Thus our tacticians had worked out the fundamental principles on which Nelson's system rested, even to breaking up the line into two divisions.

'Containing' alone was not yet clearly enunciated, but by Hood's signals for breaking the line, the best method of effecting it was made possible.

Everything indeed lay ready for the hands of Howe and Nelson to strike into life.
FOOTNOTES: [1] Admiral Sir John Norris had been commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean 1710-1, in the Baltic 1715-21 and 1727, in the Downs in 1734, and the Channel 1739 and following years.

Professor Laughton tells me that Norris's papers and orders for 1720-1 contain no such signals.
He must therefore have issued them later.
[2] Catalogue, 252/24.

The reason this interesting set has been overlooked is that the volume in which they are bound bears by error the label 'Sailing and Fighting Instructions for H.M.Fleet, 1670.