e English nineteen, whereas by watching his opportunity
... by contracting his own line he might have brought his nineteen
against the enemy's fourteen or fifteen, and by a close action have
disabled them before they could have received succour from the
remainder.'[7]

Read with such remarks as these the latest Additional Fighting
Instructions will reveal to us how ripe and sound a system of tactics
had been reached. The idea of crushing part of the enemy by
concentration had replaced the primitive intention of crowding him
into a confusion; a swift and vigorous attack had replaced the
watchful defensive, and above all the true method of concentration had
been established; for although a concentration on the van was still
permissible in exceptional circumstances, the chief of the new
articles are devoted to concentrating on the rear. 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. Record
Office Copy.' The Instructions of 1670 were of course quite different.

[3] _Dict. Nat. Biog._ vol. ii. p. 33.

[4] Barrow, _Life of Anson_, p. 162

[5] _Observations on Naval Tactics, &c._, p. 27.

[6] In the Admiralty Library. It is undated, but assigned to 1792-3.
For the reasons for identifying it as Howe's second code see _post_, pp.
234-7. In his first code Howe adopted Hood's wording almost exactly; see
_post_, p. 236.

[7] _Letters of Sir Samuel Hood_, p. 46; and cf. _post_, p. 228 _n._

_ADMIRAL VERNON, circa_ 1740.

[+Mathews-Lestock Pamphlets+.[1]]

_An Additional Instruction to be added to the Fighting
Instructions_.

In case of meeting any squadron of the ene