The minion was the 4-pounder : what name the 3-pounder of 1677 had previously taken does not appear.

It will be sufficient to say of the lesser calibers in Sir William's list, that they, or most of them, were afterwards called swivels, simply because, when again brought into use, they were mounted on stocks, or upright timbers, having a pivot on which the gun traversed. Upon the degree of credit due to Sir William Monson's account of the ancient sea-service ordnance, we are unable to pronounce ; but the list certainly appears to have been drawn up without much care. At the same time, it must be owned, that great confusion prevails in all the accounts which have been published on the subject; as far, at least, as our researches have extended. The precise time at which the whole of the British sea-service guns dropped their names of beasts and birds of prey, to assume those designating the weight of the shot they respectively discharged, cannot well be ascertained; but the change certainly took place between the years 1685 and 1716, and that is sufficiently near for our purpose.

Soon after the commencement of the new century, a surprising diminution appears in the number of rated classes belonging to the British navy. In the abstract of 1677, a total of 129 ships divide into 31 classes, exclusive of 10 sub-classes, separated on account of a difference in the distribution or calibers of their guns, or in the amount of their complements of men; while, in an abstract taken in August, 1714, a total of 198 ships divide into only 10 classes. There is no great difficulty in explaining how this arose. A reference to the abstract of 1677 shows, that the 90, 70, 54, and 48, gun classes were the most numerous; the majority of the others comprising but one or two individuals each, and those among the earliest built in the abstract. Hence, the capture, wreck, or other disposal of a ship frequently annihilated a class; and we find that, between the years 1689 and 1697, the British navy actually lost, by capture alone, 50 vessels : it is probable, too, that at least an equal number fell by the perils of the sea.

King William, in the mean time, had built 30 large ships; (17 of 80, 3 of 70, and 10 of 60 guns;) and half that number of still finer ships had been captured from the French. Such ships of the 54-gun class, and of the classes between the 48 and 42 inclusive, as had not been lost or disposed of, appear to have, been reduced, the first to 50, the latter to 40 gun ships. Besides which, some ships, constructed to mount 40 guns, had been built. Several 30 and 20 gun ships had been built, or taken from the enemy. Hence, the 10 rated classes of the year 1714 were, the 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and 10, gun-ship class; the latter consisting of only one individual

The rates themselves appear about, this time, to have also undergone reorganization. The first-rate now descended no lower than the 100, and the second, no lower than the 90 gun

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