The navy was in a much more efficient state than at the time of his accession: and the improvement is partly to be attributed to his own exertions.

He had appointed no Lord High Admiral or Board of Admiralty, but had kept the chief direction of maritime affairs in his own hands, and had been strenuously assisted by Pepys.

It is a proverb that the eye of a master is more to be trusted than that of a deputy: and, in an age of corruption and peculation, a department on which a sovereign, even of very slender capacity, bestows close personal attention is likely to be comparatively free from abuses.

It would have been easy to find an abler minister of marine than James; but it would not have been easy to find, among the public men of that age, any minister of marine, except James, who would not have embezzled stores, taken bribes from contractors, and charged the crown with the cost of repairs which had never been made.
The King was, in truth, almost the only person who could be trusted not to rob the King.

There had therefore been, during the last three years, much less waste and pilfering in the dockyards than formerly.