On the 15th of March, Mr. Pitt brought forward his threatened motions.  He contended, that although the enemy had made the most formidable preparations for an invasion, which would probably be attempted within a few weeks, the effective force of the navy, from line-of-battle ships down to hired armed vessels, was at that moment inferior, and less adequate to the exigency of the danger, than at any former period.  Notwithstanding it was so evidently necessary to oppose to the enemy’s flotilla a force of a similar description, capable of acting in shallow water, the Admiralty had ordered only twenty-three gun-vessels to be built, of which five were to be completed in three, and the remainder in six months, though the necessity for them was immediate and urgent.  He condemned the Admiralty for giving up the former approved plan of building line-of-battle ships by contract in private yards.  Two-thirds of the navy, he said, had been thus built; for during a war all the strength of the King’s yards was required for repairing ships, and building was necessarily suspended in them almost entirely.  Through the last war, of twenty-nine line-of-battle ships, twenty-seven had been built in merchants’ yards; while in the present only two had been contracted for, although fourteen or fifteen slips fit for building them were then unoccupied in the river.  He contended, finally, that the Admiralty had been very remiss and unsuccessful in raising men for the navy.  In the war of 1793 we began with 16,000 seamen and marines, and had 75,000 or 76,000 at the end of the year.  In the present war we began with 50,000 men, and had raised them only to 86,000.  Thus, in the former war there had been an increase of 60,000 men in the year; but in the present only of 36,000, though our mercantile marine was so much greater.  Upon these arguments he founded motions for an account of all ships, from line-of-battle ships down to hired armed vessels inclusive, in commission on the 31st of December 1793, 30th of September 1801, and 31st of December 1803, specifying the service on which they were respectively employed; for a copy of the contracts made, and the orders given by the Admiralty in 1793, 1797, and 1803, with respect to the number of gun-vessels to be built; for a list of ships built in the King’s yards for 1793 and 1801; but if it should be thought that any intelligence on this head might be a channel of improper information to the enemy, he would abstain from pressing it, for he was aware that there would still be grounds sufficiently strong to convince the House that it was the preferable plan to construct vessels in the merchants’ yards; and, finally, for a similar list of vessels built by contract in private yards.