and more enterprising than Howe increased our superiority.
The success was less brilliant and entire than that which Nelson
gained against a much greater force at Trafalgar, when France lost
every ship. Montagu did not intercept the French merchantmen, and did
not help to crush the French men-of-war. Villaret Joyeuse and the
energetic minister from Languedoc lost the day, but they gained the
substantial advantage. Under cover of their cannon, the ships on which
the country depended for its supplies came into port. Although during
those two years the French fought against great odds at sea, their
loss was less than they had expected, and did not weaken their
government at home. They had reason to hope that whenever their
armies were brought to close quarters with Spain and the Netherlands,
the fortune of war at sea would follow the event on land.

The war with which we have now to deal passed through three distinct
phases. During the year 1793, the French maintained themselves with
difficulty, having to contend with a dangerous insurrection. In 1794
the tide turned in their favour; and 1795 was an epoch of
preponderance and triumph. The Republic inherited from the Monarchy a
regular army of 220,000 men, seriously damaged and demoralised by the
emigration of officers. To these were added, first, the volunteers of
1791, who soon made good soldiers, and supplied the bulk of the
military talent that rose to fame down to 1815, and the like of which
was never seen, either in the American Civil War, or among the Germans
in 1870. The second batch of volunteers, those who responded to the
Brunswick proclamation and the summons of September, when the country
was in danger, were not equal to the first. The two together supplied
309,000 men. At the beginning of the general war, in March 1793, the
Conscription was instituted, which provoked the rising in Vendee, and
was interrupted by troubles in other departments. Instead of 300,000
men, it yielded 164,000. In the summer of 1793, when the fortresses
were falling, there was, first, the levy _en masse_, and then, August
23, the system of requisition, by which the levy was organised and
made to produce 425,000 men. Altogether, in a year and a half, France
put 1,100,000 men into line; and at the critical moment, at the end of
the second year, more than 700,000 were present under arms. That is
the force which Carnot had to wield. He was a man of energy, of
integrity, and of professional