He said, at the board, that his conscience would not allow him to trust any ship of his majesty's to a person who had not regularly been bred a seaman.

On being further pressed upon the subject, Sir Edward declared, that he would suffer his right hand to be cut off before he would sign any such commission.

In this he was, in some degree, justified by the mutinous behaviour of Halley's crew, who refused to acknowledge the legal authority of their commander, and involved him in a dispute which was attended with pernicious consequences.

Mr.Dalrymple, on the other hand, was equally steady in requiring a compliance with the terms he had proposed.

Such was the state of things, when Mr.Stephens, secretary to the Admiralty, whose discrimination of the numerous characters, with which by his station he is conversant, reflects as much credit on his understanding, as his upright and able conduct does on the office he has filled for so many years, and under so many administrations, with honour to himself and advantage to the public, observed to the board, that since Sir Edward Hawke and Mr.Dalrymple were equally inflexible, no method remained but that of finding out another person capable of the service.