HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

land. Blake had distinguished himself by his skilful andvaliant defence of an inland town before he humbled the prideof Holland and of Castile on the ocean. Since the Restorationthe same system had been followed. Great fleets had beenentrusted to the direction of RupertandMonk; Rupert, whowas renowned chiefly as a hot and daring cavalry officer, andMonk, who, when he wished his ship to change her course,moved the mirth of his crew by calling out, “Wheel to theleft!”

But about this time wise men began to perceive that therapid improvement, both of the art of war and of the art ofnavigation, made it necessary to draw a line between twoprofessions which had hitherto been confounded. Either thecommand of a regiment or the command of a ship was now amatter quite sufficient to occupy the attention of a singlemind. In the year 1672 the French government determinedto educate young men of good family from a very early agespecially for the sea service. But the English government,instead of following this excellent example, not only con-tinued to distribute high naval commands among landsmen,but selected for such commands landsmen who, even on land,could not safely have been put in any important trust. Anylad of noble birth, any dissolute courtier for whom one of theKing’s mistresses would speak a word, might hope that a shipof the line, and with it the honour of the country and the livesof hundreds of brave men, would be committed to his care.It mattered not that he had never in his life taken a voyageexcept on the Thames, that he could not keep his feet in abreeze, that he did not know the difference between latitudeand longitude. No previous training was thought necessary;or, at most, he was sent to make a short trip in a man of war,where he was subjected to no discipline, where he was treatedwith marked respect, and where he lived in a round of revelsand amusements. If, in the intervals of feasting, drinking