ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the attitude of politicians to the Navy during the period 1750 to 1815 and examines the ways in which politicians manipulated the Navy's image to secure their own ends. The government was bound to be supportive of the Navy since it was recognized as the key to Britain's diplomatic and military strength. Since the Navy was of such national importance, both naval operations and administration were obvious targets for any opposition, who eagerly charged the government with mismanagement in these respects whenever an opportunity arose. Popular politics became more sophisticated during the 1760s when the Wilkite movement made full use of the various channels of political communication. There were several invasion scares after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, most notably perhaps in 1798, and the concurrent wave of patriotic sentiment helped to quash the various forces of political reform prevalent in the 1790s.
