gross neglect ; "et notamment l'impéritie de celui du Jacobin," the French, instead of losing any of their dismasted ships, would have captured all those of the British. Jean-Bon Saint-André further declares, that he left his enemy in a worse condition than himself ; that Lord Howe, had he possessed the means of attacking him, would have employed them, as the French did not attempt to escape ; and that the British admiral took no steps to prevent the French frigates, and even the smallest of the corvettes, from towing away those ships which had been forced out of the line.

The charge against the captain of the Jacobin is both an unfounded and an ungrateful charge. Was it not a shot from that ship, which, by cutting away the fore topmast of the Queen Charlotte, enabled the Montagne to effect her escape ? And had not Lord Howe good reason to attribute the paucity of his prizes, although seven in number, to the palpable remissness of several of his captains ? There were, undoubtedly, at the close of the action, 12 or 14 English line-of-battle ships, without even a topgallantmast shot away ; and some of these ought certainly to have secured two (the Scipion and Jemmappes), if not four (including the Républicain and Terrible), of the five more or less dismasted French ships. Of frigates and sloops of war, as on almost every similar occasion, the British had not only none to spare, but not enough to perform the services, for which, chiefly, vessels of that description are attached to a fleet.

So that, in untoward occurrences of this nature, as in number of line-of-battle ships, the British and French fleets were nearly upon a par. That Lord Howe should have preferred departing with his six prizes, to waiting the issue of another attack, may have surprised, whether joyfully or not, the French conventional deputy. But perhaps there were not a few among the admiral's countrymen, who could appreciate his motives ; who, might consider that, although many of the British ships were in a condition for active service, those very ships had attained their effective state by their tardiness in engaging : while the ships that had evinced an eagerness for close combat lay disabled around the Charlotte, possessing, like her, all the spirit, but none of the means, again to distinguish themselves. In fact, had the 1st of June battle terminated similarly, in point of indecisiveness, to that of the 29th of May, there would have been many unpleasant courts-martial.

Let us now pay the attention that is due to a professed historical account of the battle, inserted in a French work of some celebrity. That account begins by adopting the rhapsodical speech of Barrère de Vieuzac respecting the sinking of the Vengeur. It is needless to repeat the account ; but some allowance ought to be made for the credulity of the French, when their national self-love was so powerfully wrought upon by the flaming descriptions of the same event in all the London

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