ADMIRALTY ADMINISTRATION ITS FAULTS AND DEFAULTS SECOND EDITION REVISED (WITH A POSTSCRIPT) LONDON LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1861 200.a.69. 231. e. 37. PREFACE. THE principle of publicity with respect to Naval affairs has been so completely established by the unreserved statements of members of the Board of Admiralty in Parliament, as well as by the publication of the Reports of all Commissions of Naval Inquiry, some spoken of by the Government when appointed as strictly confidential, that no new information can be given, or facts stated, which have not already been before the country in some official or authentic shape. But these revelations on a variety of unfamiliar subjects, made separately and at considerable intervals, have almost necessarily failed to convey any satisfactory general view either of the state of the Navy, or of the system by which it is governed, while the endless differences of opinion among professional men, and the want of any intelligible principle in Naval Administration, have led to the habit of regarding the Navy as a subject apart from all ordinary |