ABSTRACT
After 1796 'individual responsibility' became the alternative to the prevailing system of collective management. From 1815, the naval workforce began to provide for their own economic security and from the 1820s they were able to educate themselves. Individual responsibility promoted self-respect and a sense of trust, both of which made important contributions to confidence in the navy in the mid-nineteenth century. The great appeal of the Navy Bill to back benchers in 1832 was its promise of greater economy and efficiency. The year 1832 marked the establishment of an administrative doctrine that was to determine the conduct of officialdom in London, in the agencies of central government throughout Britain, and in its growing Empire. Applied at every level in bureaucracy, the new doctrine proposed a new perception of public servants, one that invited trust. It suggests a new relationship between the public and its servants, and the departments of the navy were at the centre of this sea-change in culture.
