acquainted. This was peculiarly agreeable on account of the intimacy and friendship already existing between him and the Princess, as also with her son Prince Dashkoff. Lord Shelburne having become a member of the Ad- ministration in England, now offered Mr. Bentham a com- missionership of the navy. But his prospects in Kussia were of a nature which induced him to decline the ap- pointment ; although in a letter to his father giving the reasons which influenced him, he says : " A strong attach- ment to my country in general, a kind of patriotism — arising from a comparison between that and every other country I have seen — a longing desire to return to those so entirely separated from me, and apart from whom I could never long be happy — would not permit me to engage in any plan here without very striking advantages." His brother at this time had intimated his intention of sending to St. Petersburg certain projects in law reform, from which Samuel dissuaded him on the ground that the heads of the law departments would think it a shame for them with their experience to be beholden to a RESIDENCE AT ST. PETERSBURG. 69 foreigner for improvements in the details in their business. " Different, however," said he, " was the conduct of Count OrlofT when the Empress gave him public thanks for his services in destroying the Turkish fleet. ' I,' says the Count, taking our countryman by the hand, 'had the sincerest desire possible to serve your Majesty and my country, but it is to Admiral Grreig's advice and abilities your Majesty is indebted.' Had I been present at such a speech my sensibility to the generous confession of the Count would even have scarcely let me perceive the merit of the Admiral, to which the words of the Count were intended entirely to direct attention. This expression which, from the character of the Count, seems to have come from his heart, could not certainly, from a man in his circumstances, but gain the hearts of his hearers. But enough of this digression, and of sermonising from your younger brother." A variety of plans were in agitation for fixing him in the Russian service, when, on the 30th May, after a dinner to which Bentham had been particularly invited, Sir James Harris took him aside, and proposed that he should take charge of the diplomatic business from the time of his (Sir James's) departure till the arrival of the new Ambassador, — in short, that Mr. Bentham should become Charge d' Affaires. Sir James had the complaisance to put acceptance on the footing of an obligation to himself, saying that thereby he should be enabled to leave Petersburg earlier than he otherwise could do. Such an honourable post was not to be refused, and Sir James wrote the same day to Mr. Fox, acquainting him with the appointment. In June Mr. Bentham offered, by letter, to inspect the introduction of the improvements which he had suggested. Her Majesty on reading it immediately expressed, in an- swer, her desire to engage him in her service, and gave him liberty to choose the place of his intended operations, intimating at the same time that he should himself pro- F 3 70 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. pose the terms and manner of engagement. The im- portance of the mines in Siberia led his wishes to that country, but this was over-ruled by the preference which the Empress entertained for the improvement of those at Olmutz. Still the appointment seemed to linger, and he found that this delay was occasioned by his having ac- cepted the appointment of Charge d'Affaires ; on learning, therefore, that Sir James's successor was shortly to arrive, Mr. Bentham gave up the post. It happened, however, that circumstances bordering on romance, with which the Empress was acquainted, deter- mined her to fix Mr. Bentham for a time at St. Peters- burg, and appointed him a " Conseiller de la Cour," with the civil rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. The works of the Fontanha Canal were given him in charge. In the course of their execution he invented a new pile-driving machine, such as would put an end to the habitual skulking of the labourers, and by which at the same time the whole weight of the men would act beneficially instead of only em- ploying their muscular force. The machine was a kind of ladder which yielded downwards on every step that the men took, on the same principle as that of the walking wheel ; but the kind of ladder which he devised was much less cumbersome than the wheel, and therefore more easily moved from place to place as the work of piling advanced. During the summer he wrote either to his father or to his brother many particulars which he had not had leisure to note during his travels, among others his ob- servations respecting the descent of bodies floating down a river with the stream, the larger body always arriving at its destination sooner than the smaller one, when both started on their descent at the same time. A practical use was habitually made of this fact by the managers of the works at Nijni Taghil, who always despatched their small boats some time before the large ones, in order that all might simultaneously arrive at Tobolsk. Mr. Bentham LETTER FROM SIR JAMES HARRIS. 71 gave the rationale of this; but the chief subject of his letters at this time was that which caused the indecision manifested in the transactions of this year. A matrimonial alliance was in agitation with a niece of the Grand Chamberlain, Prince Gralitzin, at whose house he made acquaintance with the young lady, and where he met her twice a week. The match was universally favoured by the society of St Petersburg, the lady's mother only being averse to it. The Empress herself took part in the affair, even to the extent of recommending a private marriage. The mother, however, her daughter being a rich heiress and regarded as the principal person of the family, could not consent to bestow her on a foreigner, though she fully admitted that there could be no personal objection, so that after months of anxiety the match was broken off. The following letter from Sir James Harris to Mr. Bent- ham's father bears flattering testimony to the young man's honourable conduct in this romance : — " Petersburg, May 21st, 1783. " Sir, — I have had too much pleasure in your son's company, ind have too much good to say of him, to make any apology ne- cessary for addressing myself abruptly to his father, when I have no other motive for so doing than to bear testimony that the whole of hs conduct here has been such as does him the highest honour and 'redit, and such as must give pleasure to those who, like yourslf ? are connected with him by consanguinity, or like me by reg r d and esteem. 1 I k«ow he has lately informed you of the probability of his entering' n to a very desirable and lucrative matrimonial alliance here — h.i\ it taken place it would have been so ; and had your son enrpload the arts of seduction rather than have acted a fair and uprigh Dar t 5 it probably might have succeeded — but he very laudably pr erred the better method, and though the match has failed, he ha re ceived universal approbation for his behaviour, and even the s teem of those who rejected his connection. He has now turnt hi s thoughts another way, and is, I hope, likely to enter into a >y advantageous agreement with the Strogonoff V 4 72 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. family, for the working of their mines in Siberia, for which, as they are men of strictest honour and integrity, he is likely to derive very considerable emolument. In whatever undertaking he engages, he will, I am sure, be no discredit to his country, and you need never be apprehensive of his doing wrong. Common justice alone would induce me to say thus much, and as I am sure it will give you pleasure to hear it, I end as I began, without any apology. " I am, Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, "James Harris." From this time he was naturally led to wish for em- ployment away from St. Petersburg, and the Empress on her part was desirous of engaging him in improvements relative to the mines of the Crown. He was in high favour with most of the persons who had influence at Court. In a letter from Csarskoe Zelo, 27th July, 1783, he says, " I dined with General Landskoy, as I had done before, when I came here, and his civilities and attentions to me seem still to increase ; every mark of attention he showed me while I was looked upon as a stranger I put all to that account ; but the manner he treats me now that I am entering the service is really flattering. What I learn by it is that I enjoy the Empress's good opinion." Th^ place General Landskoy held in her Majesty's good graces is well known. In continuation, Mr. Bentham adds' — " Mme. Sherbinin who, you will please to remember he-ice- forward, is Princess DashkofY 's daughter, is translatiig? or rather has been attempting to translate, into Englisrsome Essays on the history of this country, which are nc/ pub- lishing, little by little, in a kind of monthly irigazine printed at the Academy in Russian language. Tese said essays, you are to know, are written by the Emress her- self, and she still from time to time works harrovide against. The interest you seemed to take in those ideas of mine, and the severe injunction you laid me under respecting them, increased my hopes with respect to certain important effects which may one day or other be expected from them, and thereby induced me to address myself to you now on a subject bearing some relation to those ideas. Were I to address myself directly to Lord Spencer I might appear, not without reason, to expose myself to the imputation of meddling with matters beyond my province. " The case is simply this: I feel myself persuaded that I shall, in the course of a short time, be able to make it appear most clearly and decidedly to Lord Spencer, and to every other zealous and intelligent well-wisher to his Majesty's service, that the accounts and mode of management with respect to the expendi- ture will require to undergo certain alterations. " Before you accuse me of the rao;e of fancy in sr nobody knows anything but myself, you will have the charity to consider in what respects, and to what a degree, my situation differs from that of anybody else. Having all sources of information laid open to me, and leisure for the investigation of the reasons on which any given practice can be supposed to be founded, I have nothing to do but to suggest improvements ; and to a man in my situation, common sense must be wanting if he had not improve- ments to suggest. 172 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. " In excuse for my troubling you with such a letter, let me once more observe that your Ladyship is the only person to whom I dare address myself on such a subject." It has been seen that the Insnector-Greneral had com- municated instances to Lord Spencer of enormous waste of timber by extravagant conversion — that he had exhibited to the Committee on Finance a variety of cases in which want of economy was habitual in the dockyards. Lord Spencer, though at the first moment he felt that exposure of such bad management might occasion dissensions with the Navy Board, yet was himself perfectly convinced of the need for reform — a "radical reform," as he himself expressed it in a letter to the Inspector-Greneral. In a few days after the first excitement caused by the Inspector- G-eneral's report to the Committee on Finance, his Lord- ship often discussed generally the means by which reform might be effected, and not long afterwards directed him to devote himself exclusively to this business — an in- junction which could not however be complied with lite- rally, while he had also to prosecute the vast engineering works which he had suggested, to introduce machinery, besides the ordinary duties of reporting on all proposal* referred to him, and to attend more or less even to trifling details in the architectural and mechanical departments of his office, under the ever present sense of his individual responsibility. The works which he had proposed were no small calls upon his time and attention, even after they were ordered, since the dockyard officers, so far from forward- ing them with good will, threw numberless petty obsta- cles in the way of their execution. Lord Spencer, well aware of this, and also of the impediments to the speedy and economical refit of vessels of war coming into Ports- mouth for repair, had determined on the first occasion of a vacancy to appoint Mr. Henry Peake to the important post of principal shipwright officer in that yard; but the Navy Board circulated a report that the consequent LETTER FROM LADY SPEXCER. 173 appointment and change of officers in the several yards would not be according to their wishes. The Inspector- General, feeling generally how greatly the service would thus suffer, being then at Portsmouth, wrote to Lady Spencer in a doleful strain. Her Ladyship's answer does honour to her lord and to herself, no less than to General Bentham. To his letter, 11th July 1799, she replied: " Wimbledon, 13th July 1799. " I am much mortified to find that all my persevering, hearty, eloquent scolds, have been entirely thrown away upon you, — and that you are as bad as ever, fretting, plaguing, worrying yourself to death, about what ? — about nothing. You are incor- rigible, I fear, and therefore I will not lecture you any more — rather a fortunate resolution for me to have adopted just now in your favour, — since I am here, perfectly idle, having nothing to call me away, and having plenty of paper, pens, and ink to make use of — had I not resolved not to scold, how all these circum- stances would have acted against you ! "I don't know which is the worst, — you, or your man Peake, — not an ounce of patience falls to either of your shares — but what vou want in this quality, you make up in a superabundant quantity of imagination, and you create bugbears of every kind with a fertility truly surprising. All this long circumstantial detail of dockyard arrangements is an instance in point ; — not one word of it is founded in fact, but is a mess of your own cook- ing, for the sole purpose of disturbing your own peace and tranquillity, and of calling one away from Italy and the Mediter- ranean, where I am all day long fighting by land and sea, and gaining incredible victories. When I am so well employed, vou really have done harm by calling me away to settle such pitiful and inferior business as the broils of a dockyard are in comparison. All that you wish will happen in due time, if (and mind, I am serious) you will permit it to be put into execution, — but if you begin to work, and to set people on their guard, you will render the accomplishment of your wishes an impossible task to him who is firmly resolved, if you'll let him, to do all you want. Now, be quiet, and don't let Peake, or allow yourself to, open your lips on this subject from henceforward, and everything will be right, not else. — Adieu." 174 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. This letter was gratefully thus acknowledged on the loth: " Many, many thanks for your consolatory scoldings — but with respect to the quantity of patience you are pleased to prescribe, there was certainly a little slip of the pen — for ounce you meant Tox. " At such a time as this, I envy you exceedingly your occupa- tion of fighting over your battles in the Mediterranean and else- where. I think you have some obligation to us Russians. " Unluckily for me, it was in that country I got the habit of thinking all things possible — for I am apt to forget that this can only be true where there is power to persevere. " I am at the fortieth page of a letter calculated to be more than usually interesting to the Navy Board." In framing a new system of management for the dock- yards, he felt it to be but an act of justice, no less than of humanity, towards the workmen, to keep constantly in view and provide for their well-being, in as far as was not incompatible with the interest of the public. If by taking away their chips, the means were withdrawn from them of constructing cheap houses and furniture, it seemed requisite that a reasonable compensation for them should be granted. On the other hand, some practices on the part of Grovernment diminished their nominal emoluments without corresponding benefit to the public ; such, for instance, as delaying the pay of working men till the end of three months. Hence the workmen were forced to have recourse to money lenders, giving them as security a power to draw their pay at the quarter's end. The loss to the men was not confined to the interest in money re- quired by the " dealers," as the lenders were called, but the loss was greatly increased when the loan was furnished in goods instead of cash ; a lot of shoes, or of bread, — the shoes not fitting either the man or any of his family, and my more than were required for their wear, — the new bread, besides its superabundance, becoming stale and REFORMS IN NAVAL MANAGEMENT. 175 mouldy if kept, so that the poor dockyard people some- times were thus receiving little more in value to them than perhaps half their pay. The details of information on this and many other points which the Inspector-Oreneral considered essential to ascertain before he could venture to suggest a change, occasioned much delay in drawing up new regulations ; but early in the year 1800, after two years of patient labour, he had made up his mind as to the general principles on which they should be founded, and had made great progress in the details of the system which he had to propose. The general principles on which he grounded his new regulations were — 1st. Individual responsibility throughout all the sub- ordinate departments. 2nd. Choice of subordinates left as much as possible to the superior of each branch of business. 3rd. Total separation of the controlling or accountant from the operative duties. 4th. Employment of each individual to be registered. 5th. Immediate transmission to the Navy Board of the minutes of all transactions which are to form the data on which bills are to be made out or wages paid. 6th. Z7)icertainty as to what particular man would be the witness employed as a check on certain transactions, namely, all those in which personal interest can be sup- posed to stand in opposition to duty. The Admiralty the authority that is to order every- thing-. The superior operative officer at each port the instru- ment by which everything is to be done. The Commissioner of a dockyard the eye by which the superior Board is to see whether things be done well or ill. The Navy Board the check upon all expenditure. The Clerk of the Cheque their instrument by whom they are to 176 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. be informed of all expenses incurred, and to be assured of the reality of appropriation to use of goods or money. These principles were widely different from those on which the business of the dockyards was. then, or indeed is still, conducted. There was not then, nor is there now, any one individual really responsible for any transaction, operative or accountant. The superior of a dock}-ard had no choice amongst his subordinate officers as to whom he should assign any specific duty. The minutes of all trans- actions remained in the dockyards, to be concocted so as to exhibit a fair face, before accounts of them were trans- mitted to the Navy Board. There was no register show- ing how each man was employed. The clerks emplo}^ed as witnesses of transactions, such as the musters of the men, were always one and the same for each transaction of the same nature. The above short statement of principles indicates that a future great change of the Navy Board was projected, particularly that it should be no longer implicated in the direction of works, so that they might neither feel, nor be supposed to feel, a bias in favour of any particular opera- tion, but become really free and impartial investigators of that important branch of service (the accountant), including the exposition of the means by which any effect had been produced, and a comparison of the cost at which any given effect had been obtained under different circumstances and different managements. The Admiralty being at this period much pressed by members of the late Committee on Finance, as also by the House of Commons, to make their report on the dock- yards in conformity to the order of 1792, the Inspector- General's sketch of a new system of management took the form of a report to the King in Council. The Secretary of the Admiralty had at first been charged with the business of drawing up a report in obedience to that order, but he had had little leisure to bestow upon it, and latterly, more- EEPOET TO THE KING IN COUNCIL. 177 over, became so well convinced of the Inspector-General's more intimate knowledge of the real business of a dock- yard, that he now was happy to transfer this duty to him. They acted, however, as coadjutors, General Bentham as he proceeded taking his papers to Mr. Nepeau, and reading over the articles which he had prepared ; comments upon them were jointly made as seemed desirable. A copy of this report still remains in MS. in which insertions by Mr. Nepean are made wherever he thought it desirable to change either the matter or the expression. That MS. proves how very rarely he conceived any alteration necessary. The sketch was then put into the hands of the First Lord, who, after considering it, approved of the whole. The next step, at the particular request of the Inspector-General, was to have the sketch printed, and a copy distributed to each of the members of the Navy Board, the Eesident Commissioners of the dockyards, and to other persons believed either to have an interest in the projected regulations, or to be able to give valuable opinions respecting the proposed measures. Those several persons were requested to make observations as to the several items, whether for their alteration, improvement, or omission. Amongst the returns of these sketches was a long state- ment written by the Comptroller of the Navy, in which he objected to almost every change proposed. This paper, comprising all the objections that had been made from every other quarter, was given by Lord Spencer to the Inspector-General, with directions to make his observa- tions on it. He did so, of course, and drew up an answer to the Comptroller's objections, which, in some instances, exhibited such a want of information (on the part of the Comptroller) as to the real mode of carrying on the busi- ness of the dockyards, that the Inspector-General felt averse to allow particulars to fall into the hands of clerks. He therefore caused the fair copy of his answer, some N 178 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. eighty pages, to be made by one of his own family, who could be depended on for secresy. He was subsequently directed by the First Lord to make this paper official, which was accordingly done by letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, 15th July 1800. The particulars of the Comptroller's objections, together with the answer to them, are mostly of too little general interest for insertion here ; yet some of the principal items seem worth extracting. The economical and efficient management of a naval arsenal is a subject of great im- portance to the nation at large. Perhaps the difference between good and bad management might amount to the expenditure of even millions more or less in the year, and this may be considered a far more important reason for giving some account of this paper, than that it redounds to the Inspector-General's credit as evincing his intimate knowledge of dockyard concerns. The Comptroller, in his introductory remarks, gave it as his opinion that no change in the system of management was necessanr, and adduces, in support of that opinion, the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry, 1784, the opinion of Sir Charles Middleton, and the Select Com- mittee on Finance, 1798. In refutation of this view of that testimony the Inspector-General quotes the Report of those Commissioners, who in the conclusion of it say, " When the frauds and abuses to which we have adverted are combined with the immense amount of expenditure for naval services, we do not hesitate to declare that a neiv system is indispensably necessary." In regard to Sir Charles Middleton, the Inspector- General refers to a paper written by him, which had contributed to the institution of the Inspector-General's office, and which indicates that its author was strongly impressed with a conviction that some very great changes were indispen- sable. As to the Committee on Finance, the evidence of Lord Keith and of the Inspector-General was decidedly OBJECTIONS OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE NAVY. 179 in favour of reform, and the Committee themselves ex- pressed their opinion that that evidence was deserving of the attention of the Admiralty. The Comptroller and the Inspector-Greneral differed ma- terially as to the duties of the Eesident Commissioner. By Bentham's plan the Commissioner was to be relieved from many duties, such as interference in operative and manu- facturing business, for which he could not be supposed to be competent; but, on the other hand, he was to become strictly responsible for many other duties capable of being executed by any man of sound judgment and nautical experience, at the same time receiving authority to interfere in every transaction whenever he might feel assured that his interposition was desirable; but he must be willing to take upon himself responsibility by giving his orders not verbally but in writing, and by trans- mitting to town on the same day information that he had so interfered. He instanced cases requiring knowledge in naval construction, such as a commissioner could not be expected to possess ; for instance, which of two defective ships could in time of need be sooner got ready for service ; whether necessary repairs to a ship could best be effected at moorings, at a jetty, or whether the ship must necessarily be brought into dock ; whether the hold must be cleared or not — matters, like very many others, evidently requiring the practical knowledge of a shipwright. The Inspector-Greneral further observed that the Com- missioner, though not responsible " for the due execution of orders, may nevertheless be considered as an instrument by whom, in the hands of the Admiralty, the existence of any abuse may be brought to light, and the correction of abuse be much facilitated ; whereas, were the Commis- sioner himself to be charged with the continual direction of the business, he would necessarily be himself implicated in any mismanagement or abuse, and consequently, instead of being an efficient check upon those to whom the direc- N 2 130 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. tion of the business is intrusted, he would become himself interested in the concealment and palliation of any errors to which, in the first instance, he may have been led unawares to give his sanction." Of late years this powerful argument seems to have been lost sight of, since the officer holding the place of the Commissioner under the title of Superintendent, has been by degrees more and more charged with interference in the current operative and accountant business of a dock- yard ; so that, although he is supposed to be the Admiralty's instrument whereby they may discover errors, he has become really nothing more nor less than the principal operative officer, as also the chief accountant officer, in- stead of being alone the Admiralty's " eye." By the proposed new system it was the Master Ship- wright, under the title of Surveyor, who was made respon- sible for shipbuilding and repairing, and for all the other manufacturing works, and who was to have under his orders and control the whole of the officers and work- men of the dockyard, excepting only the officers and other persons employed in the accountant branch, which was to be entirely separated from, and act as a check upon, the operative branch. The Comptroller objected to the placing this whole business under any one man. A shipwright officer, is, however, a man who, from his education and previous employments, could not but be acquainted with the most important parts of the business of a dockyard, in contra- distinction to assigning the same duty to the Commis- sioner, who neither from education nor experience can be conversant with any part of the operative business of a dockyard; but the real ground of objection, there can hardly be a doubt, was that it interfered with the Masters- Attendant of dockyards. Favour to Masters-Attendant has always greatly in- fluenced the Admiralty and the superiors of other depart- MASTERS-ATTEND ANT OP DOCKYARDS. 181 ments under them. They are always selected from Masters in the nav}^, and this is the only promotion to which officers of that class can look forward as the re- ward for eminent services on shipboard. In the navi- gation of a ship, especially in its pilotage, the skill of the Master is often of pre-eminent importance ; yet the Admiralty have nothing on board ship to bestow as pro- motion or reward to this description of, it may be said, scientific officer beyond the change from a small vessel to a larger one. A Master in the navy remains always a Master ; he has no command to look forward to, like the mere boy midshipman ; neither pennant nor flag flut- ters in his eye, and on retirement his half-pay is not commensurate with the importance of his duties afloat. Considerations of this nature have excited a laudable desire to reward this class of officers by honourable em- ployments on shore. The place of Master-Attendant in a dockyard is the only one suited to their former occupations; and as there are but few such places to bestow, the desire has always prevailed amongst the naval members of the Admiralty and other Boards to make these few pre-eminent in emolument as well as rank. The Inspector-Greneral, impressed as he was with the value of a Master's services at sea, could not assent to granting them promotion and reward, &c, at the expense of interference with a proper arrangement of the business of a dockyard. But he was induced to enter very fully into the details of that officer's duty, perhaps with a minuteness that can only be accounted for by the dis- position which he knew to exist of rendering the Master- Attendant superior in rank and in emolument to all other officers of a dockyard. He showed that the business of this officer is in fact subservient to that of the Master Shipwright; that most frequently the Master-Attendant had actually to receive instructions for his guidance N 3 382 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. from the shipwright. Whilst these subordinate duties were assigned to him in a dockyard, the most im- portant of those which he performed on board ship, pilotage, was withdrawn from him when he became a Master-Attendant, so that his knowledge of coasts and harbours, so essential at sea, could no longer be of use on shore, where his constant presence was the better insured by giving him a house within the yard. In those dock- yards where there is more than one M aster- Attendant, the Inspector-General further stated that the business of their department " is carried on with much more disorder and much worse management than the business of any other department;" "they change duties, according to their owm division of it, every week," so that " it often happens that they do and undo alternately what the other had done the week before." As to what seemed the most important article of a Master-Attendant's duty (the exa- mination of the sails, rigging, and other boatswain's stores on a ship's coming in from sea), new officers had, in 1795, been appointed to do this duty, namely, the Surveying- Masters, who were placed, not under the Masters- Attendant, but under the Commissioner ; and although the appoint- ment of these Masters had been to prevent waste, it was shown how ill-suited the arrangement was to effect the desired purpose. The Comptroller further objected to the change proposed, because for the Master- Attendant's business "no shipwright officer could be qualified." How is it then that the sur- veyors at the Navy Office were considered competent to direct, and did direct, the Masters-Attendant at all the dockyards ? " Yet, if the surveyors at the Navy Office had not been qualified for this branch of duty while they were master shipwrights on the spot where the duty is carried on, I should not suppose that the mere circumstance of their removal straight from the situation of a master ship- wright in a dockyard to the superior situation of surveyor SELECTION OF DOCKYARD OFFICERS. 183 at the Navy Office, could at once inspire them with the requisite knowledge." The Comptroller concludes the subj ect by observing that " the dockyards do not at present produce persons in the shipwright line capable of conducting so extensive a plan." Yet, although the Comptroller looked upon the shipwright officers as not competent to conduct the business of any one dockyard, these very persons were the only ones who ever became surveyors of the navy, in which situa- tion they had the superior direction of the operative business, not only of one, but of all the six dockyards, and moreover of the whole navy. The Inspector-Greneral observed, however, that "as any superiority of talents in the management under the new svstem would become immediately efficacious and apparent, greater discrimi- nation of talent would in consequence appear necessary in the selection and appointment of dockyard officers. It might very well happen also, that some of those who have been advanced to the higher classes before such dis- crimination was requisite, may now be deemed unfit to remain in them, and that some officers of this description might, perhaps, on the introduction of individual respon- sibility, feel their own incapacity and shrink from so arduous a duty: whereas now, the tit and the unfit are equally anxious to undertake any charge, because they must have reason to suppose that any degree of unfitness in point of intelligence under the present system may re- main unnoticed." Amongst the masters (Art. 19) there was introduced " an additional officer, who may be styled a master engine- maker, who should be a man conversant in the 'principles of mechanics as well as in the business of a millwright, so as to be capable of assisting the surveyor on all me- chanical subjects." The Comptroller observed that the propriety of this " must depend upon the extent to which the new system of mechanics is intended to be introduced N 4 184 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. into the dockyards." The Inspector-General leniently supposes that the word mechanics had by mistake been used instead of machinery, then introduced at his proposal into Portsmouth yard. On this, he observed, "I do not see how the propriety of introducing into the dockyards an officer skilled in general mechanical knowledge should at all depend on the introduction of this, or any other new system of machinery ; since, independently of the prac- tical knowledge necessary for the management of any article of machinery, no well-grounded judgment can be formed respecting the need there may be for improvement in the shape, in the mode of putting together, or in the fastening of any of the component parts of that very complicated machine, a ship, without a perfect knowledge of the principles of mechanics? He then observes that seamen and shipwrights did all of them acquire some ideas of mechanical causes and effects; yet that "the study of mechanics as a science, does not necessarily constitute any part of the education of any of the persons who are con- cerned in the direction of the business of a dockyard." At this day it may be difficult to conceive that a know- ledge of the principles of mechanics should, so late as the end of the last century, have been esteemed altogether unnecessary in a dockyard. But so it was — there were doubtless some rare examples, amongst the officers, of men who might have acquired some knowledge of those prin- ciples; but it has not been till after the exertions of General Bentham, that a knowledge of mathematics and of the principles of mechanics has come to be regarded as essential to the naval architect. Article 29 of the sketch related to the working men. " In order that such encouragement be held out to them, as shall afford sufficient inducement to every individual to exert himself continually in the performance of his work in the best manner he is able, according to the directions of his superiors, and that this may be effected at the least REGULATIONS RELATING TO THE WORKMEN. 18.5 expense to the public, we propose " principally " that the artificers be arranged under as few denominations as pos- sible;" "that the artificers of each denomination be divided into not less than two, and generally into three classes, according to their degrees of ability, diligence, and good behaviour;" "that the pay allotted to each of these classes be different ; " " that the classification be made anew every year;" "that the pay be proportioned to the number of working hours, winter and summer;" "that ten hours of work be considered as a day's work, excepting only in winter with regard to such work as cannot be done by candlelight ;" "that the artificers or others, when wages are reckoned by the day, be paid at the end of every week, and that the payment be made clear of all deductions and fees." In reference to these articles, the Comptroller observes : "I do not see that any alteration in the present mode would have much use. The work is carried on chiefly by task and job, and performed by men in companies." The subterfuges and falsifications habitually employed in order to produce an apparent conformity to regulations as to the pay of artificers, afford abundant proof of the great need which existed of a reform of the system of management; and the Comptroller's assertion as to the manner in which work was carried on, is a glaring instance of his ignorance as to the real transactions of a dockyard, and of the regulations and orders by which superior officers are habitually restrained. A part of the work was, it is true, done by task, that is paid by the piece, but so small a proportion that, taking Portsmouth yard as an example, only four companies of shipwrights out of " the forty-three employed there were task companies. These companies were allowed peculiar privileges ; they had a right to exclude from amongst them all men whom they conceived to be inferior workmen, idlers, or too old to do a hard day's work, so that the task 186 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. companies consisted of prime men alone. Their work was almost exclusively building new ships, or making such great repairs of old ones as admitted of accurate delinea- ment of the work to be done. Their privilege of rejecting men could not but have a prejudicial moral influence on the thirty-nine other companies, but otherwise it might be considered as highly advantageous. The thirty-nine companies which were employed in the repairs and fittings of vessels, which constitutes the greater part of the work in times of war, were paid by what was called the job — or, as falsely supposed by the Comp- troller, in proportion to the work done by them at prices paid by the surveyors of the Navy. In point of fact they were paid, not according to the quantity of work executed, but at the paid rate of 4s. 2cZ. for a day's work. Accounts of work done by job were regularly sent up to the sur- veyor's office, and there the prices for it were corrected ; but as " there is a standing order of the Navy Board which forbids the Clerk of the Cheque to set down the earnings of any man employed in job work as greater than a certain established daily allowance" (4s. 2d.) "this extent of earn- ings to which it has been thought fit to limit the most in- dustrious, has become the exact uniform greatest allowance which every man employed in job work is allowed to re- ceive." By falsifications of various descriptions, the most laborious, the best skilled, the idle, the infirm, those employed on regular work at the dock side, or those buffeted about half their time in going out to Spithead, all were made to appear in the books to have done work of the same value, 4s. 2d., neither more nor less. Thus, " by falsification continually connived at, such an uniformity is given to this mode of payment by the piece, as may, on a hasty view of the subject, appear to be the result of the utmost perfection in management." " In justice, however, to the good disposition and willing industry of many of the artificers themselves, as well as to the zealous alacrity JOB AND TASK WORK. 187 of some of the officers, it seems proper I should state that in several instances which have come within my knowledge, a company, or more, of shipwrights have in cases of emergency been induced by their officers to exert themselves in so extraordinary a degree, that, reckoning the value of the work done at the allowed rates, the real earnings have amounted for some days successively, to ten, twelve, or fifteen shillings a day for each man ; yet these industrious men received no more than the exact stipulated rate of payment, and consequently no more than what is allowed to the most idle." He then stated that, on some occasions, falsification of the job notes not only made the quantity of work appear greater than it really was, but that sometimes the shipwright officers thought it prudent to suppress altogether mention of some articles of work that had actually been done. The Inspector-Greneral's intimate knowledge of what really took place in the dockyards enabled him to state many other mischievous effects that had resulted from this mode of payment. The observations on the Comptroller's objections were, at Lord Spencer's desire, furnished to him piecemeal, as they were written. The statements respecting job work appeared so extraordinary both to Lord Spencer and to Mr. Nepean, that as an unusual favour they obtained for the latter from the Navy Office the loan of a pay book for each dockyard, and in confidence they were intrusted to the Inspector-General for examination. These books were kept secret and sacred at the Navy Office, and well they might be, for although the Inspector-Greneral in the course of his investigations had been led to suspect that the pay books were not altogether so satisfactory as they had been represented to him,- yet " On my first inspection of these books, I must confess, that notwithstanding all I had already witnessed in regard to the keeping of dockyard books, my astonishment was very great, for never before ; had I seen the existence of such scaring instances of inac- 188 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTIIAM. curacy and inefficiency." He noted and extracted for his Lordship's information the general dissimilarity in the manner of keeping these books in the different yards, and " the glaring incorrectness, falsifications, and abuses that present themselves on a bare inspection of the books." " As to the falsification and abuse of the setting down pay for a far greater time than had been worked, nay, even to the amount of double what could possibly be worked, I found it regularly and officially tolerated — I might say, autho- rised." Artificers in a dockyard, when quite worn out, or discharged after long service, have usually a superannu- ation allowance granted them ; but not a fixed one either as to amount or to the time of its commencement. His views on the subject were the giving a fixed but low annuity commencing at a rather early age, increasing the amount of it every five years, till at last it should be suffi- cient really to provide for the wants of an old man. As the small annuity in earlier years could not suffice for entire maintenance, he would have forbidden the recipient from the moment of its acceptance to work at day pay, but would have allowed and encouraged him to continue his labours at any of the works which could fairly be paid for by the piece. As any such measure would, at that time, have been regarded as visionary, he confined himself to proposing a fixed superannuation. The making this allowance adequate to a man's maintenance, he said, would, in fact, be a saving to the public, who " would no longer suffer, as at present, in consequence of the retention, from motives of humanity, of infirm men in the service after they have ceased to be able to earn their pay ; but who, if discharged according to the present system, would be left destitute of the means of subsistence." Many such infirm men are still retained in the service at day pay, receiving from 60/. to 70/. a year. Art. 45 to 51 proposed naval seminaries at each of the NAVAL SEMINAEIES. 189 four principal dockyards, to which the Comptroller ob- jected altogether. During the Inspector-General's own apprenticeship to the master shipwright at Woolwich, and afterwards at Chatham dockyard, he had felt severely that the means which Government employed for the education of young men who were being trained for the civil department of the navy, were altogether inadequate ; nor were the deficien- cies of dockyard instruction compensated in the Naval Academy at Portsmouth, where he had become a pupil after his apprenticeship, so that all along, in his own in- stance, instruction was necessarily obtained by the means of masters and men of science in no wise connected with government establishments. The time, too, requisite for study was stolen ; for many an hour and many a day which appeared in the books as if he had been at shipwright's work, he had been really at his studies, and even absent from the yard. He was driven to seek in foreign countries the further information in naval architecture and the sub- servient sciences that was not obtainable at home. On his return to this country he found the same deficiency in naval education, which w 7 as the more extraordinary, as during his absence very great advances had been made in the application of science to the improvement of private manufacturing concerns. The establishment of naval seminaries had, therefore, been amongst the first measures of improvement that he had suggested to Lord Spencer, and with his approbation he arranged the outlines of a plan of them. The plan embraced both manual and scientific instruc- tion in every art and science subservient to the creation, maintenance, and efficiency of his Majesty's vessels of war, exclusive only of strictly military matters, and military knowledge in naval warfare. The pupils were divided into three distinct classes in 190 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. point of rank, the education in each class being suited to the station in life which the pupils were afterwards likely to fill. The first class was to consist principally of sons of superior military and civil officers ; the second class prin- cipally of sons of warrant officers, of master workmen, of clerks, and others who in general estimation might be con- sidered of the same rank in society at large ; the third class of sons of workmen, or of boys to be reared as workmen or as seamen. General arrangements conducive to health, strength, and cleanliness, as also general fundamental instruction in religion and morality, were to be pr®vided for all classes alike. Means of acquiring all the information, and even accom- plishments, usual in a liberal education, were to be pro- vided for the first class, and to a certain extent for the second, including, of course, classical education. To do away with the feeling of thraldom so unfortu- nately frequent in all apprenticeships, it was intended that in each class the friends of a pupil might redeem him at any time on payment of a fixed sum, sufficient to reim- burse to Grovernment the expense incurred yearly on his account. Considering that in the naval civil service the highest officers, the surve} 7 ors, had first served their time as work- ing shipwrights, and had risen from that inferior grade through many different ranks of dockyard officers — that in private life, many amongst the most distinguished in liberal professions, as well as in manufacturing concerns, had risen by their talents from very inferior stations to wealth, honours, and high rank in society — means were proposed by which in these seminaries some few of the lower classes might, by superior acquirements, attain the first- steps to similar eminence ; so that at examinations at fixed periods the most distinguished pupil of the third class should be raised to the second, and so on, provided that OUTLINES OF THE PROPOSAL. 191 i he should also have satisfactory testimonials of general good behaviour. On calculation of what had hitherto been paid in the dockyards for wages to apprentices, and of the value of work to be expected from younger boys in light works — as peg-making, line-spinning, boat-building, &c. — it ap- peared that the expenses of the second and third classes would be more than repaid by the value of their labour. The first class was intended to afford an almost gratuitous education to the small number of pupils of which it was to consist, and was considered as placing in the hands of the Admiralty means of assisting meritorious officers of the higher ranks, when they happened to have large families. Indeed, in specific cases, it was intended that sons of officers should be admitted to the seminary as a matter of course — such as those of officers killed in action. Details of this nature the Inspector-General did not pre- sume to decide ; he merely considered this part of his pro- posal as the broad outline of assistance that might be thus afforded at little cost to meritorious servants of the public. But however much the liberality of Government might be extended, he felt assured that the third class would more than repay its own expenses. Whether in the higher classes pupils should be admitted or not, on paying the actual expenses incurred on their account, was a point of secondary consideration. A peculiarity of these seminaries as proposed, was that of giving, particularly to the third class, two different callings by which a livelihood might be earned. Generally speaking, seamanship was intended as the secondary means. For this, and many other important reasons, it was intended that the greater part of the pupils should pass a portion of their time on shipboard, in the navi- gation of vessels used exclusively for dockyard service more particularly, in which, whilst they might acquire sea legs and somewhat of a seaman's skill, attention to their moral 192 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTIIAM. conduct and industry might be provided for by a judicious choice of the masters of those vessels. To these seminaries the Comptroller vaguely objected the necessity of " keeping down " the expenses of a dock- yard, and that by increasing the number of men com- petent to perform the work carried on in it, the artificers would "become more refractory and difficult to be kept in order." As to the latter objection, it is well known that an increase of the number of workpeople in any busi- ness is the most effectual bar to combinations. The se- minaries were intended to rear a greater number of shipwrights than were ever likely to be required for the dockyards ; no engagement was intended that employment should be found for them when out of their time ; there- fore the idea that because they were shipwrights each in- dividual of them was of importance to the State would no longer exist ; and as to the then present stock of these artificers, the prospect of so great a number coming on to supply their place, w T ould not fail of rendering them much more orderly and tractable. Although this plan was in the year 1800 in preparation to be acted upon, it has never been more than partially carried into effect. A limited establishment of superior apprentices was a few years afterwards formed in Ports- mouth yard, and exhibited in practice several of the peculiarities which the Inspector-General had proposed. Several of the young men so educated have since been distinguished for their superior attainments; but in the successive changes of administration this establishment was abolished. The consequence of the continued want of appropriate and scientific instruction has been that the Naval Department have felt themselves obliged to call in -i stance from the Department of Military Engineers, many of whose officers fill several important scientific institu- tions in our naval establishments. Of late some schools of a secondary nature have been established for shipwright DOCKYARD ACCOUNTANT OFFICE. 193 apprentices in the dockyards, and annually the best pupil from each yard is promoted to an establishment at Ports- mouth where scientific instruction is afforded. Still the education afforded never can produce the superiority which was expected to result from the naval seminary — that is, it never can do so without subterfuge ; for the bovs must have served four years as working apprentices before they can be received at Portsmouth — a boy working as an artificer the whole day cannot possibly have time for study, so that, unless his absence from the dock side be winked at, per- haps encouraged, by the officers, it is next to impossible that at the age of eighteen a lad should have acquired scientific knowledge in either mechanics, mathematics, chemistry, or in any other of the sciences subservient to the business of a dockyard. New arrangements for the accountant business of a dockyard were proposed. The Comptroller said, in regard to them, " It changes the manner in which the accounts have ever been kept in the dockyards and at the Navy Office." In reply to this, the Inspector- General stated that he looked upon a change in the manner of keeping the accounts as " next in importance to the introduction of in- dividual responsibility." In support of this opinion he brought to view particulars in proof that " in the general system of accounts, the most important purposes to which accounts of mercantile and manufacturing operations, such as those of a dockyard, should be directed, have been alto- gether overlooked," or that they did not afford the means of ascertaining, still less for exhibiting at one view, either the real or the whole expense of any work, and consequently did not admit of a comparison of the expense of any two works ; that so many were the books to be referred to, that it would occupy a clerk's time for weeks to ascertain to which of several works, various articles of expense pro- perly belonged ; yet so uncertain were the results of such examinations, that the expense of one work of which he had o 194 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. had occasion to learn the cost, had been put down at differ- ent times at the very different sums of 98,929^., 87,525Z., and 102,058^. ; and this without any intention to make the cost of the work appear greater or less than its real amount. In some cases this inaccuracy, in others the falsi- fication of accounts, amongst other mischief, precluded the possibility of coming to any well-grounded conclusion of the expediency of any permanent work of improvement, so that instead of calculations of savings to be effected by it, decisions were usually based on such expressions as that it was a necessary work, or a national work, or some other such vague term of recommendation. Unfortunately, to this day, the thousands and hundreds of thousands of public money that are sunk on permanent works, still continue to be expended without considering the amount of savings or benefits that would result from them. The facility with which such estimates may be made, was proved in the instance of every permanent work of the Inspector-General's introduction, for before propos- ing any of them, he had entered into particulars of the annual money value of them, and discarded many that had presented themselves to him in an advantageous light whenever he found on investigation that a rent of eight per cent, at least on the capital sunk was not likely to be obtained by their use. Another example of the insufficiency of accounts was the facility which they afforded of lessening the apparent expense of a favourite work, and heaping it on some such work as repairs. The Inspector-General had himself witnessed falsification of accounts in this respect. Indeed it was still practised in the year 1830 ; for in one of the best conducted dockyards which he then visited, he saw an artificer employed in a business not authorised by the Navy Board, and learnt that he was so employed all the year round. It was a useful business, indeed a necessary one ; but that man's time must necessarily have been set down FALSIFICATION OF ACCOUNTS. 195 to some work to which he had never done a stroke ; and the evidence to the Select Committee, 1848, indicates that the practice still continues of lessening the apparent amount of favourite works. He stated also that the accounts of the receipt and ex- penditure of stores were as ill calculated to detect fraud and mismanagement, as in the case of those relating to workmanship. Improvements in these accounts have since been made; but the total want of responsibility in the storekeeper that the stock actually in hand should tally with the receipts and expenditure, necessarily implies that the agreement in quantities exists only on paper. The stock actually existing in the storehouses was never verified. In regard to the accounts of expenditure of money, he said that disregard of the value of interest upon it, led to immense losses, such as certainly never could have been suffered bad the accounts exhibited this item. One in- stance he noticed of an unperceived expense that had been incurred, where a work stated to have cost but 591,891/. had really amounted to the sum of 830,031/., consequent on the interest of the capital before the work was brought into use. For five-and-thirty years Sir Samuel Bentham continued to bring to notice the losses incurred from a disregard of interest on money, upon every possible occasion, and in a great variety of forms, from the time of the Committee on Finance, 1798, to that in 1828, and to the Admiralty again in 1831 — yet it has not attracted the attention of the House of Commons. It is not only in the Naval Depart- ment that this item is neglected, but it may be said that interest of money is disregarded in all the departments of government. It is true that very lately the cavillers against manufacturing articles on Government account, have brought forward the non-attention to interest on capital sunk, as an objection to such measures, and it is possible that the outcry of the interested and discontented may o 2 196 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BETsTHAM. produce improvement in this respect, although Bentham's strenuous endeavours for so long a series of years could not effect it, and this though he had shown the prac- ticability and facility of bringing interest to account in the manufacturing concerns under his direction, in which he had had the disbursement uncontrolled, but not un- watched, of about a million of money. The measures to which the Comptroller objected were, that the accountant branch should be committed to a dis- tinct set of officers ; that the accounts of all works per- formed should be so framed as to show the expense in- curred for each separate part of the work, so that it might be compared with previous estimates for similar works under different management, and with the supposed value of expected benefit ; that the books kept in the dockyards should exhibit all facts ; but that all comparisons should be made at the Navy Office in town. The Inspector- General concluded his observations respecting accounts by saying that, for the reasons which he had adduced, " I can- not, on my part, but look upon a gradual alteration of the mode of keeping accounts, as well in the Navy Office as in the dockyards, as essential to an improved system of management." That the Inspector-General's strong assertions of abuses and mismanagement were founded on fact, there cannot be a doubt. No denial of them was ever attempted by either the Comptroller, the Navy Board, or the dockyard officers, although all of these officers had shown themselves adverse to his plans of improvement, and for the most part still continued willing and ready to object to his proposals, and to deny their utility. The answer to the Comptroller's objections, as soon as it was made official, became very generally known amongst the officers whose duties it con- cerned, so that had it been possible to invalidate his asser- tions, there can be no doubt that they would have been contradicted and their falsehood prominently brought out. OPPOSITION OF THE COMPTROLLER OF THE NAVY. 197 But it was not only in the written paper that the Comptroller made objections to the proposed plan. On the 18 th March 1800, Lord Spencer related to the In- spector- General several particulars of a conversation which he had had with the Comptroller. He had stated that " General Bentham had set out with saying that the Resi- dent Commissioner was to be invested with more power, but that when he came to read the plan he found that he could give no order whatever but by writing it" " Well, said I " (Lord Spencer), " then we shall know what orders he does give." Sir Andrew : " No Commissioner would submit to giving a written order ; in fact, it was taking the whole power out of his hands." Lord Spencer : " Not at all, if a Commissioner had any proper orders to give." Lord Spencer then said to the Inspector-General, " What the Comptroller has told me of the plan (by way of finding fault with it) I think very good." The Comptroller had thus insisted on the particular point, which to this moment, as it then was, is a complete obstacle to good management, that is, the putting into the superior officer's hands a power to interfere and give his orders without record of them, or any means of bringing them to light. It has been urged of late that the expenses of our civil naval department exceed the value of its products, but no efficient remedy for the evil has been suggested. When- ever the attention of Government may be seriously turned to new arrangements of the operative and mercantile busi- ness of a naval arsenal, even now, after the lapse of half a century, probably nowhere would such ample and correct data be found as in the Inspector-General's papers. In July, on taking leave of Lord Spencer before setting out upon an official tour, he was requested to make an abstract of the proposed new regulations in order that it might be shown to Mr. Pitt. This journey was to Ports- mouth, and along the south coast from thence to Plymouth. o 3 198 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. On visiting Torbay he formed a new arrangement of neces- sary works, which was approved of and carried into execu- tion. They had not required new inventions or any superior engineering skill, but simply an inquiry into the real wants of the service, so seldom taken into account. Thus, instead of the pier that had been proposed, at which only five boats could lie to water (the supply of which only amounted to a sufficiency for that number of boats), his plan provided a pier at which twenty-nine boats could at once fill their casks from suitable cocks delivering water from a large main. The pier that had been proposed was so situated as to afford no protection to the boats in certain winds, but by his plan perfect protection was afforded whatever way the wind blew. To this work he added a storehouse sufficient to contain a month's sea store of provisions for a fleet of thirty sail of the line ; in recommending which he observed that it could not be considered as an extra expense, since it would supersede the construction of a storehouse of the same extent then intended to be built at Plymouth. In September of this year (1800) he had the gratification of renewing his intimacy with Admiral the Earl of St. Vincent, to whom, while Captain Jarvis, Bentham had been introduced while studying at Portsmouth, who, with the fleet under his command, was lying in Torbay. During the week that the Inspector-General remained at Brixham, the greater part of his time was passed with his Lordship. The proposed new management of the dockyards was dis- cussed, and Lord St. Vincent approved altogether of the regulations devised ; indeed, so thoroughly was he con- vinced of their expediency, that he proposed to get some member of the House of Commons to speak of them in the House, so as to insure their introduction, and under- took to manage the whole business himself if Bentham would but consent. This was an interesting week. Besides the weighty RENEWED INTIMACY WITH LORD ST. VINCEXT. 199 matters discussed, Lord St. Vincent's habit of prompt de- cision exhibited itself on many an occasion. He wanted a guard-house to be fitted up on the instant ; the In- spector-General undertook to do the business, but he happened to say that he wanted the assistance of a marine officer. His Lordship instantly called for his principal officer of that corps. On his entering- the cabin : " There, Colonel, that is General Bentham ; I appoint you his aid- de-camp ; you will do everything he wishes." One day it happened, whilst the Inspector-General was on the wharf at Brixham, that some accident happened to a man which rendered bleeding necessary, but the ship's surgeon, who was there on the spot, had no lancet. At dinner, the same day, the Inspector-General gave a hint of the occurrence, observing: at the same time that it would not be amiss if surgeons were obliged to carry about their instruments, as officers did their swords. The order was instantly given, that rt all surgeons should have their instruments always in their pockets." In " Lord St. Vincent's Life," by the son of his secretary, Benjamin Tucker, this anecdote is related, with the sole difference that the origin of the order is not mentioned, and that the word " pocket " was changed to " about their persons," as doubtless Mr. Tucker worded the order when he wrote it out officially. Different plans had been proposed for some time back for the forming a breakwater in Plymouth Sound, to which the General's attention had been called no less by the Lords of the Admiralty, than by the persons who had devised those plans. It had been one subject of discussion when he was with Lord St. Vincent in Torbay, whose only reason in favour of any work of the kind was that the rocky bottom of parts of the Sound was apt to injure a ship's cables. Eough sketches of his plans still exist, by one of which it appears that by forming a breakwater off Causand Bay (one of the plans that had been pro- posed) security might be afforded to a large fleet, at what o 4 200 LIFE OF SIE SAMUEL BENTHAM. might be called a small expense. Another one was for damming up Catwater, and forming a breakwater on that side of the Sound. But would the use of such a work com- pensate for its cost ? His inquiries seemed conclusive against the project. How many ships, he inquired, had been wrecked or injured in the Sound ? So far as he couid learn, never any but one vessel of war up to that time : this vessel was a frigate, and its loss had been occasioned by the greatest carelessness on board. The ports had been left open in a gale of wind ; she filled and sank. After such a result of his inquiries the eligibility of any such breakwater at Plymouth Sound seemed too extravagant for him to venture on its recommendation. Notwithstanding his utmost endeavours to draw up the abstract of the proposed report which Lord Spencer had desired, he found it impossible to do so without entering into the subject of changes that would be necessary in the constitution of the Navy Board and of the other depart- ments under the Admiralty. His chief endeavour, there- fore, was to obtain at Plymouth many details respecting the superior management of the Navy Board, which might enable him not only to frame a plan for its improvement, but to support it by facts against objections, as he had been enabled to do in regard to the new regulations for the dockyards. Such information could be better collected at Plymouth than at other ports, not only because he had here free access to all books, but because the Resident Commissioner, and the heads of departments, civil and military, were both intelligent and communicative. Having collected a vast mass of information as to mal- practices on the spot, and of the many improprieties resulting from Board management, he returned to town. On the 9th November, both Mr. Nepean and Lord Spencer devoted themselves to a consideration of the report; he read it over "from beginning to end "with Lord Spencer, who thought the salaries low. He had PREPARATION" OF THE REPORT. 201 been disinclined to allow fuel to the dockyard officers, but on representation of the absolute impossibility of pre- venting a servant from picking up a few shavings and the cover which this would afford to real abuse, the privilege of being provided with fuel was consented to. The allowance which the report proposed of the sixth of an officer's salary as pension to the widow Lord Spencer- thought " very proper," as also that proposed for children to the age of fourteen, but thought that to girls it should continue to the age of twenty-one. A new opponent to the reform of management now came forward in the person of Admiral Young, one of the Lords of the Admiralty. It was said of him, that he was " laborious in the minor duties of the office, and well-mean- ing, and not knowing exactly whom to get who would work so hard as he does, he is allowed to have more influence than he would be at all entitled to on any other ac- count." The Inspector-Greneral found that the objections made by the Admiral had been written by him in red ink on the fair copy of the report itself. They were answered as those of the Comptroller had been. This produced further delay of the abbreviated report — when Charles Abbot, as Chairman of the Committee on Finance, who had from the first taken great interest in the pro- posed reform, now threatened to make some motion on the subject in Parliament. The Inspector-Gfeneral was deputed to see Mr. Abbot "with a view to persuade him not to make any motion in the House respecting the report. Abbot says he has a character to support, and that if nothing is done by Monday se'nnight he must speak." On the 21st December, the Inspector-Greneral called on Mr. Nepean, by his desire, to inform him of this. It appears that Mr. Abbot did speak, for on the 30th it is noted that " Bentham called on Nepean to justify himself as not having had any hand in making Abbot say what he did in the House yesterday. Nepean has not yet heard the 202 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. report mentioned in any way by Lord Spencer, but in the Board-room to-day Sir Philip Stephens asked why it was not brought forward." It was now determined that a report on the dockyards should be drawn up, but it had not been presented for the sanction of the King in Council, when a change of admi- nistration took place, and the Earl of St. Vincent succeeded Earl Spencer as First Lord of the Admiralty. The new Admiralty, having taken this report into con- sideration, adopted it immediately, that part of the pre- amble inclusively, which stated " that some progress was already made in the preparation of a new system of ma- nagement, founded on general principles of acknowledged efficacy;" and the whole was sanctioned by the King in Council, 21st May 1801. At this time Lord Spencer was frequently so much engaged that he could not give up so much time to the Inspector-Greneral as had been customary, but he was particularly friendly in regard to his private interests. No allowance had been given him for travelling expenses, on account of difficulties that had been made by the Navy Board. On the 7th February, Lord Spencer had said that it was highly expedient that he should now go to Ports- mouth, and " that nothing would be done till he went there." There was, on that same day, a report of a change of administration, and on the 8th he learnt its truth from Mr. Nepean, who desired him not to set out for Portsmouth the next day as was intended. On the 9th, Lord Spencer told him that Lord St. Vincent would probably succeed him, and added, " You will losa nothing by the change ; Lord St. A r incent has it in his power, and will do more for you than it was ever in my power to do." Yet the journal expresses much regret at the change, Lord Spencer having always been on such friendly terms and so pleasant to do busi- ness with. Lord St. Vincent, on becoming the First Lord, appointed CHANGE OF ADMINISTRATION. 203 the Inspector-General to go to him on the 16th, at half- past seven o'clock in the morning, thus continuing the early habits of shipboard now that he was in town. The principal subject discussed in this interview was one of the first importance in naval armaments. The Inspector- Greneral ventured to urge his own ideas on a subject on which it might be thought that so experienced and suc- cessful an admiral would hardly bear to be lectured by an inferior officer : he pointed out that " the force of a ship consists in the weight of shot she can throw in a given time." This was exhibiting the matter in a new light, but in the course of conversation his Lordship admitted that it was so, but i( did not think that carronades throw far enough." The discussion ended in a permission that the Inspector-Greneral should submit his observations on the subject in writing: this was accordingly done by letter 22nd February 1801. This communication, together with others on the same subject, both before and subsequently, have doubtless been very useful in increasing the force of our naval armaments so immensely of late years. But his recommendations of conclusive experiments remain yet to be carried into effect. Experiments have frequently been made as to some one kind of projectile, or of one sort of gun, against some one other kind, but no such series of experiments as he had in view has ever been attempted. He urged that " the most advantageous weight of ordnance for sea service on board different classes of ships, the quantity of powder, and the species of shot best adapted to the several purposes, cannot be ascer- tained without a course of experiments instituted expressly for this purpose." He then proposed expedients by which the naval force of the country might be immediately increased without adding to the number of vessels of war, and which, so far from requiring more men, would diminish the number then 204 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. employed; as, for example, in the instance of a 74-gun ship, the men required in the proposed mode would be less by forty-four than in the old one, though the force of the ship would be more than doubled. The Earl of St. Vincent at the head of the Admiralty continued the same man that he had been at the head of the fleet. He was as desirous as ever of introducing the Inspector-General's plan of reform in the dockyards; accordingly from the day of the very first interview he indicated his intention of adopting the report that had been signed by Earl Spencer, and even already seemed to consider that no one could be so well acquainted as the Inspector-General with the merits of persons already dockyard officers, or of those whom it might be desirable to introduce. It was not, however, on every point that his opinions and practice coincided with those of his pre- decessor. During the morning's conversation he said that " Lord Spencer had made an extraordinary number of officers " (naval officers) ; " that there are a great number unemployed; and added that he would for him- self make a vow not to make any one a commander, unless for specific actions, until all the deserving ones of those already made should be employed." It was on this very day, and under this determination, that his Lordship made Lieutenant Matthew Smith a commander, but it was in reward for his brilliant action in the Millbrook with the Bellone. Dinner on that day was a pleasurable meal, which Captain Smith partook of at the Inspector- General's, when he entered into the particulars which led him to think so highly of the Millbrook, and of her non-recoil armament. Lord St. Vincent continued his early habits the same as ever. On the 6th he by appointment received the Inspector- G-eneral at breakfast at seven o'clock ; he was punctual to the time, and found the tea ready made. His Lordship INTERVIEWS WITH LORD ST. YIXCEXT. 205 "showed him some papers from Mr. Pitt and Dundas respecting a project now in contemplation for the destruc- tion of Archangel." " Spoke of Lord Spencer's jealousy of him (Lord St. Vincent), that no woman could be more jealous ; that Pitt had told him that Lord S. would rather that any other man should have succeeded him than Lord St. Vincent." This seemed remarkable, for no symp- tom of such a feeling had ever manifested itself in the frequent and confidential intercourse which the Inspector- General had had w T ith Lord Spencer ; at any rate it was a highly estimable point in Lord St. Vincent's character, that believing this, he should notwithstanding adopt the plans and the persons that had been brought forward by his predecessor. He was pleased with the plan already made out for new bed-places in Greenwich Hospital, re- gretted that notice had not been taken of the officers' apartments — but the office of Inspector-General was in- vidious enough, without his meddling uselessly with private interests. His Lordship and the Inspector-General set out together from Mortimer Street to walk to the Admiralty ; they met Lord Berkeley, who was on his way, he said, to breakfast with his Lordship — " Not at this time of day; I am up at five o'clock every morning," said Lord St. Viucent. Eentham asked when he would have a little time. " "Why I have no time, but if you will dine with me on Sunday, I will turn people away after dinner." And thus the friendly way in which he received the Inspector-General continued to the end of that administration. In speaking of what ships should first be brought forward, Lord St. Vincent observed that " without some specific and apparent reason, I am desirous not to alter any of Lord Spencer's arrangements," — a determination which, if it had been adopted by subsequent Boards of Admiralty, might have saved the expenditure of even millions of money by this time. His Lordship observed too that the inferior Board were " all in fear and trembling ; " " that 206 LIFE OF STR SAMUEL BENTHAM. the great plan of alterations in the dockyards conld not be brought forward till peace, but that would not be long first." The partial regulations for the dockyards having re- ceived the sanction of the King in council, he endeavoured to ascertain what persons would be most competent to fill the new office of timber-master. His Lordship disclaimed all 'patronage whatsoever, saying that " the fittest man, be he who he will, shall be appointed to every situation in the dockyards which he has the filling of." The habit of waste in the instance of the costly article timber had been so great in the royal dockyards, that the Inspector-General proposed taking men who, though brought up in them, had left the service for want of encouragement, and had since been employed in private yards, where the value of that store is known, and every piece of timber turned to good account. This measure was approved of; but it turned out that the emoluments in private business so much exceeded the pay allowed by Government, that most of the persons applied to declined accepting the proffered places. The mistaken notion always has been, and is still entertained, that the civil officers in the Navy Department are overpaid, whereas the fact is that the pay is not suffi- cient to retain men in the service, generally speaking, whose abilities are of a superior stamp. On the 4th July, the Inspector-General showed his Lordship a paper which he had prepared of appointments and removals of dockyard officers. He determined to adopt them all. As one of the officers, from his superiority of talents, was supposed to be a favourite with Bentham, he spoke of putting him at a more desirable yard than the one specified for him; this was opposed as not being "for the good of the service," to use the cant term ; and Lord St. Vincent was gratified by such forbearance of patronage. Traits of character such as many of the above have not ap- peared in the Life of the Earl of St. Vincent by Mr. Tucker, EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF CONVICTS. 207 and their omission may furnish an apology for introducing so many of them here. In June of this year, the Inspector-Greneral's commise- ration was excited by the intended treatment of some convicts who had been sent to assist in various works in Portsmouth dockyard. The term of punishment of some of the most deserving of these men was to expire within a year, yet they were now ordered for transportation to New South Wales. He had been applied to in their favour by officers who had witnessed their good behaviour. When by means of a confidential person he had made further inquiries respecting them, he felt justified in making application to the Minister on whom their fate depended, to have this order annulled ; but not having been fortunate enough to find Mr. Pelham at home, he enclosed to him a list of the deserving men in question, acquainting him that " most, if not all, of these men have been found so trustworthy as not only to be suffered to work without irons or any particular inspection, but have also been stationed to assist the guards in taking care of the rest of the convicts." After specifying other particulars, he added : " The transporting men of this description, besides being evidently unjust, and productive of unnecessary expense, seems also particularly objectionable on account of its tendency to diminish very materially the inducement for good behaviour in all other convicts, who cannot fail to observe that the most meritorious conduct has only served to single these men out for transportation, whilst numbers of the most profligate and disorderly are suffered to remain in the country till their terms have expired." He was much gratified by a ready compliance with his request ; and it is believed that these men by their future good conduct left him no cause to regret his exertions iu their behalf. Other convicts were afterwards employed under his management, both at Portsmouth and Sheerness, and he had thus an opportunity of seeing the opinion confirmed 208 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. which he had long entertained, that, without other pecu- niary sacrifice than that of very small rewards for industry, the most beneficial results would be obtained from constant regular employment of such men in useful works, seclud- ing them as much as possible from public gaze without depriving them of intercourse with fellow-men, and by habitually affording encouragement by an increase of kindly treatment according to desert, as well as a separa- tion of the meritorious from the refractory. It may be well conceived that acquiescence in his views of improvement and reform on the part of the new Naval Administration was to him a source of extreme satisfaction, more especially on account of the First Lord's intimate acquaintance with the civil concerns of the nav}^, acquired in a long career, during which his discerning and com- prehensive mind had scrutinised many of the defects of the civil no less than of the military branch of the service. The report that had been sanctioned by the King in Council did not, it is true, include any other part of the pro- jected general reform than that for the better management of timber and the abolition of the perquisite of chips ; but Lord St. Vincent was determined that the new regulations in these respects should be introduced and carried into execution with the fullest force, and therefore directed the Inspector-General to devote his attention principally to this business. He in consequence repaired to the dock- yard affording the greatest amount of information, Ports- mouth, where there happened at that time to be several officers of great ability; so that by examination of the books, and of the practice as to timber, as well as by discussions with those officers, he might, in addition to his former knowledge on the subject, be well prepared to draw up the details of management in regard to this store. He accordingly submitted to the Admiralty, on the 26th of December, a sketch of the instructions which he proposed should be given to the several officers concerned in the MANAGEMENT OF TIMBER. 209 management of timber, from its first receipt to its appro- priation to use, as also a set of regulations in regard to it, and forms for the accounts to be kept. These were all of them approved and ordered to be carried into effect, and the superintendence of the new mode of management was committed to him individually for a term of three months. By these regulations " it was made the sole business of one officer, under the title of timber-master, to direct the converting, stowing, and sawing of the whole of the timber, braces, planks, &c, in each dockyard, that he may stand individually responsible for the due execution of this trust ; and that consequently he may have the credit or blame that may result from the comparative view of his management with that of the other dockyards." The accounts which he framed for this department, traced every piece of timber from its first conversion to its final application to use. Heretofore there had been the formality of many signatures of superior officers; but they were falla- cious, because those officers could but rarely know the uses to which specific pieces had been appropriated ; and the reports were made at periods too distant to be of use when they reached the Navy Office. By the new mode no other signatures could be of real avail than that of the person who authorised the employment of any given piece of timber, and that of the person who received it for use. At the same time it was provided that the controlling authority, the Navy Board, should be informed daily, instead of at very distant periods, of all transactions in the dockyards relative to this store. This was effected at little cost of time or money, as the copies sent up to town were taken by a copying press from the accounts as kept in the dockyards. The saving of time in account-keeping was, however, frustrated by the Navy Board. They sent an order to the dockyards that, besides the new accounts, others should be p 210 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. kept in the old forms, and be sent to them in the usual manner. Seeing the disregard in which pressed copies were held by the Board, the clerks became careless in pre- paring them, so that instead of those copies being of all others the most faithful, they soon became imperfect, scarcely legible, and consequently, useless. In this business, as in all the Inspector-General's pro- posed reforms of management, he looked as much on the advantage of bringing merit to light as to that which could arise from discovering the reverse. In point of fact, a decree of emulation was excited in the timber-masters of the time which fully justified his expectations on that score, though unfortunately it was followed by no rewards ; but he had the satisfaction of receiving assurances that by his means most important savings of timber were effected, and still continued to be so, as long as he had opportunities of witnessing conversion. Of late years the stringency of his regulations has been gradually done away with. Kespon- sibility, instead of being individual, has been divided amongst several new officers ; and those parts of the evi- dence given to the Select Committee of the House of Com- mons on Navy Estimates, 1848, indicate that extravagance again prevails, both in the conversion of timber and in its application to use. The plan of introducing a clerk chosen by some uncer- tain mode to witness the receipt of timber was looked upon as a fanciful expedient ; but the fact was, that however conscientious superior officers (such as storekeepers and clerks of the survey) might be, yet the storekeeper was often charged with stores without any previous survey of them, and when deficiencies were discovered the facility with which it was customary to discharge him of them was notorious. The Inspector-General, in one of his offi- cial statements, said, "In point of fact, that there are abuses in the receipt of stores I am well assured. I have heard that timber or plank to the value of some thousand ABUSES IN THE RECEIPT OF STORES. 211 pounds has been paid for as if received in a dockyard, although articles to so great an amount never appeared but on paper. I am confident that such a practice has existed." Of these assertions no denial was ever attempted, either by the Comptroller of the Navy, the Navy Board, or the dockyard officers, yet all these officers had objected to the Inspector-General's representations of the need of correcting mismanagement and abuse, and were still ready to object to all his suggestions of improvement. He was accused of putting leading questions to underlings, so as to obtain false information from them. On the 19th De- cember 1801, for instance, the Comptroller particularly said that the Inspector-General " got the underlings about him without the knowledge of their superiors." This was on the occasion of his acquainting the Comptroller that in Deptford yard it was the practice to receive mast sticks for 20-inch masts as sticks for 21 -inch masts, and thereby to authorise a proportionately higher price for them. The Comptroller said that " when this information was obtained the master shipwright should have been there." The Inspector-General replied, "The master shipwright was there, the storekeeper was there, the clerk of the cheque was there, two assistants were there, the treasurer was there, and the clerk of the cheque's clerks and the store- keeper's clerks were there — is that enough, or should any more have been present ? " The Comptroller bit his lips, and said, " When the Inspector-General had given forms for keeping accounts, he hoped he would tell them where to buy timber." The Admiralty Board consisted at this time partly of old members and partly of new Lords, these being such as Lord St. Vincent had selected from amongst the naval officers in whom he had confidence. Mr. Nepean on one occasion told the Inspector-General that the Board thought him "wrong, very wrong — except, indeed, the new ones ; these were Trowbridge, and Markham, and Tucker 3 P2 212 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. and Lord St. Vincent ; it might please them, it was true ; but the Board thought it wrong." This was in reference to letters of the Inspector-General pointing out instances of mismanagement, particularly on the contract made by the Navy Board for the carriage of beech timber to Ports- mouth dockyard. The Inspector-General replied that "it was his business to find fault — it was what his situa- tion had been instituted for ; but if Mr. Nepean would tell him how he should write, he would do so accordingly." Mr. Nepean was indeed placed in circumstances of diffi- culty. He had been all along strenuous in his endeavours to introduce all of the improvements suggested by the Inspector- General ; he had adopted all which related to management ; but during Earl Spencer's administration the endeavour had been to introduce them without injury to the civil servants of the department, particularly so as not to imply any want of probity, or otherwise to implicate their moral conduct. Now the sea Lords, with what was called quarter-deck habits, were too much inclined to im- pute all imperfections to interested motives rather than to a vicious system, and to punish with all the severity of naval discipline. One of the letters that had been especially objected to by the old members of the Admiralty Board was that of the 30th August 1801, in which he had said that in the course of his investigations respecting the management of timber, he had found that the Navy Board, by virtue of several Acts of Parliament, were empowered to superintend the preservation of growing timber in some of his Majesty's forests, but that " this salutary interference on their part has fallen almost wholly into disuse ; so much so, indeed, that on inquiry at the Navy Office for a certain Act of Par- liament mentioned by one of the purveyors as forming the basis of his duty, the very existence of the Act did not seem to be known at the Navy Office ;" and particularis- ing various other sources of information, he added, that FORESTS FOR NAVY TIMBER. 213 e *' serious evils are said to arise to his Majesty's naval service from the present neglected state of his Majesty's forests" — "that by a more careful attention to the exist- ing laws and orders respecting the forests in question, a much more abundant supply of timber for naval purposes might be obtained from them, so much so, that in future they might be made to afford three-fourths of the total quantity actually consumed in all of his Majesty's dock- yards ; and having reason to believe that even immediately the New Forest might afford as much beech timber as the service of this dockyard requires, as also an additional quantity of oak." It does not appear in what respect this letter could have been deemed offensive — unless, indeed, members of the Navy Board should have so keenly felt their neglect of the royal forests as to regard the mere asking for Acts of Parliament as a reproach to them. The Inspector-General's object was to concert with competent persons some means by which those forests might be for the future so managed as to afford the supply of which they are capable ; but it would seem that although more recently Sir W. Symonds has pointed out various particu- lars that might practically be of good effect, yet of late years the management in regard to them has been even worse than it was when the Inspector-General requested this information. Having had occasion to notice, verbally, some of the improprieties in the mode of providing this costly article of store, as well as in the management of it, Lord St. Vin- cent requested the Inspector-General to draw up a written statement of the most prominent objections to the current practice; this was done accordingly in February 1802. This paper not having been officially sent to the Board is not on record in the Admiralty books ; it points out inat- tentions which have at all times been but too prevalent, in regard to the provision of naval stores of every descrip- tion as well as of timber. p 3 214 LIFE OF SIE SAMUEL BENTHAM. Flattering as was the dependence which the First Lord placed in the Inspector-General, and great as was the sup- port afforded him, yet it was with extreme difficulty that he could regulate his conduct in such a manner as that, whilst indicating instances of mismanagement, he should avoid imputing blame to individuals. By some old members of the Admiralty, and by the whole of the Navy Board, he was looked upon as acting in a spirit hostile to them per- sonally ; whilst by his moderation he often incurred the displeasure of his superiors. The letter on beech timber, addressed privately to Lord St. Vincent, as being a recent instance of the frequent oversights in making contracts and providing stores, was returned to the Inspector-General with the command to address it officially to the Secretary of the Admiralty, be- cause he was desirous that instances of mismanagement should stand on official record. The letter, when addressed to Lord St. Vincent, had been prefaced with a request that it might be " understood that it is not my intention to impute blame to any particular individuals who may happen to have had a part in the direction of the business in question, persuaded as I am that however injurious to the public service may be the instances of abuse and mis- management I shall have to bring forward, it would appear, on a full investigation, that they had been the natural consequences of defects in the system of manage- ment, rather than of any specific misconduct on the part of the persons employed, and that there is every reason to be assured that, — by making such changes in the system of management as that the scrutiny of all com- mercial as well as operative transactions shall be com- mitted to the charge of persons distinct from those to whom the execution is intrusted, that the due execution of every business shall be committed to the stimulatiDg influence of individual responsibility, and the accounts of all transactions kept in such manner as to bring their SCKTJTINY IN NAVAL MANAGEMENT. 215 comparative economy under observation, — all such abuses would in future cease of course." But Lord St. Vincent was impeded continually by the opposition of the inferior Board, particularly by the Comp- troller of the Navy, who really w^as of opinion that the authorities as then constituted were competent to a due and economical management of naval business. There have been many changes since his time, but they have all of them deviated further from the rules by which good management might be expected. There is not, at this moment, any scrutiny as to either commercial or manu- facturing concerns, no individual responsibility, no ac- counts that bring comparative economy under observation. Much has of late been brought before the public as to abuses in the naval department, but abuse is a misnomer ; extravagances there are, but of all that have been exhi- bited there is not one of them that had not been pre- viously specified by Sir Samuel Bentham, accompanied by proposals for remedying the evils ; and, to take the words of the King in Council, as they were " founded on prin- ciples of acknowledged efficacy," there is good reason to conclude that if they had been adopted, they would by this time have been the means of saving many millions of the public money. In January 1802, the Inspector-General requested per- mission to obtain certain kinds of information direct from the dockyard officers. The Comptroller attacked him on this score, saying that he wanted to correspond with the dockyard officers without the knowledge of the Navy Board. To repudiate this accusation, he induced the Comptroller to read the letter itself — the Comptroller then said he had been told so. Thus was every act of the Inspector-General misrepresented. He replied to the Comp- troller, " that his object in asking to correspond with the dockyard officers was to save the time and trouble of a circuitous communication. Was he, when at a dockyard, P 4 216 LIFE OP SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. and wanting information from an officer on the spot, to have it sent first to the Navy Board and then to the Ad- miralty before it could reach him ? Was this the readiest way of doing business ? " On this day (22nd January) Sir Thomas Trowbridge came into the Admiralty, where were some of the Lords, the Comptroller, and the Inspector-General. Sir Thomas declared that " all the master shipwrights ought to be hanged, every one of them, without exception." This exclamation had been in consequence of some particulars respecting job-notes at Sheerness. It is true that in this respect the abuses were enormous. The Inspector-Greneral had officially pointed them out, and the remedy for the evil was amongst the improvements that were in progress of establishment by the new regulations. Surely the pre- venting the possibility of abuse by doing away with ficti- tious job-notes altogether, as the Inspector-Greneral had proposed, was likely to be a more efficacious remedy than the hanging of all the half-dozen master shipwrights. About this time great abuses came to light in regard to extra time set down to men of Plymouth dockyard ; and in consequence some members of the Navy Board were going to that port with " a determination to turn out" some of the officers and clerks. In conversation with Mr. Tucker on the 29th, the Inspector-General could not help observing that if they punished inferiors, they ought to go further ; there was not a single officer in that yard, or at the Navy Board unimplicated, " Eesident Commissioner, Navy Board, all of them." But it appeared " that the}' do not like to go higher than dockyard officers." On the 18th May the Inspector-Greneral learnt that an order had been given " for discharging shipwrights in dockyards, and first by superannuating those who are past their labour." A list of no more than twelve came from Plymouth yard, being those only who had (/}>}>/ied for superannuation. To make up the number of dismissals, COMMISSION OF NAVAL INQUIRY. 217 the Navy Board intended to discharge the last entered ; — of course, the young men. The Comptroller showed this list to Lord St. Vincent. (i What," said his Lordship, " are there no more than twelve old men in Plymouth yard ? " " No, my lord." " Then I'll go to Plymouth myself." His Lordship then said he should take an Ad- miralty Board with him, that a Navy Board should also go, and he supposed the Comptroller would go himself. The next day Mr. Tucker told the Inspector-Greneral that Lord St. Vincent had determined to have a commission to examine into the abuses and mismanagement : that when he visited the dockyards he would not enter into abuses, but merely look about him. Thus originated the Commis- sion of Naval Inquiry, a commission which, in its several reports, brought such enormous abuses to light. A letter had been written to the Inspector-Greneral on the 28th of August of the preceding year, and then signed by the Secretary of the Admiralty ; but it was not forwarded to him till the 14th of March of the year 1802. It directed him to reply to the observations of the Navy Board on the subject of his letter concerning the extravagance resulting from carriage of beech timber. The Navy Board charged him with having " endeavoured to prejudice the minds of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, by laying before them a 'partial representation of a transaction calculated to make an unfavourable impression, without having made the least previous inquiry into the real circumstances of the case;" adding further that "had he done so, he would have found that his whole statement originated in error? In relation to this accusation, the Inspector-Greneral, on the 15th April, informed their Lordships that he had made many inquiries, and had obtained much information in consequence. This letter afforded convincing proof, that the transaction had been minutely investigated previously to his first statement of it, and that his statement had originated, not in error, but in facts officially recorded. 218 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. Observations necessarily introduced in this communication exhibited other instances of improvidence of that Board as a body ; but the Inspector-General added, " that had the blame appeared to him really to attach to any one, either at the dockyard or at the Navy Office, as it certainly is not my duty to be the censor of any one in either of those situations, I should not have presumed to take up their Lordships' time with any observations on this point ;" but that " whatever be the management, the duties of the per- sons concerned are so ill defined, and their instructions so insufficient, that there is no one individual on whom the blame can be fixed." It may seem irrelevant to the memoirs of Sir Samuel Bentham to enter into the particulars of this transaction; but it must be considered that down to this very moment, (for want of some such system of management and of ac- counts as that he advocated,) not, as he said, " hundreds of thousands," but " millions " are imperceptibly lost annually in the civil branch of the naval service, so that his endea- vours to produce a salutary reform of management become a very prominent and important feature of the services which he rendered. The ill-will necessarily resulting to him from a variety of persons, in consequence of his bring- ing such malpractices to view, would have deterred men less conscientious and less persevering. Indeed, much as he possessed these desirable qualities, it has been seen that during Lord Spencer's administration he sometimes would have sunk under opposition, but for his support; and now Lord St. Vincent's confidential secretary, Mr. Tucker, was employed to assure him of the support of the superior Board. In October the service sustained what proved to be an irreparable loss in the death of Mr. Bunce, architect in the Inspector-General's office. Previously to the establish- ment of the office he had been employed by Sir Samuel in the year 1794 in drawing some of his machinery, and SHEERNESS AXD THE ISLE OF GRAIN". 219 in that part of the designs for a Panopticon prison which required the practical skill and experience of an architect. Mr. Bunce's knowledge of the details of his profession, his taste, the information which he had acquired in Italy, his indefatigable industry and high character, led General Bentham to wish for his assistance ; and fortunately Mr. Bunce, from personal regard to the General, was induced to accept the office of architect. From first to last he had been most conscientious in the discharge of his public duty, and his death was occasioned by his zeal. He had attended at the different naval establishments during the whole of the visitation which was this year held by the Lords of the Admiralty, and his strength was already ex- hausted when he undertook the examination of the Isle of Grain. It was the most unhealthy season of the year ; he caught fever, and when recovering, as it was hoped, an unguarded expression in his presence, " that the service was suffering from his absence,"' brought on a relapse, under which he sank.* As the Inspector- General's plan for affording a fitting education to qualify young men for services in a naval ar- senal had not yet been carried into effect, he devised a plan for bringing up working apprentices which should be less objectionable than the existing mode. In his proposal of it, on the 22nd November, he recommended it only as a provisional measure. His proposal was adopted, having proved, as he said, " less costly than the then existing mode, considerably more advantageous to the public ser- vice, and more generally beneficial to the deserving arti- ficers." * See before, p. 163. 220 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. CHAP. X. Tour to visit Cordage Manufactories, January 1803 — Report, and Adop- tion of his Proposals — Treatment of Workpeople in Factories — Services of Mr. Brunei in the Introduction of Block Machinery — Method of rewarding Inventors — Advantages of Non-recoil Guns — Abuses in Job Payments — Proposals for a Government Ropery, 1804 — Contracts for Timber — Opposition of the Navy Board — Arming of the Mercantile Marine — Timber Coynes — Dockyard Machinery at Portsmouth — Mission to build Ships in Russia, 1805 — Arrival at Cronstadt — Diffi- culties of his Task — Opposition of the Emperor — Illness — His Pro- posals rejected by the Emperor — Importation of Copper for Sheathing — Detention at St. Petersburg during the Winter — Panopticon of Ochta — Departure from St. Petersburg — Revel — Carlscrona — Return to England — The Office of Inspector- General of Naval Works merged in the Navy Board. In the course of the visitation of the dockyards, the Earl of St. Vincent and the other Lords of the Admiralty became fully convinced of the expediency of introducing machinery worked by inanimate force to a great extent, as pointed out by the Inspector-General. As he had already overcome opposition to the introduction of steam- engines for working wood and metal, and now contem- plated the still more important measure of manufacturing sailcloth and cordage on government account, he obtained permission (January 1803) to visit manufactories in the north, particularly of cordage. He was fortunate in already possessing the friendship of some of the greatest manufacturers of the kingdom, and by their means obtained introductions to ever}' manufactory which it seemed desirable to visit. He was VISITS COEDAGE MANUFACTORIES. 221 much indebted to many with whom he thus made ac- quaintance for the readiness with which they afforded him means of examining every detail of their business, frequently giving him access even to their account-books, and requiring their subordinates to furnish every required information. He thus visited Birmingham and the manu- factories in its vicinity, including Soho ; also Liverpool, Warrington, Manchester, Stockport, Leeds, Sunderland, Newcastle, Castle Eden, Sheffield and Rotherham, Derby, Warrington, Liverpool, Shrewsbury, Colebrook Dale, Co- ventry, and many other manufacturing towns. The seven weeks that he employed in his inquiries, though in the depth of winter, were fully occupied from daylight in the morning till nine or ten o'clock in the evening. For a part of this tour he invited Mr. Brunei to accompany him, in order to give him an insight into such management as Sir Samuel wished to introduce at Portsmouth. Mr. Brunei, not only at the time, but nve-and-thirty years afterwards, expressed in writing his obligation for this favour. Mr. Goodrich, the mechanist, also accompanied him during the whole of the tour. On the 18th of February, Sir Samuel, in an official letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, informed their Lordships that he had visited different establishments where cordage was manufactured by machinery, the result of which was that he had " seen reason to be entirely convinced that cordage of all descriptions, from the smallest twine to the largest cable, may be advantageously manu- factured by means of machinery, such as may be set in motion by inanimate force ; and this, with regard to all the operations requisite, from the first preparation of the raw material to the completion of the article for use." He stated that the principal advantages of such a manufactory would be a saving of half the expense of manufacturing, that the inconvenience then experienced of obtaining a sufficiency of ropemakers would be done away with, that 222 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTIIAM. the quantity of cordage might be variable according to the demand, but above all, that an uniform superiority of cordage would be insured. He endeavoured to prevail on various manufacturers to attempt the weaving canvas entirely without starch or other dressing, but failed in every instance excepting in that of Mr. Scarth, at Castle Eden. In this factory Mr. Scarth had introduced an arrangement of the warp which placed it in the loom so that the roughness of the yarn was laid in one and the same direction, whereby great facility was obtained in beating up the fabric. This pecu- liarity was at once seen to favour the weaving without starch, and Mr. Scarth undertook to attempt making some webs of canvas without the use of any stiffening whatever. In the course of this tour many opportunities oc- curred of comparing the influence of management on the well-being of the workpeople. As an instance of care towards apprentices lodged, clothed, and fed by the master, the flax- spinning mills of Mr. Bage, at Shrews- bury, maybe honourably cited. The 125 apprentice girls were strong, and in fact healthy, perhaps beyond example in any employ or rank of life, though their business of tending the machines kept them in a quick walk the whole of the working time. The extraordinary healthi- ness and apparent happiness of these girls induced par- ticular inquiry respecting them. The women who had the care and direction of them when not at work, afforded every information requested, the dietary regu- lations, the account -book of actual expenses, &c. With- out this minute examination it could not have been credited that these hard-working, growing girls, from fifteen to eighteen or nineteen years of age, could have been fed at an average of 6d. a day, having meat thrice a week. In the same establishment a few girls were like- wise employed in light work at day pay. The contrast MANAGEMENT OF FACTOEIES. 223 was striking ; these latter were dirty, ragged, sickly-looking. Both at Messrs. Strutt's and Mr. Bage's, requisite means were taken to afford school instruction. Sir Samuel's object in acquainting himself with actual good management of apprentices was preparatory to enter- ing: into the details of naval seminaries on a large scale, still intended by Government, in conformity to his former proposal, and to which his attention was soon afterwards particularly called by Lord St. Vincent. In April, Mr. Brunei having solicited the Admiralty to grant him remuneration for the labour and expense which he had incurred in the invention and perfecting machinery for making blocks, their Lordships commanded the In- spector-Greneral to consider and report what might be proper to be done on the subject of that application. He was aware that few instances were on record in which remuneration had been given expressly for im- provement, although, in point of fact, unperceived reward was habitually afforded, to a very great amount, concealed by a contract for the supply of improved articles. This mode of remuneration was, in his opinion, highly objec- tionable, as being nowise proportioned to benefit derived to the service. He had long had in view a mode of reward sufficient to the inventor, yet not beyond its value to the public. It appeared from the Secretary's letter that no doubt was entertained of the expediency of allowing some com- pensation to Mr. Brunei, and that it was only as to its amount, and the most eligible mode, that Sir Samuel's opinion was required. On this supposition he devised the details of such a mode as should prove satisfactory on that occasion, " but which should also be calculated to afford encouragement to persons of ability in general for the production of other inventions tending to the diminution of dockyard expenses, while at the same time such remu- neration should not hold up a precedent whereon claims 224 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. for compensation could be founded, in any case where the reality of the advantages had not been previously ascer- tained." This new mode was that the amount of com- pensation should be proportioned to the amount of benefit derived from the use of the invention, namely, a sum equal to the savings made by Government for some specific period, and which he ventured to propose. In favour of such a mode of compensation, he observed " that the greater the sum it might be found eventually to amount to, the greater in the same proportion will be the advantage which the service will derive from the inven- tion ; " and that the compensation, however great, would be no neiv expense, but only the continuation, for a short and limited time, of an habitual expense, which would hereafter be saved to the public. It has been, and continues to be, supposed that the whole of the machinery employed for making blocks was the invention of Mr. Brunei. The machines for shaping the shells were indeed so, though they had already been clearly described in Bentham's specification of 1793, but several official documents prove that most of the opera- tions were from the first performed by machines of the Inspector-General's invention, in many instances by ma- chines which he had had at work previously to his appointment to office. Amongst them were those of which he submitted drawings on the 1st of June 1802, as "forming part of the machinery for working in wood." In the same letter he proposed " that these engines should be set up in Plymouth dockyard immediately, to be worked by the steam-engine," particularly specifying that, independently of other uses, " they are, as it were, neces- sary for the cutting out the wood to the proper scantlings and lengths for shell of blocks" So also it appears from various documents that other machines were Sir Samuel's, such as that for forming wooden pins, an apparatus for sawing timber, turning lathes, a circular saw contrived to PRINCIPLE OF NON-RECOIL. 225 cut at pleasure to different angles, and which was em- ployed in the wood mills for cutting off the angles from blocks previously to shaping them. In regard to this and other machinery being then the Inspector-General's pri- vate property, it was arranged with the Admiralty that their value should be estimated, and that thev should be charged by Mr. Lloyd, and paid for to a millwright, who had been trained by the Inspector-General and em- ployed by him in making them. They were thus furnished to Government at a price much below what they had really cost, to the pecuniary loss of the Inspector-General ; while he has also been deprived of the credit of their invention. Continued naval successes by degrees brought con- viction to the Lords of the Admiralty of the superiority of the principle of non-recoil for mounting carronades. At Copenhagen, Lord Nelson placed the Arrow and the Dart opposite the Crown Batter}^, of fifty-two guns, believed to be the most formidable of the defen- sive works of the town. " He " (Lord Nelson) " said to me that he considered them to be of more effective force than the 90-gun ships." It is evident that he did so, as he placed them against those very formidable bat- teries. The Lieutenant of the Dart, on being questioned, in July of this year (1803), affirmed that " ohe guns stood well — no breeching was broke — that he could continue to fire twice or three times as quick as other guns, and was two hours and a half in action with the guns all perfect." The Admiralty had also at this time received details of the ordnance fixed on this prin- ciple which had effected such pre-eminent service at the siege of Acre. That Sir Sidney Smith considered the success of this ordnance as consequent on Sir Samuel's introduction of non-recoil, is evident from his letter of 7th March 1803. It says, " My dear Sir— I have felt it incumbent on me to recommend Mr. E. Spurring, late our builder at Constantinople, and Mr. James Bray, to Q 226 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BBNTHAM. Lord St. Vincent, for promotion in their line ; at the same time I feel it due to you to let that recommendation pass through you. I have therefore given the letter in their favour to Mr. Spurring (who has the advantage of being known, and I hope approved of by you), under a flying seal, for your perusal, previous to its delivery." Sir Samuel learnt from them all particulars of the fitting the Tiger's carronades on his principle, and the great benefit derived from it in mounting ordnance for the defence of Acre. In August of this year the Commission of Naval In- quiry requested the Inspector-General to state to them any " irregularities, frauds, or abuses in any of the Naval departments at Plymouth during the last ten years." He did accordingly communicate information of the nature .required, for which, on the 13th September, he received the thanks of their Chairman (Mr. Nicholls), who, at the end of November, had an interview with the Inspector- Greneral for the purpose of obtaining further particulars. In regard to the pay of workmen, the Inspector-General foresaw that the new establishments for working in wood and metal by machinery would afford opportunity of introducing the improvements which he projected without disturbing the general business of an arsenal. Bespecting pay by job, he furnished to the Commission much information as an example of the thoughtless ex- travagance so frequently observable in Navy Board orders. He informed the Commission that in the repairing of boats — a thirty-four foot launch, for example — the Navy Board regulation required that for the smallest repair of such a boat no less a sum was to be set down in the books than 5/. 2s. ; if that sum should be found in- adequate, the repair was to be denominated a middling repair, and 11/. Is. was the exact sum to be set down, neither more nor less. Again, if that sum were insuffi- cient, the repair was to be denominated a large repair, PLAN FOR A ROPERY. 227 and although the value of the work done should have ex- ceeded the 117. Is. only by a few shillings,, the expense was to have appeared in the accounts to have been doubled, and set down at 227. 2s. The building a new boat of the same size and description amounted, he informed them, to no more than 217. 12s. 6d.. Such a regulation appeared to the Commissioners so absurd, that they entertained, and expressed in writing, doubts of the Inspector-General's accuracy. He therefore obtained and communicated to them copies of official documents establishing the fact, and job work was in con- sequence abolished. The first important proposal of the year 1804 was the detailing his plan for a ropery. Many of the members of the Board of Admiralty, in the course of their sea-service, had witnessed the frequent imperfections of cordage, both in quality of material and in manufacture, and felt assured that they were not likely to be corrected otherwise than by the establishment of such a manufactory as he pro- posed. His proposal was therefore approved by the Admiralty, and on their application to the Lords of the Privy Council, the erection of this ropery was sanctioned by the King in Council, and ordered to be carried into im- mediate execution. The strictness required by the New Regulations in the receipt of timber, that it should be in conformity to con- tract, had been greatly adverse to the interest of contrac- tors. They had been habitually permitted to deliver more or less of timber in quantity, and of a value far inferior to that specified in contracts. Discontinuance of these abuses of course occasioned discussions between contractors and the new timber-masters, and often ill- will towards them. Complaints were made to the Navy Board, who thought proper to make in consequence an advance of no less than twenty-five per cent, on the contract prices, and other alterations in favour of con- Q2 228 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. tractors. The Board also, on the part of the timber merchants, addressed complaints to the Admiralty, sup- porting the merchants against the timber-masters. The Admiralty were not deceived, but extracts from Mr. Mars- den's letter to the Navy Board, 13th May 1804, written by their Lordships 1 express command, will best exhibit the opposition of that Board to this very important improvement in management, and the light in which that opposition was viewed by them. Mr. Marsden's letter begins by stating that the Navy Board had not transmitted certain papers which their Lordships had called for, and goes on to say : " The replies, however, which their Lordships have received from the master ship- wrights and timber-masters of the several yards, give the most satisfactory as well as positive denial and refutation of the assertions of the timber merchants that rigour or ( vexatious strictness and severity ' is exercised on the receipt of timber, or that they feel the responsibility of their situations in the manner you describe, far less the smallest apprehension of losing their places ; and, moreover, their replies fully prove that the root of the evil does not lie in the minds of either the timber-masters or master ship- wrights, as you state, but in those ivho encourage a recur- rence to the former system of receiving timber, which, however beneficial to the contractors, ivas ominous to the public ; and with this true state of the case before their Lordships, it is with astonishment they reperuse the un- founded calumny against the master shipwrights and timber-masters (who naturally have a claim to your pro- tection in the just execution of their duty), which you have thought proper to transmit to their Lordships, to which no other construction can be given than that of your having also the desire that the former system of receiving timber should be again resorted to, under which the re- ceiving officers, on the part of the Crown, were, in fact, the agents of the timber merchants." Their Lordships CENSURE OP THE NAVY BOAED. 229 then go on to state what they consider as proofs " of the present disposition of the Navy Board," favourable to con- tractors, but injurious to the Crown, saying that " their Lordships can be no longer at a loss to account for the backwardness of the timber merchants in furnishing sup- plies, when they are permitted to entertain the hope that the yards will be again abandoned to their undue influ- ence, and the officers be calumniated for the honest dis- charge of their duty to the public." Mr. Marsden terminates his letter thus : " Their Lord- ships command me to conclude by observing that you would not have presumed to use the language with which you have thought proper to close your said letter, had you not confided in that forbearance which you have expe- rienced on the exposure of the negligence, fallacy, and fraud which have pervaded and been fostered by the de- partment under your direction, both at home and abroad, by which the public has suffered immensely, and which would not have passed so long without receiving all the notice it merited, had not their Lordships been impressed with the belief that the consequence which must result from the impartial judgment of the legislature on the facts that have been and will be laid before them, would operate more to the benefit of the public, and be a more useful lesson to future members of the Navy Board, than any measures which their Lordships might have pursued to mark their disapprobation." The Inspector-Greneral had not been informed that such a letter had been in contemplation, but a copy of it was afterwards furnished him, attested by Mr. Nelson of the Navy Office. It may be said to have been unfortunate for the service as well as to himself. It greatly increased the rancour of the Navy Board, as a Board, towards himself, for it was well known that most of the facts that had been, or were intended to be laid before the legislature, had been either furnished by him, or that he had pointed Q 3 230 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. out to their Lordships and to the Commission of Naval Inquiry, the quarters from which such facts were to be ob- tained. It was further known that he had for years, with the approbation and at the desire of two successive Administrations, been collecting data, on which to re- model the Navy Board itself, so as to render it a really efficient and responsible Board, by clearly defining its duties and rendering them practicable, by freeing it from those members who could not be supposed competent, by simplifying the mode of keeping accounts, and especially by introducing to a great extent individual responsibility. On the appointment of the new Ministry, the Inspector- Greneral had the satisfaction to find that the success which had attended every improvement he had proposed, had impressed the new Board of Admiralty with a most gratifying sense of the services which he had rendered. One of the new members, Admiral Grambier, who had himself had opportunities of witnessing those improve- ments, received Sir Samuel soon after his appointment, in an official private conference. On this occasion the Ad- miral expressed himself desirous of doing everything to forward any business which the Inspector- Greneral might have to recommend. He replied that " he should attack their Lordships on the armament of small vessels, adding that his plans in regard to them had nothing new in them noiv — they had been put to the test of experience already." This assertion arose from the protection which had lately been afforded to trade, at his suggestion, by arming coasting vessels with non-recoil carronades, those vessels, notwith- standing, still carrying on their usual traffic. The Channel and the sea off the east coast had, at the beginning of this century, been infested with numbers of well-appointed French privateers, that took our trading vessels when venturing to sea without powerful convoy, whilst at the same time the naval military force of the country was not sufficient to afford convoy equal to the de- mands of the mercantile marine. These circumstances had AKMING OF TKADIXG VESSELS. 231 imparted a peculiar interest to General Bentham's plan of giving to trading vessels themselves a powerful armament. It happened that several of the Berwick smacks which had been armed under the former administration as he had proposed, were now lying off St. Catharine's ; amongst others, was the Queen Charlotte packet. This vessel, as appears by a letter the original of which had been en- closed to the Admiralty, had had off Cromer an engage- ment, on the 27th January, with a brig privateer of four- teen guns, direct from port and full of men, in which encounter the Queen had been victorious. She had but six carronades, 18-pounders, but they were fixed non-recoil, and two long 4-pounders. The master of the packet, Mr. Nelson, affirmed that " he now considers his vessel as su- perior to any of the gunboats — that he actually gives protection to other trading vessels. He has now six carronades on board, and would willingly take four more if he could but have secure protections for eight men ; for that, although he has protections for thirteen men, yet he has always some pressed away from him." For some time back one of the Inspector-Greneral's im- portant inventions, that of coynes for connecting timber, had been ordered for general use in the dockyards, and an intel- ligent shipwright officer, Mr. Helby, had at his suggestion been sent to the several dockyards for the purpose of ex- hibiting the uses of these coynes, and the manner of employing them. To the credit of officers of all ranks in the dockyards, instead of reluctance to be taught by one of an inferior grade, they all manifested the greatest- goodwill, ordering bowsprits, masts, &c. for large ships to be prepared according to Mr. Helby's wish. In fact, dock- yard officers in general were no longer averse to the intro- duction of his improvements. Their opportunities of wit- nessing the success of those already in use, led to conviction in their minds that the adoption of his measures would be advantageous. 232 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. The scarcity of oak for shipbuilding had iLduce 1 the Admiralty to order ten frigates to be built of fir by the same designs, two at each of the five dockyards. The In- spector-Greneral, on hearing of this order, learnt that little had yet been done to those in some of the dockyards, and considering this a favourable opportunity for exhibiting the advantages of the innovations in regard to strength, made in his experimental vessels, he, 4th August, sub- mitted to the Admiralty the expediency of adopting some of the improvements in regard to the arrangement and mechanical combination of the parts, such " as were intro- duced in the construction of the several vessels built under his direction, and of which the efficacy in regard to strength had been proved by more than seven years' experience." This was indeed an extraordinarily favourable opportunity of putting those expedients to severe test, as these fir frigates, being of inferior materials, were expected to be of short duration. He proposed that at each dockyard one of the frigates should be constructed as usual ; the other as he should propose, whereby the comparative duration of the two modes of structure would be fairly tested. His proposal was adopted ; but on inquiry it was found that too much had already been done in the way of preparation to admit of his improvements being introduced excepting in the dockyards of Deptford and Woolwich. Ever since his appointment he had been investigating the means by which success in private manufactories is obtained, and whether similar good management could be introduced in that great manufactory, a naval arsenal. Fully aware too that the manufactories which he had established could never attain the perfection in point of economy that he had aspired to give them, unless they were assimilated to private concerns, he had, from the first use of his machinery in Portsmouth yard, by de- grees introduced many regulations differing materially from dockyard practice. A good deal of work had for EMPLOYMENT OF MACHINERY. 233 some time been done there by bis machinery and by that of which Mr. Brunei had the charge ; but it was not till the 19th February 1805, that he was enabled to acquaint the Admiralty that the whole of the machinery ordered according to his proposals was so nearly ready as to render it necessary that master workmen, and others for the management and use of it should be provided. He therefore requested that he might be authorised to select and engage, in addition to the few hands already employed, such artificers and others as might appear ne- cessary for setting the whole of the machinery to work, and proposed to spend some time at Portsmouth for the purpose of having immediate communication with the master workmen and others engaged in these businesses. This proposal having been referred to the Navy Board, the Comptroller and a committee of it, then on a visitation to Portsmouth yard, stated in their minute, 27th February, that they had consulted the master shipwright, who pro- fessed himself unacquainted with the nature of the works to be carried on by means of the machinery. The com- mittee did not see the possibility of the Board's com- plying with their Lordships' directions, and they saw no alternative but to adopt the proposition of General Bentham. This having been communicated by the Board to the Admiralty, their Lordships transmitted their report to the Inspector-Greneral, who in rep]y acquainted their Lordships that he should " hold himself responsible for not engaging or retaining a greater number " (of artificers and others) than would from time to time become really necessary for carrying " on the work with the greatest economy," &c. In consequence of which their Lordships, on the 30th March, gave their orders to place the three establishments under his management in conformity to the Navy Board's suggestions. Thus he became individually responsible for the whole direction and management of these establishments, not 234 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. less than if they had been private concerns of his own and on his own private account. These establishments were watched from first to last with jealous eyes by a Board that had shown itself all along adverse to the measures which the Inspector-General had proposed ; they were watched too by the several con-< tractors whose interests were invaded by the introduction of these establishments. In consequence of his expe- rience, and of his extreme care in the formation of his plans, they all of them proved as perfect in execution as he had professed they would be. And as to his management in the outlay of money for wages or otherwise, although about a million sterling passed uncontrolled through his hands in relation to these three establishments, it never was in any instance surmised that he had misapplied a single sixpence, or had abused the confidence reposed in him. The use of the coynes of his invention was now be- coming general ; and in the course of his walks in the dockyard, his attention was particularly called by the master mastmaker to the perfection which they enabled him to give to the work in his department — indeed the success of the great variety of improvements which he had introduced here, cheered him and encouraged perse- verance in regard to his other plans, retarded as they were by the customary opposition of the Navy Board. Having at length fairly set the manufactories at Ports- mouth at work, he proceeded in June to Plymouth. His intention was, as that of the Admiralty had been, when he left town, that he should apply himself to the improvement of that dockyard. Immense sums had been lavished upon it, but unfortunately in conformity to plans framed more with a view to splendour than to use. Thus in many instances the new erections had rather impeded than facilitated the business of the port. Scarcely had he arrived when he was attacked by a fever caused by exces- MISSION TO RUSSIA. 235 sive exertion. On the 20th, orders were sent from the Admiralty, through their secretary, desiring his immediate return to town, and also the First Lord's private secretary te signified his Lordship's desire that " he " should return to town with as much expedition as possible." But he was too ill to attend to any business, and the letters were opened by his wife. On being made acquainted with the circum- stance, they expressed their regret at the state of his health, and added that it would not be requisite for him to pursue his journey, until he should be so far recovered as not to endanger a relapse. The evident desire for his speedy return induced him to set out for town on the very day he first left his bed. On his arrival in town, he immediately waited on Lord Barham, who announced that the duty on which it was wished to send him, was that of building ships of war in Russia for the service of this country, his Lordship and Mr. Pitt both considering him (the Inspector-General) as the most eligible person. In case of his acceptance of this service, it was wished that he should set out in a fortnight, and his answer was required on the following day. He was at the same time told that permission had already been received for building the ships in question, but that it would remain for him to treat with the persons in that country with whom it would be necessary to have inter- course, whether the Eussian Ministry or the merchants who might be found willing to contract, and that he would have to see that the ships were properly built. In the course of this conversation, Lord Barham mentioned of himself his supposition that he would be desirous of taking his wife. It happened at this particular time that a variety of circumstances could not but render him desirous of re- maining at home, especially the reluctance of his wife, added to his own, on account of the interruption which it would occasion in the education of his children. However, 236 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL EENTHAM. on his next interview, he expressed his willingness to un- dertake the mission, provided he were permitted to take his wife and family, and that an allowance were made sufficient to cover all his expenses. This was acceded to without the least hesitation, whilst in the course of con- versation many nattering expressions fell from his Lord- ship of his conviction that no other man was competent to this service ; but that in him were combined professional knowledge in naval architecture, scientific skill, personal acquaintance with the resources of Eussia, as well as with distinguished Russians ; while he was also regarded in the most favourable light by the Emperor himself. Archangel was the port which the Admiralty considered most suitable for the business in question, and the Inspector-General was directed to consider what persons would be required as assistants. The appropriate knowledge, probity, and other esti- mable qualities of Mr. Helby, then a quartermaster in Portsmouth dockyard, induced him to recommend this officer as his principal assistant, which was immediately acceded to. On the 2nd August he sailed in the Isabella, and, on his arrival at Cronstadt, was received with the most flattering marks of friendly distinction by the Commander of the Fleet and Port. He proceeded immediately to St. Petersburg, where he was greeted by old friends, high in power. But, to his astonishment and dismay, he learnt that what by the English Ministry had been considered as a cordial and full acquiescence in their wish to build ships in Russia, had been nothing more than a civil diplomatic reply to their application, and which he found had in fact been very far from a specific request. Under these circum- stances, his task was one of extreme difficulty. He how- ever determined to avail himself of all the personal interest which he possessed at St. Petersburg, in an endeavour to obtain for the Ministry of his own country the object of AKKIVAL AT ST. PETERSBURG. 237 their wishes. Fortunately he had been directed to con- ciliate the Russian Court, and if possible to render him- self useful to the Russian Government, so that he had no hesitation in complying with the condition upon which the Minister of the Marine, Admiral TchitchagofT, at length gave his consent to the building of the ships. This con- dition was, that for every vessel laid down for the English Government, a similar one should be commenced for Russia ; that the Inspector-General should equally super- vise the one as the other during their construction, and that all of his improvements in naval construction should be introduced and exemplified in the ships for Russia — a condition highly flattering to him personally. In his first report to the Admiralty, he gave an account of his progress, of the difficulties which he had to surmount, and of the facilities at length afforded to him by the Admiral. In conformity with this arrangement, Admiral Tchitcha- gofT, in October 1805, prepared a paper for the Emperor, in which the above-mentioned particulars were stated, and the Admiral certainly exerted his best endeavours to obtain the confirmation of them. Unfortunately, his reluctance to acquiesce in the wishes of the British Government became but too apparent — yet at the same time he mani- fested his personal regard for Bentham, his conviction of his superior knowledge and abilities, his desire that many of the inventions and improvements of General Bentham should be introduced into the Russian service. Amongst other improvements the establishment of a manu- factory of cordage and sail cloth similar to that for which the Inspector-General had prepared plans in England, was early an object of Imperial solicitude, so that in December 1805, the Minister of the Marine expressed a "wish to have a factory that would do from 100,000 < poods' to 300,000 per annum." The Inspector-General continued strenuous in his en- deavours to obtain the Imperial authority which would 238 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. sanction the favourable proposal of the Minister of the Marine, but all without avail ; and this, although several others of the ministers concurred with Admiral Tchitcha- gofT in the eligibility of the measure. At length, having understood that, on the 13th March 1806, the question had come before a Committee of the Ministers of the Crown, the Inspector-General went early to the Admiral on the following morning, for the purpose of learning the de- cision of that Committee. He found that " it had been determined against allowing vessels for the English service to be built at St. Petersburg ; that twelve Ministers were present at the Committee, that they were unanimous in favour of the measure, but that the Emperor himself (also present) had overruled them all, on the ground of the want of timber for their own use; that, however, the Emperor, as well as the several Ministers, had ex- pressed the greatest willingness to forward any plans of General Bentham for his private emolument in the intro- duction of improvements into their country; particularly they were anxious for a ropery, &c. &c." He went immediately to communicate this information to the Secretary of Legation, Mr. Stuart (afterwards Lord Stuart de Eothsay). It happened that the then Governor-General of the Crimea, General Fanshaw, was at this time at St. Petersburg, and frequently with the Emperor. As General Fanshaw was an old friend and companion in arms of General Bentham, frequent con- versations had taken place between them on the subject of this mission, and to Mr. Stuart's knowledge the Governor- General had regretted that the construction of the con- templated ships had not been proposed from the first to have been in the Crimea, where timber of superior quality might be obtained in abundance and at a low price, from the opposite shores of the Black Sea. Mr. Stuart, in this interview with the Inspector-General, observed that the same objection could not hold good at CafTa as at Peters- OBJECTIONS RAISED BY RUSSIA. 239 burg, and requested the Inspector-General to go imme- diately to General Fanshaw, and learn what he had to say on the subject. He immediately did so, when the Governor- General said as before, that he was exceedingly desirous of the measure, and that he would give every facility for its execution. He, as every other person in power spoken to on the subject, said he could not conceive what the real ground of the Emperor's objection could have been. The Inspector-General endeavoured, but in vain, to learn what that real ground might have been. Count Kouman- goff could not give any further information. On the 16th Sir Samuel was advised both by the Ambassador, Lord Gower, and by Mr. Stuart, to obtain leave to go to Caffa to build ships and purchase masts, &c, and to ask General Fanshaw officially whether he would permit ships to be built there, and what encouragement he would give. Mr. Stuart advised farther that, supposing leave should be obtained, Bentham should set out imme- diately, without losing the time requisite for obtaining an answer from the Admiralty at home. The question was put the same day to General Fanshaw. He replied that " he did not know of the peculiar circumstances in which the Inspector-General was placed here, and of what had already passed as to the refusal of building at St. Peters- burg; he should immediately give him the requisite permission, and afford him every assistance in his power ; but that under existing circumstances he should think it necessary to take the opinion of Ministers, notwithstanding his own conviction of the eligibility of the measure, and the advantages that would result from it to Russia." Vexation at the failure of the English scheme of build- ing ships, after all his exertions and hopes, brought on severe illness. He, however, suffered it not to prevent a continuance of his endeavours ; even in his bed, receiving General Fanshaw. On this occasion the Governor-General informed him that Count Eoumangoff had said " he sup- 240 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. posed the refusal to the proposal for building ships for the English Government to be political." The General advised the Inspector-General to see TchitchagofT again, and obtain from him a decisive answer respecting what steps he would take either for or against the building ships in the Black Sea. On the 21st the Inspector-General, though still ill, went to the Minister of Marine so early that he was not yet up, sat with him during his breakfast, and at last had a con- ference with him in private. In this the Inspector-General desired particularly "to be told whether the objection to building ships at St. Petersburg arose from 'political motives, or from any dislike or objection to him personally. That in either of those cases, it would be folly to contend against such considerations or prejudices, and that accord- ingly, if either of these be the reason, he should give up all further thoughts of doing anything in any part of Russia." On this the Admiral assured the Inspector- General " that there was nothing political in the objection; and that as to personal dislike to him, so far from it, the Emperor had commanded him (the Admiral) to communi- cate with Inspector-General Bentham, and to treat with him respecting the introduction of a ropery, or any establish- ments in which he could assist for the improvement of this country, several of which the Emperor was very desirous of seeing established ; and that he (the Minister) con- sidered himself as authorised to proceed with those that related to his department." In reply, Bentham said that " if these were the Imperial sentiments, he should now turn his thoughts to building ships in the Black Sea, with timber brought from Anadolia, sending them to England loaded with stores — would he, the Minister, have any objection? Would he wish any proposals of this nature to go through him, or through what channel ? " The Minister answered, " that Caffa not being considered as a naval port, he had nothing to do with business carried on there ; that PKOPOSED LETTER TO THE EMPEROR. 241 it was in Count KomanzofT's department, and that Bentham should apply to him." The Inspector-General observed that it would probably be more desirable for him to introduce improvements in the south of Eussia than at St. Petersburg; and afterwards in consultation with a friend (General Hitroff), it was decided that he should address a letter immediately to the Emperor, proposing to build ships in the Black Sea. By the 23rd it was written, and proved satisfactory to that prince ; next day when General Fanshawe called to read it, he advised the omission of a sentence respecting ships of luar. Sir Samuel after- wards took the letter to the Ambassador ; Lord Gower and Mr. Stuart each of them examined it separately, and approved of it, but both agreed that the sentence to which General Fanshawe objected should be retained. As there seemed to be reasons why this letter should not pass through the hands of the Minister of the Marine, the Inspector-General determined, if possible, to present it through his friend General Hitroff. This nobleman had been the companion of the Emperor in childhood and early life, from which arose a mutual affection ; but he had never sought emplo3 r ment or distinction on that account, and was therefore looked upon as a sincere and disinterested friend. He happened at that time to be absent ; but as the Emperor had dispatched a courier desiring him to return, it was deemed best for the success of the proposal, that it should await his arrival* This took place on the 27th, and on the same day the Inspector-General took the letter to his friend, who willingly consented to present it, and caused a translation of it to be made into French, profes- sedly for his own use, but from his anxiety that it should be well done, and from the many verbal alterations which he made, it seemed that he had in view the further object of tendering it in the language most familiar to the Em- peror, although His Majesty understood English well. General Hitroff was ill at the time, and continued too 242 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. much indisposed to go to Court, so that on the 31st March, he sent the letter to the Emperor, accompanied by one of his own, in which he said that Brigadier-Greneral Bentham was not at all willing to re-enter into the Eussian service, but that as an individual he found him ready to do any thing in his power for the advantage of Eussia, whilst he remained, and he advised the Emperor to consent to the building of ships in the Black Sea. Greneral Hitroff having dined with His Majesty, on the 8th of April Bentham went to learn the determination as to CafTa. His Imperial Majesty had told him that the answer in regard to ship building would be given through Prince Tsartorinsky, while in other matters he should commis- sion Tchitchagoff to communicate with Greneral Bentham on the following day. From this he concluded that a re- fusal would be given to the building. He lost no time in communicating to the Admiralty the unfavourable result of his endeavours, and on the 9th he acquainted their Lordships that although no answer what- ever had as yet been given by the Eussian Grovernment to the repeated applications made by Lord Gower respecting the object of his mission, he "had now reason to believe that the Emperor will not at last consent to the building of any ships for our Navy." He added that luckily, although his instructions had extended to the making preparations for building ten ships of the line and ten frigates, he had abstained from engaging for more timber than was neces- sary for two ships of the line and two frigates, which he had hoped would have been ready in the course of that summer, and that if a decided negative should be given to this business, he should think it his duty to send home by the first opportunity the persons who accompanied him ; although the disposal of the timber, and the need of further instructions from their Lordships, might render it necessary that he should himself remain some little time longer in Eussia. FAILURE OF THE MISSION". 243 In reply to his letter, he was directed to obtain, through Lord Grower, a categorical answer, and in case of refusal to send the persons who accompanied him home, as he had proposed; but to remain himself till the materials, tools, &c, belonging to Government should be disposed of. His endeavour now was to obtain leave for the timber which he had purchased to be sent to England duty free, arguing with Admiral Tchitchagoff that it would be only analogous to what England had done for Russia, &c. He was answered that this would be permitted, and duty free. This was a far greater boon than would appear at first sight, for not only the duty saved amounted from ten to fifteen thousand pounds, but the great scarcity of this store in England rendered this additional supply of importance in the Koyal Docks. Although the Inspector- General had had no part what- ever in projecting this mission, and had accepted it only as a duty which he owed to his country, — militating as it did against his wishes and private convenience, as also against the prosecution of the various and great improvements at home which he had so much at heart, — yet his mortification at the result was extreme. Untoward as circumstances had appeared on his arrival, the evident appreciation of his talents not only by the Minister of Marine but by the Em- peror himself, and the facilities that had in consequence been afforded him in making preparations for building ships for the British Navy, together with many other circumstances that had occurred in private communications, had given him ground to hope that at last he should be permitted to accomplish the purpose for which he had been sent from home. Now these hopes were at an end, and he could only look forward to the odium which, however unmerited, generally falls on a man charged with any mission of which the object fails; still this made no change in his determination to devote himself to the service of his own country. R 2 244 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. For some time back business of a different nature had occupied him a good deal. The demand in England for copper, an article so indispensable to the navy, had caused the great holders of it to combine together for raising its price to an exorbitant amount. Here then was an op- portunity of realising one of the benefits which he had in- dicated in his first proposal for manufacturing that article, namely, that " under circumstances when it may be found more beneficial to use the copper of other countries, it might be imported as a partial supply for the use of her Majesty's Navy, without interference with any general commercial privileges or arrangements." Messrs. Bailey, of St. Petersburgh, had proposed to furnish the Navy Board with a certain quantity of copper at a rate much below the English price. The Board recommended reference to the Inspector-General. Samples of it were therefore analysed at the metal mills at Portsmouth, and the expenses at- tendant on bringing it to a state for those mills ascertained, so that the Navy Board authorised Messrs. Bailey to furnish 1000 tons, if sanctioned by General Bentham, and if at a price not exceeding 150/. per ton. He did authorise the sending a quantity, and he obtained it at 145/. lis. 5(7. per ton. This supply, together with the operation of the metal mills, caused the market price of copper to fall as much as 5d. per pound within the twelvemonth following. Inde- pendently of other savings made by the manufacture of sheathing on Government account, by that fall alone it amounted to above 38,000/. a year. At length it was communicated officially to our Govern- ment that no vessels of war could be allowed to be con- structed in Russia for British use. The Inspector-General, on the communication of this note, wrote to inform the Admiralty that, having been well assured that the answer to Lord G. L. Gower's note would be to that effect, he had been anxious to put an end as soon as possible to the current expenses attendant on his EXTENDED LEAVE OF ABSENCE. 245 mission, and previously to the receipt of their Lordships' orders of the 1 1th May, had taken the earliest opportunity of sending home the persons he had brought with him, with the exception of Joseph Helby, who would remain until the timber was shipped. On the 8th of October the Secretary of the Admiralty wrote, that he had "their Lordships' commands to acquaint you that they approve of what you have done." On receipt of these letters, the season being too far ad- vanced to admit of his return to England, or of shipping the timber, he necessarily was detained for the winter at St. Petersburgh, yet not without anxiety, as no formal no- tice had been received of acquiescence in the Imperial desire of obtaining for him a temporary leave of absence. But with the sanction of our ambassador, and in obedience to the instructions he had received to do everything in his power that might be agreeable to the Emperor, he had consented to introduce some of his inventions and improve- ments. On the 17th March, 1807, he heard from a private friend that the Admiralty, not having received from the Russian Government any application for his stay at St. Petersburgh, had commanded his return by the 24th June. But a long correspondence and much trouble ensued before he was informed by the Secretary to the Admiralty, that in consequence of the desire expressed by the Emperor, his leave of absence had been extended to September 29, 1807. This mission affords a striking example of the mischiefs arising from want of precision in diplomatic communica- tions, especially verbal ones. The sending an officer of high trust, and the expenses incurred so uselessly in regard to the artificers who attended him, solely on the authority of a courteous reply from Russia to a vague request from Eng- land, but above all the disappointment of obtaining twelve ships of the line and as many frigates in a time of war, might E 3 246 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BERTRAM. have afforded good grounds to an opposition party in Par- liament for inquiries respecting the measure. But there happened at this period to have been so many changes in the Administration, that this mission passed unheeded. The only establishment which he was enabled to com- mence in Eussia was the Panopticon at Ochta. For the sake of expedition it was built of wood. The progress made in it during the few short months of summer was so great, that its efficacy in affording perfect inspection of all its parts from the centre was manifest- He obtained freight in June for two cargoes of timber, but finding it impossible to procure any means of convey- ance for the whole, he wrote to Admiral Gambier to induce him to send transports from England for the remaining 4000 loads. The Enssian Admiralty having expressed a wish to purchase the copper bolts sent from England, and par- ticularly the tools and engines of his invention, he dis- posed of them, as well as all the implements, &c, provided for building- the above-mentioned four vessels. Having; completed these arrangements, he took leave of the Em- peror, so as to be home by the time indicated, but the Imperial alliance with Bonaparte having already taken place, no passport could be obtained in the usual mode. This delayed his departure to the middle of September, when the Emperor assigned one of his cor- vettes to convey the General and his party from Eevel to Sweden. No greater proof can be given of the Emperor's confi- dence in his honour than that, notwithstanding the war with England, he was not only permitted to examine the important port of Eevel, but allowed to take notes, with the view of ascertaining the best means of improving it. This was the more remarkable, as it was evident that devotion to his own country was the sole cause of his return home. The flattering distinction with which he had been received STEERS FOR CxYRLSCR02s T A. 247 at St. Petersburg by official men and others, as well as by the Emperor himself, had had no charms in competition with service at home. • Pecuniary considerations had been of no avail ; for the Emperor had assigned him an allowance, paid monthly in advance, exceeding that of any of his Ministers. His stay at St. Petersburg had been so unexpectedly protracted, that nightly frosts had already commenced when he and his family left that capital in the middle of September. On their arrival at Revel, two days' rest were allowed them whilst he examined the port. It was in- tended that the corvette should convey him to Stockholm, in order that he might obtain the King's permission to inspect the naval arsenal at Carlscrona. It proved to be a voyage of alarms and danger, for the commander of the vessel and his officers appeared little competent to manage her, and the sails were so set that often she was carried aback instead of forward. One stormy day she was about to be run ashore on a Danish island, when he at last ventured to interfere. The commander, to his credit, admitted the truth of his observations, and put the vessel under his direction; the sails were altered to his wish, and the corvette escaped. As English, they had unusual dread of any Danish port, exasperated as the Danes were at that time by the late slaughter at Copenhagen. But he and his children spoke Russ as natives, and would have passed as Russians ; while his wife's few words of Russ would have sufficed, ill and confined to her cot as she was. At length he thought it prudent to steer for Carl- scrona, the nearest port friendly to England, instead of Stockholm, the commander having had orders to land him at any place in Sweden which he might select. Great indeed was his relief when a pilot from that port was once on board. Before going on shore, the Governor had been informed of his arrival, and sent his carriage to receive him on his landing. s 4 248 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. It was not in the power, however, of any of the authorities to admit any one to the arsenal without special permission from the King. This was immediately applied for in favour of Bentham, and accorded in due course of time. He had already acquainted the Admiralty at home that he in- tended visiting Carlscrona in his way, in order to examine the great works there, especially as the route across Sweden at that time of year, and during the state of war, was the only one that afforded a chance of his timely arrival in England. This port was the only naval establishment in the Baltic which General Bentham had not previously visited. Its splendour and the utility of its arrangements are well known ; but he had opportunity of learning what were the real advantages derived from these works. The Governor of Carlscrona, Admiral Puka, and the Principal Officer of the Naval Arsenal, Major Kilgren, most kindly afforded him every information. The many anxieties and fatigues which Greneral Bentham had undergone of late had produced an illness that needed rest ; yet when he had inspected the works of the arsenal, he immediately set out on his return. His kind ac- quaintances at Carlscrona had given him letters of introduction to the landed proprietors whose estates were situated on his route. This was fortunate ; for. when half way between that town and Gothenburg, his travelling coach, an English one, broke down. He learnt that he was within half a dozen miles of Engeltofta, the resi- dence of a proprietor, Major Schamsward, where there was an establishment of English workmen, for the works needed on the estate. He and his family walked on to Engeltofta, where he was cordially welcomed. His carriage was well repaired; and during the three days requisite for the work, they were entertained in the most hospitable and friendly manner by the Major. On his es- tate, a few miles north of Helsingborg, amongst the tender RETURN TO ENGLAND. 249 fruit-trees were olives, which bore fruit, and a keg of them preserved as in France, had been sent as a present to that country. On reaching the coast, they had to wait some days for the sailing of a packet before they embarked for England. After a long and dangerous passage, they landed at Har- wich, where he received letters from his office, The first which he opened informed him that the office of In- spector-Greneral of Navy Works was abolished, and that, in consequence of a recommendation of the Commission of Naval Revision, it was to be incorporated with the Navy Board, of which he was to be appointed one of the Com- missioners. 250 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTHAM. CHAP. XL Changes of Administration at the Admiralty — Influences at \rork during his absence in Kussia — Acceptance of Office in the Navy Board — Letter from General Fanshawe — Compensation to Mr. Brunei for Sayings on Blocks — Proposal for a Canal from Portsmouth Harbour to Stokes Bay — Mixture of Copper and Tin — Faulty method of Ship- building — Covered Docks — Modes of Seasoning Timber — Seasoning Houses — Sheerness Dockyard — Northfleet and the Isle of Grain — Breakwater at Plymouth. To account for this unexpected change, the different disposi- tions of the several Admiralty Naval Administrations under which Sir Samuel had been employed must be reverted to. Enough has been already said to prove that, whilst the many glorious achievements of the navy proved the wis- dom of Earl Spencer's military measures — he was alive to the want of improvement in the civil branch of the service. His own perception of the value of General Ben- tham's suggestions led his Lordship to induce him to undertake a visit to the dockyards, and then to enter permanently in H. M.'s service ; yet even from the first his Lordship manifested the ruling spirit of his administration — that of conciliation of the existing interests. Through- out the many years of his presiding at the Admiralty, whilst he listened with the greatest interest to General Bentham's suggestions, and eagerly solicited him to point out abuses and mismanagement, he perceived that it was the system itself, and very rarely this or that individual that was at fault ; it was, therefore, a reform of the system itself which Lord Spencer aimed at, as the only effectual remedy. It appeared to him that the Inspector-General's CHANGES OF NAVAL ADMINISTRATION. 2-51 peculiar situation, together with the insight he had had from a boy into the business of a dockyard, rendered him especially competent to contrive a mode of management that should be effectual ; but though his talents were ac- knowledged and appreciated, the Secretary of the Admi- ralty was associated with him in the business, in order to conciliate inferiors, and he wished the whole to be framed in a manner to injure as little as possible the existing ser- vants of the Crown. When the Earl of St. Vincent came to preside at the Admiralty, the widely different spirit of the new Adminis- tration was immediately evident. This may be accounted for by the mismanagement and abuses habitual in the dockyards, which frequently occasioned delays, disappoint- ments, and useless expenses on board the ships and fleets that his Lordship had commanded, sometimes even suffi- cient to have put in jeopardy the success of an expedi- tion. His Lordship and his Board had experienced the value of military discipline in bringing seamen to a strict performance of their duty, and it appeared to them that similar means might be adopted with equal efficacy in the civil branch of the navy. His Lordship, moreover, was continually urged to extreme measures by some of the sea Lords in the Board of Admiralty. That abuses did exist sufficient to excite the wrath of a conscientious Board, the few examples adduced in these pages would alone suffice to prove ; but the correction of them was not likely to be effected by the frequent habitual use of such intemperate expressions as that the " master shipwrights ought all of them to be hanged." The specific abuse which gave rise to the Com- mission of Inquiry (namely, the retaining infirm men when past their work, in the dockyards, at the pay of the young and efficient artificers), was an abuse as well known to the Navy Board and to the Comptroller himself as it was to the master shipwrights. But it was in fact neither attributable to the dockyards, to the Navy Board, nor to the Comptroller; 252 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. but it sprung from the system of management, for that system made no provision whatever for different rates of pa}', so that a man after having spent his best years in the service, when at length his strength failed, would neces- sarily either be altogether discharged, or retained at the same pay as when in his full vigour. It could not be ex- pected that the dockyards or the Navy Board should be so wanting in humanity as to dismiss a deserving artificer so long as he could, on any pretence, be continued on the books. Of Lord St. Vincent's never ceasing endeavours for the real benefit of the service, the Inspector-General had fre- quent and convincing proofs. His Lordship's relinquish- ment of patronage evinced itself frequently, particularly in the appointments at the dockyards, and the introduction of the new regulations for timber. On that occasion neither his Lordship nor any of his Board patronised a single favourite ; the best men were sought for and appointed, whether taken from private yards or already engaged in the royal ones. The succeeding administration of Lord Melville was no less favourable to the Inspector-General than the preced- ing ones had been ; and his various plans of improvement in ship building, manufacturing establishments, and engi- neering improvements in the dockyards, all were pro- gressing satisfactorily, when the Tenth Eeport of the Committee of Inquiry appeared. The excitement which it produced occasioned a most unfortunate change, end- ing in defalcations from the measures that had been pur- sued for improvement and reform through three successive Naval Administrations. Lord Barham, now First Lord of the Admiralty, was known to be unfriendly to the Committee of Inquiry, and Lord Sidmouth has said (Life, vol. ii. p. 362) that " Lord Barnaul's opinions are adverse to those we have upheld." The Board of Naval Eevision instituted at this time BOARD OF NAVAL REVISION. 253 seems to have been decided on with a view to prevent such disclosures as had been elicited by the Committee of Enquiry, to veil abuses from the public eye, and to enable the civil service of the navy to "glide smoothly on in the beaten track which it had worn for itself." There seems every reason to suppose that if General Bentham had been in this country at that time, and had had opportunity of stating facts to disprove unfounded allega- tions, no decision could have been come to which could have caused the abolition of his office. Indeed, from the first mention of the mission to Eussia, he could not but suppose that some covert motive in regard to himself personally had been in view. In a letter to Earl Spencer whilst a member of the administration, he says, " I cannot but sometimes suspect, considering the precipitation with which I was sent here, before the Emperor's leave was asked, that an anxious desire of removing me out of the way contributed not a little to heighten the advantages expected from my services at Archangel. I was somewhat confirmed in this suspicion b}^ the expression of a man whose influence at the Admiralty was yery great, when with a most cordial shake of the hand, it came out, as it were unawares that 6 for his part, though he had the highest opinion of my talents and zeal, yet he would give his voice for allowing me at least six thousand a year if by that means he could be assured I w r ould never return again.' " Besides the annoyance which the Navy Board felt at having been obliged to give reasons for what they re- commended or objected to, there seems to have been very powerful private interest operating during his ab- sence. It had become evident that in Bentham's office most important works had originated and were perfected with- out extraneous aid, so that the interests of the private engineer no less than of the contractor, w T ere materially affected. Advantage was taken of his absence to attack the metal mills ; and as to engineering works, a plan had 254 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BEXTIIAM. been brought forward during that time for the creation of a Naval Arsenal at Northfleet, similar to, and in place of that proposed by him in the Isle of Grain. By the adoption of the Northfleet plan, the private engineer and manufacturer of millwright's work could not have failed to derive immense pecuniary advantages. These interests, operating simultaneously and at a time when there were very frequent changes in the Naval Admi- nistration, may well account for the abolition of the In- spector-General's office recommended by the Committee of Inquiry. On Bentham's return he was ignorant of the Grounds on which the Committee of Revision had based their re- commendation^ as to his office, but in an interview with Lord Mulgrave, then presiding at the Admiralty, to use the words of General Bentham's letter to his Lordship 9th March, 1808, he "understood that the intention of abolishing my present office had not arisen from any doubts of the efficacy of it, but merely from the expec- tation that by incorporating me with the Navy Board, I should be able to continue my former pursuits with less opposition, and, therefore, with more advantage to the public service. This did not appear to me so certain." He, therefore, had requested to submit to his Lordship what appeared objectionable in the measure. General Bentham had then only seen the Fourth Eeport without its appendix — the only one of the Eeports that had been published without such an addition — but having obtained from the navy office the appendix also, to use again the words of that letter, "I saw that the aboli- tion of my office was grounded altogether on the extract of a Eeport from the Navy Board, in which it w represented that the establishment of the office of Inspector-General of Navy Works had not produced any benefit to the service equivalent to the expense of it^ that he i( saw blame imputed either to me for having in- REMARKS OX THE SUPPRESSION OF HIS OFFICE. 255 terfered in the business of the Navy Board/' " or to the Admiralty Board for having made use of me as their instrument in the investigation of business which it was their Lordships' duty to control, and when at the same time it did not appear that any one on the part of the Admiralty had been called upon to produce any docu- ments, or even to give any opinion relative to the utility of this appendage to their own office." He observed in the same communication, that he felt it incumbent on him to make a statement on the subject more in detail than he had conceived would have been needed, when he first obtained permission to draw up such a paper ; and added that necessary attention to the current business of his office, together with illness, had prevented his com- pleting it ; but having heard accidentally that the patent for the change was making out, he sent a part of his observations and requested some little delay for the re- mainder. They were accordingly submitted to the Admi- ralty on the 9th of March and 6th of June. In these observations the services rendered by the In- spector-Greneral of Navy Works were noticed under their several heads, showing how impossible it would have been to have effected them, as a member of the Navy Board. He farther spoke of the improvements which he had introduced in naval architecture, and of the decided opposition he had had to encounter from the Dockyards and Navy Board, till at length experience had proved their efficiency. He also represented the strict individual responsibility under which the Inspector-Greneral of Navy Works proposed any measure, and brought to notice that by the Third Eeport of the Commissioners of Revision, it had not been intended to abolish the office of Inspector- Greneral of Navy Works, which, therefore, must have been an afterthought, perhaps on a supposition that he was not likely to return from Russia. He urged that of all branches of duty, that of a civil architect was the one for which his 256 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. previous education and habits were least likely to have rendered him fit ; whilst on the contrary he was to be altogether excluded from that duty, to which he had prin- cipal ty devoted himself from the period when his classical education was finished, and to which his studies had been particularly directed. No notice was ever taken of these papers, though on one occasion he was taunted by a Lord of the Admiralty with having had the education of a gentleman, previously to his having devoted himself to that of a shipwright. But the abolition of the office had been determined on. General Bentham for some time hesitated to accept the proffered seat at the Navy Board. He requested an inter- view with Lord Mulgrave, to ascertain what would be the pecuniary consequences to himself if he should refuse, and learnt that the retiring allowance intended to be granted would not be sufficient for the decent support of his family. He consulted his friend the Speaker ; and having by his advice decided, though reluctantly, to accept a commis- sionership of the navy, on the 29th of August he com- municated this determination by letter to Lord Mulgrave. He accordingly took his seat. The members of the Board were individually friendly, whilst by the Board itself he was subjected to many petty annoyances. So far as these regarded himself, he would not suffer them to stand in competition with the public service; but he soon found that persons belonging to the office of the Inspector- Greneral of Navy Works, now transferred to the Navy Pay Office, were to be injured in their interests: and, in order to retain their assistance, he was under the necessity of remonstrating against the hardship under which his senior draughtsman, Mr. Heard, laboured, he being, by Admiralty order, to be placed as an assistant draughtsman, whilst his junior, Mr. Millar, was to be placed over his head. General Bentham's time had been in great part engaged in investigating vexatious attacks on the manufacturing esta- DEFENCE OF THE DOCKYARD FACTORIES. 257 blishments in Portsmouth dockyard. On the 6th January, in reply to Messrs. Taylor's assertion that they were fully satisfied that the block machinery would not do what was expected of it, General Bentham informed the Navy Board that, with the exception of a very few trifling obstacles before specified, the wood mills were able to furnish all the articles specified in the blockmaker's contract. So, on the 30th January, in answer to a statement "that the sheathing now manufactured at Portsmouth was of inferior quality to what had before been made there," he wrote to the Board that, on inquiry, he saw no reason for sup- posing it to be inferior to what it had been before, or that too much labour, as was asserted, had been required from the workmen; but added that if the Board would point out from what particular circumstances their appre- hensions arose, he would make further inquiries. On the 9th of April he gave the Board a detailed account of the works completed for the supply of fresh water throughout Portsmouth yard and to the fleet, as also of the works for extinguishing fire. The new navy patent, in which General Bentham's name was included, was not read at the Navy Board till the 7th December. The books of the office of Inspector-General of Navy Works were, by Admiralty order, removed to the Navy Office. The General had never given a thought to use the title which was authorised by his Majesty's permission, or to wear in his own country the Cross of St. George. He was advised by his friends, particularly Lord St. Helens, to assume it on his removal to the Navy Board. It was at first intended that the First Lord of the Admiralty should present him anew to the King on his appoint- ment, but it so happened that he was put off from time to time, and that it was not till 1809 that he went to Court, where he was received by his Sovereign as Sir Samuel Bentham, K.S.G. s 258 LIFE OF SIR SAMUEL BENTHAM. There appear but few documents relative to the busi- ness of this year. Severe and long-continued illness of several members of his family prevented his wife from taking copies of official papers, and he had no longer even a single clerk at his disposal. It seems, however, that he was much occupied in considering the further introduction of machinery, and of various extensive plans of improve- ment of several naval arsenals, especially that of Ports- mouth Harbour. A letter received from his old friend General Fanshawe, acquainted him that the Panopticon at St. Petersburg " stood well, notwithstanding the shafts of envy," and that he had suggested the erection of a similar building for barracks. The amount of compensation due to Mr. Brunei had engrossed a great portion of Sir Samuel's time. On the face of this business it might appear scarcely to justify the withdrawing so much of his attention from other matters, but collateral circumstances rendered his investi- gations of real importance, as it afforded proof of many of the oversights, if not abuses, frequent in making naval contracts. The machinery in question having been in full work by the year 1809, Mr. Brunei, on the 5th June, trans- mitted to the Navy Board calculations which he had made of the savings for one year, amounting to 21,174/. 12s. 10d, The Admiralty had directed the Navy Board to consult General Bentham as to the best mode of estimating the savings made by the machinery for making blocks. The papers were referred to him. He put them into the hands of Mr. Rogers, afterwards a clerk in the Secretary's Office, who after office hours went into various elaborate calculations, which made it appear that, supposing the prices for blocks to be those at which they were contracted for with Mr. Dunsterville, the savings would amount to no more than 6691/. 7s. 5