on Saturday, both above and below the bridge, was the hottest that has been for some time.  The boats belonging to the ships at Deptford were particularly active, and it is supposed they obtained upwards of 200 men.’ The Times reports thus account for 1280 men over and above the 1340 stated to have been impressed at Plymouth and Portsmouth, thus making a grand total of 2620.  It will be proved by official figures directly that the last number was an over-estimate.

Before going farther, attention may be called to one or two points in connection with the above reports.  The increase in the number of seamen voted by Parliament in March was 7600.  The reports of the impressment operations only came down to May.  It was not till the 11th June that Parliament voted a further addition to the navy of 32,000 seamen.  Yet whilst the latter great increase was being obtained—­for obtained it was—­the reporters are virtually silent as to the action of the press-gang.  We must ask ourselves, if we could get 32,000 additional seamen with so little recourse to impressment that the operations called for no special notice, how was it that compulsion was necessary when only 7600 men were wanted?  The question is all the more pertinent when we recall the state of affairs in the early part of 1803.

The navy had been greatly reduced in the year before, the men voted having diminished from 100,000 to 56,000.  What became of the 44,000 men not required, of whom about 35,000 must have been of the seaman class and have been discharged from the service?  There was a further reduction of 6000, to take effect in the beginning of 1803.  Sir Sydney Smith, at that time a Member of Parliament, in the debate of the 2nd December 1802, ’expressed considerable regret at the great reductions which were suddenly made, both in the King’s dockyards and in the navy in general.  A prodigious number of men,’ he said, ’had been thus reduced to the utmost poverty and distress.’  He stated that he ’knew, from his own experience, that what was called an ordinary seaman could hardly find employment at present, either in the King’s or in the merchants’ service.’  The increase of the fleet in March must have seemed a godsend to thousands of men-of-war’s men.  If there was any holding back on their part, it was due, no doubt, to an expectation—­which the sequel showed to be well founded—­that a bounty would be given to men joining the navy.

The muster-book of a man-of-war is the official list of her crew.  It contains the name of every officer and man in the complement.  Primarily it was an account-book, as it contains entries of the payments made to each person whose name appears in it.  At the beginning of the nineteenth century it was usual to make out a fresh muster-book every two months, though that period was not always exactly adhered to.  Each new book was a copy of the preceding one, with the addition of the names of persons who had joined the ship since the closing of the latter.