The number of commissioned officers and masters, belonging to the British navy at the commencement of the year was:

and the number of seamen and marines, including officers of all ranks, voted by parliament for the service of the current year, was 45,000 *

To the uninitiated public, a nomenclature, in which "commander," i.e. he that commands, stands as a subordinate rank to "captain," must appear, to say the least of it, very extraordinary. The former rank was originally styled "master and commander;" probably to distinguish the merchant-master, hired to command a small ship of war, from the captain regularly, brought up in the navy. In process of time, having a reference more to the sound than the sense of the term, the first two words were lopped of, and "commander" became both a generic term, signifying whoever possessed the command of a ship of war (hence, we frequently see, "Ships and their commanders," endorsed upon books and official records), and a specific term, denoting that rank next in subordination to a post-captain, or rather captain, as the rank is now more commonly called. The Americans use a term not quite so ambiguous as master and commander: they call their captains of the second order "masters-commandant," which means " masters-commanding ;" and that, in many instances, is really the case, most of their present captains and commodores having originally been masters in the merchant-service. There is, however, a real distinction in naval language between a "captain" and a "commander ;" inasmuch as the latter, besides receiving less pay, may remain a commander for a century if his life should last so long, while the former ascends progressively to the head of the list, as his seniors drop off, or are promoted to flag-officers. To show that there a distinction between the two orders of captains, we have, as is seen above, added to "commanders" or "sloop-captains;" afraid to venture at lopping off the first term because so long used, and, among the profession at least, so well known, but sanctioned, in a great degree, in subjoining the latter term as an explicative, by the notorious fact, that every "commander" is officially styled

* See Appendix, No. 5.