experience, must have been aware, that the English ship carried long 18-pounders, the French ship long 8, or, putting them into English, long 9-pounders ; a difference itself of one half in the weight of metal. Many similar instances might be quoted from the same work ; but the case of the Lively and Tourterelle will be sufficient to expose the absurdity and unfairness of such a manner of stating the force between contending ships.

On the 10th of April, at 10 a.m., a British squadron, composed of five ships of the line and three frigates, under the command of Rear-admiral John Colpoys, while cruising to the westward, with the wind at east by north, discovered three strange sail in the north-west quarter. Chase was immediately given ; and, at noon, the strangers were discovered to be three French frigates. The 74-gun ship Colossus, Captain John Monkton, having got within gun-shot of one of them, opened her fire ; which the frigate returned with her stern-chasers. The three French frigates, soon afterwards, took different courses. The two that pointed to the westward were pursued by the 74-gun ships Robust and Hannibal ; while the one that steered a northwesterly course, and which was the 36-gun frigate Gloire, Captain Beens, was followed, closely by the 12-pounder 32-gun frigate Astræa, Captain Lord Henry Paulet, and, at a great distance, by one or more of the other ships.

At 6 p.m., having far outstripped her consorts, the Astræa got within gun-shot of, and fired several of her quarterdeck guns at the Gloire, who, in return, kept up an incessant fire from her stern-chasers. Advancing gradually up, the Astræa, at 10 h. 30 m. p.m., brought the Gloire to close action, and, after a 58 minutes' spirited cannonade, compelled the French frigate to haul down her colours. The three topmasts of the Astræa were so wounded by the Gloire's shot, that her main topmast fell over the side in two hours after the action, and the fore and mizen topmasts were obliged to be shifted. The masts and yards of the Gloire, and the rigging and sails of both ships, were also much cut.

The Astræa mounted, it appears, no more than the 32 long guns of her class, and, out of her 212 men and boys, did not lose a man killed, but had one mortally, two dangerously, and five slightly wounded. The Gloire, who appears to have mounted two more sixes than the establishment of her class, or 42 guns in all, lost, according to the representation of her officers, 40 in killed and wounded together.