In the Seven Years' War the English fleets seized, or aided in seizing, all the most valuable colonies of France and Spain, and made frequent descents on the French coast.

The War of the American Revolution affords no lesson, the fleets being nearly equal.

The next most striking instance to Americans is the War of 1812.

Everybody knows how our privateers swarmed over the seas, and that from the smallness of our navy the war was essentially, indeed solely, a cruising war.

Except upon the lakes, it is doubtful if more than two of our ships at any time acted together.