ship is of greater nominal caliber, by one ninth, than the heaviest long gun carried by any British ship ; * and, as a French gun, of any given caliber, is of greater power, by one twelfth, than an English gun of the same nominal caliber, � the mere number of guns on each side is still an inadequate criterion of force. It remains, then, to reduce the calibers of the 8718 English and 6002 French guns into English pounds; and, that being done, a very simple arithmetical operation produces the following statement:

Here is a difference, not as the loose unwarranted statements usually made public would have us infer, of more than a half, but of very little over a sixth ; and it is this mode of comparison alone, that can enable posterity duly to appreciate the efforts of the British navy, in the two long and eventful wars, which succeeded and grew out of the French revolution. Nor can the French themselves reasonably complain that this view of the relative strength of the two navies presents too slight a numerical difference; one of their conventional deputies, and no less a man than Jean-Bon Saint-Andre, having made the following public and uncontradicted assertion : " Avant la prise de Toulon, la France était la puissance maritime la plus redoutable de l'Europe."

As soon as war was resolved upon, the seamen of France were called together, by addresses calculated to rouse their patriotism and invigorate their efforts. The most violent invectives were cast upon the king and government of England ; and the latter's alleged hatred to France was painted in glowing colours. The sailors were promised that their pay should be augmented, that, during their absence at sea, their wives and children should be taken care of, that a considerable proportion of such prizes as they might capture should devolve on themselves; and then, an enticing picture was drawn of the richly-freighted ships of England, coming alone and unprotected from every quarter of the