men; to be exact, 39,045. The number of seamen in the British
Empire in 1793 was 118,952. In the next year the number showed
no diminution; in fact it increased, though but slightly, to
119,629. How our merchant service could have satisfied the
above-mentioned immense demand on it in addition to making good
its waste and then have even increased is a thing that baffles
comprehension. No such example of elasticity is presented by
any other institution. Admiral Byam Martin spoke so positively,
and, indeed, with such justly admitted authority, that we should
have to give up the problem as insoluble were it not for other
passages in the admiral's own evidence. It may be mentioned that
all the witnesses did not hold his views. Sir James Stirling, an
officer of nearly if not quite equal authority, differed from
him. In continuation of his evidence Sir T. Byam Martin stated
that afterwards the merchant service could give only a small
and occasional supply, as ships arrived from foreign ports or as
apprentices grew out of their time. Now, during the remaining years
of this war and throughout the Napoleonic war, great as were the
demands of the navy, they only in one year, that of the rupture
of the Peace of Amiens, equalled the demand at the beginning of
the Revolutionary war. From the beginning of hostilities till
the final close of the conflict in 1815 the number of merchant
seamen fell only once--viz. in 1795, the fall being 3200. In 1795,
however, the demand for men for the navy was less than half that
of 1794. The utmost, therefore, that Sir T. Byam Martin desired
to establish was that, on a single occasion in an unusually
protracted continuance of war, the strength of our merchant service
enabled it to reinforce the navy up to the latter's requirements;
but its doing so prevented it from giving much help afterwards.
All the same, men in large numbers had to be found for the navy