between a half and a 12 pound ball, could deny that the substitution of the latter was a surprising improvement in the art of attack and defence.

The most extraordinary circumstance connected with the employment of carronades in the British navy, is that, with all their alleged advantages, they should never have been thought worthy to be ranked among the guns of the ship that carried them. Whether they equalled in caliber the heaviest of those guns, added to their number a full third, or to their power a full half (in the 14-gun sloop-class, the additional eight carronades made the numbers as 22 to 14, and the broadside weight of metal, in pounds, as 96 to 42), still they remained as mere a blank in the ship's nominal, or rated force, as the muskets in the arm-chest. On the other hand, the addition of a single pair of guns, of the old construction, to a ship's armament, removed her at once to a higher class, and gave her, how novel or inconvenient soever, a new denomination. When, for instance, in 1740, the admiralty ordered that the old 40-gun frigate should mount four 6-pounders on her quarterdeck, she became thenceforth a 44 * when also, in 1778, eight additional 6-pounders were placed upon the quarterdecks of the larger 90-gun ships, they were separated from their former companions, and promoted to a class by themselves, the 98. � When, in 1780, the Canada 74 received two additional 18-pounder long guns for her second deck, she became registered as a 76, and until the capture of the Hoche (afterwards named the Donegal), in 1798, was the only individual so registered; but when, in August, 1794, the Canada received two 68-pounder carronades for her forecastle, she still remained as a 76. In 1780 the 50-gun ship Leander received on board two 6-pounder long guns, in exchange for two 24-pounder carronades � what the latter, with their quadruple claim, had not interest to procure, was granted to the former unasked; and the Leander, for upwards of 30 years, continued to be the only 52-gun ship in the navy. In 1781 the 74-gun ship Goliath received on board two 68-pounder carronades; but, as they were, not two 9-pounder " guns," she was not sent to keep company with the Canada. A dozen other instances might be adduced; but these will suffice.

So long as the word gun retains its signification, of a military engine which " forcibly discharges a ball, or other hard substance, by means of inflamed gunpowder," so long must a carronade be considered as a gun. Yet the distinction has usually been " guns and carronades;" in which sense, certainly, no ship in the British navy appears to have mounted more guns than were assigned to her by her rate. But why, when, at a subsequent day, the eight or ten "guns" upon the quarterdecks of

* See p. 27.

� Derrick, p. 178.

� See the Leanders name in the list Appendix, No. 3.