'In your position as chairman of the Manning Committee I wish to draw your attention to a point, which I consider of the utmost importance.
'We have two brigs, the Rollo and the Nautilus, at Portsmouth and Plymouth for apprenticing boys for the Navy. You are perfectly acquainted with their excellent system, and the fact that, after having completed their time of instruction, these boys form the best sailors in the Queen's service, having acquired a taste for the Man-of-War service early in life, and are free from any connection with the Merchandise. But these two ships give the Navy only about 200 seamen a year. What are 200 annually to a fleet of 50,000? Why should not each of the Coast Guard Ships have a brig attached to them on their respective stations for receiving boys? The brigs are worth nothing to the service, and I am told that the applications for the entry of boys is always far beyond the present means of receiving, whilst men are frequently not to be had. If 2000 boys so trained were added every year to the Navy for ten years' service, it would be none too many. It would only give us 20,000 men at the end of ten years; but these would be permanently added to the stock of seamen of the country, which I am sorry to say appears to be gradually falling below our wants.
'Ever,
'Yours Truly,
'ALBERT.'
OSBORNE: July 24, 1856
* * * * *
The labours of Lord Hardwicke and his colleagues were received with general approbation on all sides, although his own declared opinion of the advisability of reviving the Press-gang in certain circumstances was not generally accepted.
I must here mention that although Lord Hardwicke was debarred by the regulation in force from accepting the decoration from King Victor Emmanuel of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, his Majesty was still determined to mark his sense of my father's services to Italy at Genoa. Six years after the revolution of Genoa he caused a medal to be struck bearing the national arms and inscribed with the words:
'Al Valore Militare. Lord Conte di Hardwicke, commandante il vascello Vengeance. Distinti servizii pel Ristabilmento del Ordine. Genova, 1849.'