condition. In 1770, when Choiseul was
dismissed, the royal navy numbered sixty-four of the line and fifty
frigates afloat. The arsenals and storehouses were filled, and a stock
of ship-timber laid up. At the same time the minister tried to improve
the efficiency of the officers by repressing the arrogant spirit of
those of noble birth, which showed itself both toward superiors and
toward another order of officers, not of the nobility, whose abilities
made them desired on board the fleet. This class-feeling carried with
it a curious sentiment of equality among officers of very different
grades, which injuriously affected the spirit of subordination.
Members, all, of a privileged social order, their equality as such was
more clearly recognized than their inequality as junior and senior.
The droll story told by Marryatt of the midshipman, who represented to
his captain that a certain statement had been made in confidence,
seems to have had a realization on the French quarter-deck of that
day. "Confidence!" cried the captain; "who ever heard of confidence
between a post-captain and a midshipman!" "No sir," replied the
youngster, "not between a captain and a midshipman, but between two
gentlemen." Disputes, arguments, suggestions, between two gentlemen,
forgetful of their relative rank, would break out at critical moments,
and the feeling of equality, which wild democratic notions spread
throughout the fleets of the republic, was curiously forestalled by
that existing among the members of a most haughty aristocracy. "I saw
by his face," says one of Marryatt's heroes, "that the first
lieutenant did not agree with the captain; but he was too good an
officer to say so at such a moment." The phrase expresses one of the
deepest-rooted merits of the English system, the want of which is
owned by French writers:--

"Under Louis XVI. the intimacy and fellowship existing between
the chief and the subordinate led the latter to discuss the
orders which were given him.... The relaxation of discipline and
the spirit of independence were due also to another cause than
that pointed out; they can be partly attributed to the
regulation of the officers' messes. Admiral, captain, officers,
midshipmen, ate together; everything was in common. They
thee-and-thou'd each other like chums. In handling the ship, the
inferior gave his opinion, argued, and the chief, irritated,
often preferred to yield rather tha