powers at war with her, is greater in this than in any preceding year;* but some of the other years, the last especially, show, by the " Tons," that those years greatly exceeded the present in the real quantum of strength acquired. The wrecked cases still continue to comprise nearly the whole annual loss sustained by the British navy: the three captured vessels, indeed, did not exceed a small sloop of war in their united tonnage. �

The year 1797, as we formerly stated, gave the 32-pounder carronade, for a quarterdeck and forecastle gun, to line-of-battle ships in general; � and, to complete the triumph of General Melville's piece of ordnance, the year 1799 saw the carronade established, in a similar manner, throughout the different classes. of frigates. On the 31st of May in that year, urged by the captains of most of the frigates that were fitting, the navy-board obtained an admiralty order to arm them all, 17 in number, with carronades, � chiefly 32-pounders, on the quarterdeck and forecastle, except in the pair of ports on each of those decks which opened against, or in the wake of the rigging. Towards the end of the year, namely on the 12th of December, the order for carronades was extended to frigates in general, and made to include all the ports on the quarterdeck and forecastle, except the two foremast ones. The reason of the exception is clear: long guns, at any elevation to be given them through port-holes, carrying farther than carronades, two of them would be useful as bow, or, if shifted, as stern chasers.

The order in question, and one we have to notice in the ensuing year, completed the demolition of the rating system, or that system of classification founded upon the number of long guns only mounted by the respective ships. || As the 74, by the subtraction of 12 of her 18 long nines, to make room for the same number of carronades, had, in strictness, been reduced to a 62-

* See Appendix, Nos. 1}

* See Appendix, Nos. 2}

* See Appendix, Nos. 3}

* See Appendix, Nos. 4}

� See Appendix, No. 5.

� See vol. ii., p. 106.

� The number of carronades which the ordnance-board was directed immediately to supply, were one hundred and sixty-six 32-pounders and forty-two 24-pounders. The frigates for which the former were ordered, were as follows:

This makes but 142 out of one hundred and sixty-six 32-pounders : the remaining 24 had been ordered for two prize frigates (12 each) which were afterwards found on survey, not worth fitting out.

|| See vol. i., p. 37.

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