I asked Admiral Matthieu about the naval preparations of France.

‘The “Moniteur,"’ I said, ‘denies that you are making any.’

‘The “Moniteur,"’ he answered, ’does not tell the truth.  We are augmenting largely, both the number and the efficacy of our fleet.

’Four years ago, at the beginning of the Russian war, we resolved to build a steam fleet of 150 steam ships of different sizes for fighting, and 74 steam ships for the transfer service, and to carry fuel and stores.  Though we set about this in the beginning, as we thought, of a long war, we have not allowed the peace to interrupt it.  We are devoting to it sixty-five millions a year (2,600,000_l_.) of which from fifteen to seventeen millions are employed every year in building new ships, and from forty to forty-two in adding steam power to the old ones.  We hope to finish this great work in fourteen years.’

‘What,’ I asked, ‘is the amount of your present fleet of steamers?’

‘We have thirty-three screws,’ he answered, ’fifty-seven paddles, and sixty-two sailing vessels in commission, and seventy-three, mostly steamers, en reserve, as you would say, in ordinary.’

‘Manned by how many men?’ I asked.

‘By twenty-five thousand sailors,’ he answered, ’and eleven thousand marines.  But our inscription maritime would give us in a few months or less one hundred thousand more.  Since the times of Louis XVI. the French Navy has never been so formidable, positively or relatively.’

‘How,’ I asked, ‘has your “Napoleon” succeeded?’

‘Admirably,’ he answered.  ’I have not seen the “Wellington,” but she is a much finer ship than the Agamemnon.  Her speed is wonderful.  A month ago she left Toulon at seven in the morning, and reached Ajaccio by four in the evening.  But the great improvement is in our men.  Napoleon knew nothing and cared nothing about sailors.  He took no care about their training, and often wasted them in land operations, for which landsmen would have done as well.

’In 1814 he left Toulon absolutely unguarded, and sent all the sailors to join Augereau.  You might have walked into it.

’In 1810 or 1811 I was on board a French corvette which fought an action with an English vessel, the “Lively.”  We passed three times under her stern, and raked her each time.  We ought to have cleared her decks.  Not a shot touched her.  The other day at Cherbourg I saw a broadside fired at a floating mark three cables off, the usual distance at which ships engage.  Ten balls hit it, and we could see that all the others passed near enough to shake it by their wind.

’A ship of eighty guns has now forty canonniers and forty maitres de pieces.  All practical artillerymen, and even the able seamen, can point a gun.  Nelson’s manoeuvre of breaking the line could not be used against a French fleet, such as a French fleet is now.  The leading ships would be destroyed one after another, by the concentrated fire.  Formerly our officers dreaded a maritime war.  They knew that defeat awaited them, possibly death.  Now they are confident, and eager to try their hands.’