rican
frigates is furnished by the fight between the British frigate
_Guerriere_ and the American frigate _Constitution_, on August 19, one
of the first naval actions in the war. The _Guerriere_ was armed with
twenty-four broadside guns, discharging projectiles with a total weight
of 517 pounds; the _Constitution_ with twenty-eight broadside guns,
discharging a weight of 768 pounds. The crew of the _Guerriere_,
counting men only, numbered 244, that of the _Constitution_ with a
similar limitation 460. Finally the _Guerriere's_ tonnage amounted to
1,092, as against the _Constitution's_ 1,533. The _Guerriere's_ guns
proved very ineffectual from the start, while the marksmanship, not only
of the American gunners but of the riflemen in the _Constitution's_
tops, was the wonder of the British. It is stated that none of her shot
fell short. After a fight lasting nearly two hours the _Guerriere_
surrendered. The ship was a complete wreck, and she had lost fifteen men
killed and six mortally wounded as against seven killed and three
mortally wounded on board her opponent.

The effect of the engagement both on British and on American public
opinion was altogether out of proportion to its intrinsic importance.
The inequality in strength of the opposing frigates was not understood,
and any defeat of the mistress of the seas seemed an event of
considerable significance. The Americans soon met with other similar
successes. On October 18 their sloop _Wasp_, of eighteen guns, reduced
the British sloop _Frolic_, a weaker vessel, though of similar armament,
to a helpless hulk after a ten minutes' cannonade. The moral effect of
this victory was not impaired by the fact that the conqueror and her
prize were compelled to surrender a few hours later to the British
seventy-four _Poictiers_. On the 25th the _United States_, of forty-four
guns, captured the _Macedonian_, of thirty-eight, after three hours'
fighting, and on December 29 the British thirty-eight-gun frigate
_Java_, with a very inexperienced crew, was captured by the
_Constitution_ after a running fight of three hours and a half.[58]

[Pageheading: _THE GERMAN CAMPAIGN OF 1813._]

With the retreat of the French army from Russia the main scene of
operations on the continent was shifted from Russia to Germany. Great
Britain took little part in the actual warfare in Germany, and if she
had a larger share in the political negotiations which ultimately
determined the distribution of