DIRECTING our attention, as usual, to the abstract of the British navy, drawn up for the commencement of the present year, * we find an increase, though small, in the total of the line-of-battle cruisers, but a decrease, of equal amount, in those in commission. The whole number of cruisers, line and underline, has increased considerably since the last abstract ; and so, as a necessary consequence, has the grand total of the navy. The vessels, captured from the French, Dutch, and Spaniards, amount to less than half those in the preceding abstract ; but, among the latter, were only three sail of the line, while the line-of-battle ships in the former amount to 12 : of these, however, one only, the San-Josef, was of any value as a cruiser. � The continuance of the stormy weather of 1796, through the winter months of the following year, filled the casualty-list of the latter with several melancholy cases of shipwreck. In other respects, the loss sustained by the British navy during the year 1797 was of trifling amount. �

The " launched " columns of this abstract present nothing worthy of remark ; except that we may notice the foundation of a new frigate class, the 40, carrying 24-pounders on the main deck. The new individual was the Endymion, a ship built as nearly as possible after the Pomone, captured from the French in April, 1794 ; � but measuring 38 tons more, owing to an error in the mode of taking the dimensions of the Pomone. Had that been rectified, the two ships would have measured nearly alike.

* See Appendix, Annual Abstract No. 6.
� See Appendix, Nos. 8, 9, and 10.
� See Appendix, No. 11.
� See vol. i., p. 291.

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