fleets undoubtedly bore down England's strength and robbed her of her
colonies. In the various naval undertakings and battles the honor of
France was upon the whole maintained though it is difficult, upon
consideration of the general subject, to avoid the conclusion that the
inexperience of French seamen as compared with English, the narrow
spirit of jealousy shown by the noble corps of officers toward those
of different antecedents, and above all, the miserable traditions of
three quarters of a century already alluded to, the miserable policy
of a government which taught them first to save their ships, to
economize the material, prevented French admirals from reaping, not
the mere glory, but the positive advantages that more than once were
within their grasp. When Monk said the nation that would rule upon the
sea must always attack, he set the key-note to England's naval policy;
and had the instructions of the French government consistently
breathed the same spirit, the war of 1778 might have ended sooner and
better than it did. It seems ungracious to criticise the conduct of a
service to which, under God, our nation owes that its birth was not a
miscarriage; but writers of its own country abundantly reflect the
spirit of the remark. A French officer who served afloat during this
war, in a work of calm and judicial tone, says:--

"What must the young officers have thought who were at Sandy Hook with
D'Estaing, at St. Christopher with De Grasse, even those who arrived
at Rhode Island with De Ternay, when they saw that these officers were
not tried at their return?" (1)

----
1. La Serre: Essais Hist. et Crit. sur la Marine Francaise.
----