The British naval forces, without any rivals, passed unmolested over the seas.

In one year they are said to have taken from French commerce L7,000,000 sterling.
Yet this sea power, which might have seized French and Spanish colonies, made few conquests from want of unity and persistence in the direction given them."[92] To sum up, France was forced to give up her conquests for want of a navy, and England saved her position by her sea power, though she had failed to use it to the best advantage.
FOOTNOTES: [88] Martin: History of France [89] There is not in modern naval history a more striking warning to the officers of every era, than this battle of Toulon.

Coming as it did after a generation of comparative naval inactivity, it tried men's reputation as by fire.

The lesson, in the judgment of the author, is the danger of disgraceful failure to men who have neglected to keep themselves prepared, not only in knowledge of their profession, but in the sentiment of what war requires.

The average man is not a coward; but neither is he endowed by nature only with the rare faculty of seizing intuitively the proper course at a critical moment.