It having come to my knowledge, from certain affidavits filed in the Court of Admiralty by Mr. Stokes, the master of Lord Gambier’s flagship, on whose chart the acquittal of Lord Gambier had been based—that, _after the lapse of eight years from the court-martial!_ material alterations had been made _by permission of the Board itself and under the direction of one of its officers_—I naturally became suspicious that the charts might otherwise have been tampered with; the more so, as neither at the court-martial, nor at any period subsequent to it, had I ever been allowed to obtain even a sight of the charts in question. The very circumstances were suspicious. On the application for head-money to the Court of Admiralty in 1817, the Court had refused to receive Mr. Stokes’s chart, on account of its palpable incorrectness. On this, Mr. Stokes applied to the Admiralty for permission _to alter his chart_! The permission was granted, and in this altered state it was received by the Court of Admiralty, which, on Mr. Stokes’s authority, decreed that the head-money should be given _to the whole fleet_, contrary to the Act of Parliament, _instead of the ships which alone had taken part in the destruction of the enemy’s vessels_. Fearful that material erasures or additions had been made, I once more applied to the Board for permission to _inspect_ the alterations. The request was again refused, though my opponents had been permitted to make what alterations and erasures they pleased. The following are extracts from the above-mentioned affidavits of Mr. Stokes:— Extract from the affidavit, sworn before the High Court of Admiralty on the 13th of November, 1817, of Thomas Stokes, master of the _Caledonia_, as to the truth of the MSS. chart, upon which the acquittal of Lord Gambier was based; _before_ the Court of Admiralty rejected his chart, and _before_ the alterations were made. “And this deponent maketh oath that the annexed paper writing marked with the letter A, being a chart of Aix Roads, _is a true copy[5] made by this deponent_ of an original French chart found on board the French frigate _L’Armide_ in September, 1806, which _original chart is now in the Hydrographic Office in the Admiralty_, and by comparing the same with the original chart he is enabled to depose, and _does depose that the said chart is correct and true_, and that the soundings therein stated accurately describe the soundings at low water, to the best of his judgment and belief.” Extract from a second affidavit, sworn by Mr. Stokes, before the High Court of Admiralty, on the 17th of April, 1818, _after_ the Court had refused to admit his chart from its incorrectness; and _after_ the alterations had been made!