18-pounders for 12s was considered an improvement: all three ships did not undergo the change in the year 1808; but, to prevent multiplying the classes unnecessarily, the whole are removed in the present Abstract.

(d) The Martin; built at Bermuda of the pencil-cedar.

(e) This was the first time that the British navy could boast of a "10-gun sloop-of-war." The establishment of the class was eight 18-pounder carronades and two long sixes, with a complement of 75 men and boys. These "sloopsof-war," therefore, were inferior in force to the generality of gun-brigs, and not superior, except in point of size, to many of the 10-gun schooners or cutters. Surely, if the number of guns must be limited to 10, the carronades should have been at least 24-pounders. The size of the vessels, 235 tons, was quite equal to that caliber, and no one can dispute that they would have been much more effectively armed. In addition to all this, the whole class turned out very dull sailers; proving that as little judgment had been employed in modelling the hull as in establishing the armament. (f) Number of hired vessels about 60.

END OF VOL. IV.

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET