hereas the
English took only 110 from the French. In reality, however, the gain
was on the side of Great Britain, the French ships captured being
chiefly large privateers and rich armed merchantmen, while those England
lost were mostly coasters and colliers. The trade of France, also, was
almost annihilated, and she in consequence employed the greater part of
her seamen in small privateers, which swarmed in the channel, the
vessels they captured being of like value.

George the Second had the satisfaction of seeing the arms of England
everywhere prospering, when on the 27th of October, 1760, he breathed
his last, in the thirty-third year of his reign and the seventy-seventh
of his age.

Gallant as were the officers and brave as were the men of the navy, they
were generally rough in their manners, and ignorant of all matters not
connected with their profession. So they continued for many years, till
the naval college was established, and schoolmasters were placed on
board ships to afford the midshipmen instruction. It could scarcely
have been otherwise, considering the early age at which young gentlemen
were sent to sea, when they had had barely time to learn more than
reading, writing, and arithmetic, while comparatively few had afterwards
time or opportunity to improve themselves. Practices were allowed on
board ship which would not have been tolerated in Elizabeth's days.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

GEORGE THE THIRD--FROM A.D. 1760 TO A.D. 1782.

On George the Third coming to the throne in 1760 he found the nation
still at war with France.

Among the gallant men actively employed at this time, whose names were
long as household words both in the navy and on shore, were Lord Anson,
Sir Edward Hawke, Admiral Rodney, Captain Alexander Hood, Commodore
Keppell, Captain Faulkner, Captain the Honourable Keith Stuart, Captain
Richard Howe, afterwards Earl Howe, Captains Shuldham, Sir Hugh
Palliser, the Honourable John Byron, Peter Parker, and Samuel
Barrington.

The fleets of England were at this time distributed much, as at the
present time, under flag-officers. The Nore, the Channel Fleet, the
Mediterranean, Lisbon, North America, Newfoundland, the West Indies, the
Leeward Islands, Jamaica, the East Indies, and occasionally on the coast
of Africa.

We have numerous proofs that British seamen gained their victories as
much by their proficiency in gunnery and their activity as by their
strength and courage. Of t