JB/013/066/001

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1820. Decr 15.

J.B. to Mora

men who had risen from day-labourers, with no other learning
or knowledge than that of a common House-carpenter,
except what depended on the difference between working on
a House and on a ship. As we lived together, I used to see
his Proposals to the Admiralty, and the answers sent by
the Navy Board: when the time came for their co-operation,
"Mischievous and impracticable" was the constant
substance, and very frequently the wording: no attempt
at reasoning: for of that they were utterly incapable.
Thus from him came page after page of reasoning, such
as you will see: pearls cast before swine, and which might
as well have been cast into the fire. It was in the truth of
such opposition that he effected what you will see effected.
The Members of the Navy Board being, in various
ways connected with Commanders of Ships, laboured with
all their might and not without success, in giving their
assistance to the opposition so made. No influence, no
lying, were spared to depretiate what he had done. Lord
Spencers confidence in him, and admiration of him were
entire as they still continue. Buth when Lord Spencer
went out, then returned ignorance. Earl St. Vincent
understood how to command ships, but he understood nothing
else. Lord Melville, the present man, not being
a sea officer, understood neither commanding of ships,
nor any thing else. What placed him was the being the
son of the first Lord Melville, who had been in the habit
of applying the corruptive system to Scotland, and along
with the estate (composed of public money) and
the title, succeeded to that sort of knowledge and skill,
and practice, which was necessary to the carrying on
of the same system of corruption, and nothing else:
i.e. how to secure votes and speeches in Parliament
by the gift or prospect of lucrative offices. When Lord
Spencer went out, the office by which my Brother was enabled to
render the services above alluded to was abolished. When you
have run over the list of them, you should bear in mind, in
the first place, that nothing of that nature had ever been done
before, nor has been since. This moment there exists, among
a number of men, a squabble in the Morning Chronicle about
the invention relative to the keeping of Ships under
cover:

Identifier: | JB/013/066/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 13.
Date_1	1820-12-15	Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	013	Main Headings	rid yourselves of ultramaria
Folio number	066	Info in main headings field	jb to mora
Image	001	Titles
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d6 / e6
Penner	john flowerdew colls	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public	copy of letter 2713, vol. 10	ID Number	4515
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