actions between Great Britain and the United States, &c." and inscribed it as an " humble appeal to the understandings of the loyal inhabitants of his majesty's North-American provinces." In the succeeding June 1 arrived in England; and, in about a twelvemonth afterwards, I published a single octavo volume, entitled, " A full and correct account of the Naval Occurrences of the late war between Great Britain and the United States. In June, 1818, I was induced to publish a work, in two volumes octavo, on the " Military Occurrences " of the same war ; and in the latter end of that year, or the beginning of 1819, I formed the resolution, the presumptuous resolution, as I now think, of writing a narrative of the different naval actions fought between Great Britain and her enemies since the declaration of war by France in February, 1793.

Of that work, in its present amended state, I am now to speak. In the " Introduction," I have endeavoured to make the unprofessional reader acquainted with the rise and growth of the British navy ; with the ancient as well as the modern armaments of the ships composing it ; with the same respecting the ships of foreign navies ; and, in short, with every other particular that I thought would assist him in understanding details, among which, to avoid too frequent a recurrence to paraphrase, I have been obliged to intersperse a great many technical terms. In order, however, to lessen the inconvenience arising from that circumstance, I have given a " Glossary of sea-terms," extracted chiefly from Falconer and Darcy Lever ; and which Glossary, as it at present stands, is far more copious than it was in the old edition.

The main subject of the work I have divided into annual periods, and have subdivided each year's proceedings into three instead of, as formerly, four principal heads : BRITISH AND FRENCH OR OTHER FOREIGN FLEETS ; LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS; AND COLONIAL EXPEDITIONS.

Under the first head, the leading subject for the current year is invariably the state of the British navy. Some account of the navy of the opposite belligerent is then given ; and, after that, the proceedings of the rival fleets. This head takes in all expeditions that are not of a colonial nature, the operations of

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