ships of a fleet into groups of two, three, or four meant to act
specially together is now largely favored in England; less so in
France, where it meets strong opposition. No question of this sort,
ably advocated on either side, is to be settled by one man's judgment,
nor until time and experience have applied their infallible tests. It
may be remarked, however, that in a well-organized fleet there are two
degrees of command which are in themselves both natural and necessary,
that can be neither done away nor ignored; these are the command of
the whole fleet as one unit, and the command of each ship as a unit in
itself. When a fleet becomes too large to be handled by one man, it
must be subdivided, and in the heat of action become practically two
fleets acting to one common end; as Nelson, in his noble order at
Trafalgar, said, "The second in command will, _after_ my intentions
are made known to him" (mark the force of the "after," which so well
protects the functions both of the commander-in-chief and the second),
"have the entire direction of his line, to make the attack upon the
enemy, and to follow up the blow until they are captured or
destroyed."

The size and cost of the individual iron-clad of the present day makes
it unlikely that fleets will be so numerous as to require subdivision;
but whether they are or not does not affect the decision of the group
question. Looking simply to the principle underlying the theory, and
disregarding the seeming tactical clumsiness of the special groups
proposed, the question is: Shall there be introduced between the
natural commands of the admiral and of the captains of individual
ships a third artificial contrivance, which on the one hand will in
effect partly supersede the supreme authority, and on the other will
partly fetter the discretion of commanders of ships? A further
difficulty springing from the narrow principle of support specially