e as effectually as did Rodney's method. Whether
Howe ever appreciated the importance of concentration to the extent it
was felt by Nelson, Hood and Rodney is doubtful. Yet his invention
did provide the best possible form of concentrated attack. It had over
Rodney's imperfect manoeuvre this inestimable advantage, that by the
very act of breaking the line you threw upon the severed portion an
overwhelming attack of the most violent kind, and with the utmost
development of fire-surface. Finally it could not be parried as
Rodney's usually could in Hoste's orthodox way by the enemy's standing
away together upon the same tack. By superior gunnery Howe's attack
might be _stopped_, but by no possibility could it be _avoided_
except by flight. It was no wonder then that Howe's invention was
received with enthusiasm by such men as Nelson.

Still it is clear that in certain cases, and especially in making an
attack from the leeward, as Clerk of Eldin had pointed out, and where
it was desirable to preserve your own line intact, Rodney's manoeuvre
might still be the best. Howe's manoeuvre moreover supplied its chief
imperfection, for it provided a method of dealing drastically with the
portion of the enemy's line that had been cut off. Thus, although it
is not traceable in the Signal Book, it was really reintroduced in
Howe's third code. This is clear from the last article of the
Explanatory Instructions of 1799 which distinguishes between the two
manoeuvres; but whether or not this article was in the Instructions of
1790 we cannot tell. The probability is that it was not, for in the
Signal Book of 1790 there is no reference to a modifying instruction.
Further, we know that in the code proposed by Sir Charles H. Knowles
the only signal for breaking the line was word for word the same as
Howe's. This code he drew up in its final form in 1794, but it was not
printed till 1798. The presumption is therefore that until the code of
1799 was issued Howe's method of breaking the line was the only one
recognised. In that code the primary intention of Signal 27 'for
breaking through the enemy's line in all parts' is still for Howe's
manoeuvre, but the instruction provides that it could be modified by a
red pennant over, and in that case it meant 'that the fleet is to
preserve the line of battle as it passes through the enemy's line, and
to preserve it in very close order, that such of the enemy's ships as
are cut off may not find an opportun