1811	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	368

the legion of honour. On the 7th of February, 1812, Lieutenant De Mackau was made a capitaine de frégate ; soon afterwards a baron of the French empire : and on the 1st of September, 1819, a capitaine de vaisseau.

On the 30th of May, 1814, on board the Gladiator at Portsmouth, a court-martial sat on the surviving officers and crew of the Alacrity. The court acquitted them of all blame, and attributed the brig's loss to so many of her officers having been killed or wounded, and to the "captain's not returning on deck after having had his wound dressed by the surgeon." The court, also, greatly eulogized the conduct of James Flaxman, the, boatswain ; and he now, we believe, fills a similar station on board a line-of-battle ship.

The French official account states the force of the Alacrity at " 20 carronades, 32-pounders." For this there was some ground, the brig having really mounted two small brass guns, 2 or 3 pounders, abaft. But there were no shot for them ; they were the captain's playthings, and served occasionally to exercise the crew in the necessary art of polishing. Of this oversight, or whatever it may have been, in Captain De Mackau, we feel the less disposed to complain, because he fairly states the force of his own brig at " 20 carronades, 24-pounders." A French writer, whose works are of deservedly high repute in this country, has selected about four cases out of the mass to be found in these pages, in order to show, that " French valour can triumph over British bravery," " la vaillance française pouvait triompher de la bravoure britannique." * Far be it from us to discourage the laudable endeavours of M. Dupin to reanimate the drooping navy of his country : we heartily wish he may succeed, because we are convinced that, unless the French navy thrives, the British navy will droop. By the French the British can afford to be beaten occasionally ; and, had the British been oftener defeated during the six years that preceded, they would, we are sure, have been oftener successful in the three years that followed, the 18th of June, 1812.

However, not to lose sight of M. Dupin, let us remark that, in stating the broadside-force of the Alacrity at 127 " kilogrammes," and that of the Abeille at 109, he proves the inaccuracy of his information respecting the mounted force of the two vessels. M. Dupin may correct his error by reducing the following into French weights : Alacrity, broadside-force 262 lbs., Abeille, same, 260 lbs. In stating that the French brig Renard was of the same force as the Abeille, M. Dupin is also wrong, owing probably to his being unacquainted, that the Abeille was not a regular-built French corvette, but a large American brig, purchased at some port in the Mediterranean and fitted out by the admiral at Toulon as a cruiser. The very circumstance of

* Dupin, Force Navale, tome ii., p. 85.

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