nd
commander-in-chief of her majesty's fleet. In the year 1703.' They
also contain all the other matter as in Russell's, while another copy
has bound with it all the fleet articles of war under the hand of
Prince George of Denmark, then lord high admiral.

As they were not issued till 1703, the second year of the war, in
which Rooke did nothing but carry out a barren cruise in the Bay of
Biscay, we may assume that the Cadiz expedition of 1702 proceeded
under Russell's old instructions of the previous war. It was under
Rooke's new instructions, however, that the battle of Malaga was
fought in 1704. They were certainly in force in 1705, for a copy of
them exists in the log book of the Britannia for that year (_British
Museum, Add. MSS_. 28126, ff. 21-27). They were also used by Sir
Clowdisley Shovell during his last command; as we know by a printed
copy with certain manuscript additions of his own, relating to chasing
and armed boats, which he issued to his junior flag officer, Sir John
Norris, in the Mediterranean, on April 25, 1707 (_British Museum,
Add. MSS._ 28140). Nor is there any trace of their having been
changed during the remainder of the war. At the battle of Malaga they
were very strictly observed, and in the opinion of the time with an
entirely satisfactory result; that is to say that, although Rooke's
ships were foul and very short of ammunition, he was able to prevent
Toulouse breaking his line and so to fight a defensive action, which
saved Gibraltar from recapture, and discredited the French navy to
such an extent that thenceforth it was entirely neglected by Louis
XIV's government, and gave little more trouble to our fleets.

Though no copy of these Fighting Instructions has been found with a
later date than 1707, we know that with very slight modifications they
continued in use down to the peace of 1783. The evidence is to be
found scattered in proceedings of courts-martial, in chance references
in admirals despatches, and in signal books. For instance, in the
'Mathews and Lestock Tracts' _(British Museum_, 518, g), which
deal with the courts-martial that followed the ill-fought action off
Toulon in 1744, eight of the articles then in force are printed. All
of them have the same numbering as the corresponding articles of 1703,
six are identical in wording, and two, Numbers I. and XIII., have only
the slight modifications which Admiral Mathews made, and which have
been given above in notes to the simil