[APPENDIX.]
The very important services of the fleets of Britain, through successive generations, have justly entitled her Seamen to public recompence and protection. Every means, therefore, which good policy or expediency could suggest, have been adopted at different times, for their comforts and welfare.
Whether from an illiberal distinction, or a faulty omission, I know not, still the Marine Soldier, habitually a sharer in the dangers and the glory of our Navy, notwithstanding such natural claims to notice, was, for a long while, excluded from a participation in these humane regulations which afforded independence to the destitute families of our Sailors when afar off in their Country's service. It was reserved for a recent and a more enlightened era to extend also to the Marine, a privilege which must constitute the sweetest joy of every good man—that of allotting a part of his pay, when embarked, and distant from his home, for the constant support of a wife and family otherwise doomed to want, an aged parent weighed down by poverty and years, or a dependant friend struggling hard against adversity.
I shall state the nature of those rights which have progressively been granted to the Marine Soldier, and point out the mode by which they can be practically adopted. It is a tribute, however, meritedly due to the Right Honorable Mr. Dundas, to remark, that from his intelligent and generous conceptions, first emanated all these estimable privileges to the subordinates in the Royal Corps of Marines, which were eagerly discussed and sanctioned by a grateful Legislature.
Without recurring to the express Acts of Parliament, upon which those indulgencies are founded, I will simply digest their spirit, and detail the necessary steps to be observed, under every possible contingency. It will be proper to mention, in the first place, that every Marine Recruit should intimate to his wife or kindred, immediately after his joining Head Quarters at Chatham, Portsmouth, or Plymouth, the number of the divisional Company to which he has been attached. Young men too frequently name only their parade Companies which is of no use after they are embarked on board, as such often undergo a change while they continue on shore. By particularizing the former, it serves as a certain clue to their friends in every enquiry concerning their destinies, and will correct mistakes when two, or more, of a similar name shall happen to belong to the same ship or division.
In April, 1763, Marine Soldiers obtained the right of following their trades in any town of Great Britain (except those having Universities) after their discharge from the service. This remains the same.
It is to be observed, for the guidance of legal heirs to prize-money, which may be due to any deceased Marine Soldier, that if they do not exhibit their claims within three years after notice has been given by the Agent or Agents, of its being in course of payment, such goes into the funds of Greenwich Hospital. This shews the absolute necessity of every family or kindred maintaining a constant correspondence with their distant military friends, and as the life of a Soldier is ever precarious, he should not fail to report, by letter, the circumstantial particulars of each fortunate capture at sea, in which he may have an interest, in order that his legal or designed heirs may meet with little difficulty in tracing out where his property lays, in the event of death.
As the Country wisely permits the Marine, in common with all the subordinate servants of his Majesty, an œconomical communication with his dear and remote friends, by the abolition of every postage excepting the payment of one penny, no occasion should be lost of availing himself of this valuable privilege. From this item being lodged with each letter into the office from whence it is dispatched, I am afraid, however, it often happens, when on the eve of putting to sea, that those poor fellows, in the hurry of the occasion, entrust their money and their secrets to unprincipled watermen, who may be tempted to pocket the one, and destroy the other without a chance of detection. Were the receivers of each letter obliged to pay this little impost, correspondence might be more regular, such frauds prevented, and the revenue continue unaltered.