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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 481
Honourable Court, what I conceive to be the causes of every
defect and deficiency in the Marine character and institution.
The want of a code of laws enacted by legislative authority
has been and continues to be the prominent defect of
the ]\larine establishment. It is only necessary, I humbly
conceive, to refer to a description of the duties expected from
the Marine, as given by the Honourable Court, in their public
letter under date of the 1st of August, 1798, to render it
manifest, without a waste of arguuient, that a Corps having
such services to perform, should be vested with legal
authority, and its discii)line upheld by the power of a legal tri-
bunal. The Honourable Court, in the second paragraph of the
letter referred to, have stated the following to be the objects of
the establishment of the Marine force. 1st. To protect the
trade from port to port. 2nd. To defend the Company's trade
and possessions. 3rd. To transport troops, &c. 4th. To make
nautical discoveries. 5th. To convoy packets. It must be
very evident, upon the most superficial review of these duties,
that their effect and creditable execution depend upon pro-
fessional knowledge, public zeal, and strict discipline and
subordination.
'"The next principal defect in the Marine establishment
results, in my humble judgment,' continues Mr. Money,
' from the low estate to which the officers' com])arative rank
is reduced. By the old regulations of the Company, yet
nnrei)ealed, the commanders of their regular ships from Europe
take their rank between a captain and a major in the army. By
the order of the Honourable Court already referred to, it was
directed that, in order to preserve due respect and attention to
the officers of the Marine, who on important occasions are
associated with the — military, corresponding rank should be
assigned as follows : " The commodore to rank with a colonel
in the army; captains of ships of twenty-eight guns and
upwards, or senior captains, with lieutenant-colonels, junior
captains with majors, first-lieutenants with captains, vtc." Tliis
distinction, supported by a code of martial law, would have
given to the Marine Corps all the vigour and spirit which it
could be rendered capable of expressing; but by subsequent
resolutions, the corresponding rank was virtually abolished, and
the code of laws which tiie Su]n-eme (lovernment so strongly
recommended, and which the Honourable Court declared, upon
a conviction of its necessity, that it was their intention to
procure, has never been obtained. On the 22nd of May, 1804.
the Honourable Court was pleased to direct that the com-
manders of their regular shii)s, whose corresponding rank with
the military rested between that of a major and a captain,
should precede all the cai)tains of the Marine, liaving the com-
parative rank of lieutenanl-culonels of the army, ^^'llatever of
VOL. I. il