Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/269

 NAVY. 233

bers : the First Lord, always a member of the Cabinet, and four assistant commissioners, styled, respectively, Senior Naval Lord, Third Lord, Junior Naval Lord, and Civil Lord. Under the Board is a Financial Secretary, changing, like the five Lords, with the Government in power ; while the fixed administration, independent of the state of political parties, consists of a Permanent Secretary, and the heads of five departments, called Accountant-General of the Navy, Comptroller of Victualling, Director-General of the Medical Department, Director of Engineering and Architectural Works, and Director of Transports. The duties of each member of the Board as recently rearranged are as follows : — The First Lord has supreme authority over everything, and all questions of grave importance are referred to him for his immediate decision. He also is the dispenser of all patronage. The Senior Naval Lord directs the movements of the fleet, and is responsible for its discipline. The Third Lord has the management of the dockyards, and superintends the building of the ships. The Junior Naval Lord deals with the victualling of the fleets, and with the transport department. The Civil Lord is answer- able for the accounts. The Financial Secretary makes all purchases of stores, and is what his name implies, the authority for all matters connected with Finance. The different departments of the Admiralty are being reorganised. At present there is a Secretary's department presided over by a Permanent" Secretary ; and seven other depart- ments, under the Accountant-General, the Controller of Victualling, the Superintendent of Stores, the Superintendent of Contracts, the Medical Director-General, the Director of Engineering and Architec- tural Works, and the Director of Transports.

The navy of the United Kingdom is a perpetual establishment, and the statutes and orders by which it is governed and its discipline maintained — unlike the military laws, which the Sovereign has absolute power to frame under the authority of an Act of Parlia- ment — have been permanently established and defined with great precision by the legislature. The distinction also prevails in the mode of voting the charge for these two forces. For the army, the first vote sanctions the number of men to be maintained ; the second, the charge for their pay and maintenance. For the navy, no vote is taken for the number of men ; the first vote is for the wages of the stated number of men and boys to be maintained ; and though the result may be the same, this distinction exists both in practice and principle.

According to the naval estimates granted by Parliament in the session of 1870, the expenditure for the navy, for the year ending March 31, 1871, will be 9.250,530/. as compared with 9,990,641/. voted for the year 1869-70, or a decrease of 746,111/. The fol- lowing is an abstract of the estimates for 1870-71 as compared with the votes for 1869-70 :—