The remainder of this letter shall be dedicated to a detail of those detached parts of their naval institutions, customs, and present state, which I have been enabled to pick up. In general I think them inferior, because less easily practicable, to our own, but many of them deserve consideration. “_Fas est et ab hoste doceri._” The discipline of their men struck me at the first view as contemptible; and yet I must confess that I was surprized by the state of subordination in which I afterwards found them. The seaman or soldier addresses his commander by the title of _Citoyen_, and receives in return the same appellation; but in the five weeks I have lived among them, I have witnessed only one instance of disobedience. The offender was a soldier, who refused to assist in performing some of the ordinary duties of the ship. A court-martial, or _conseil de discipline_ as they call it, was immediately holden upon him, by order of Captain Le Franq, who prosecuted. It consisted of a lieutenant of the ship and three seamen, and of two serjeants and a corporal of the troops. The prisoner pleaded ignorance of the law on this head; and that when he had voluntarily enrolled himself to serve as a soldier, it was under an idea of not being _compelled_ to do that which _ought to be the result of inclination_ only. This defence was deemed so unsatisfactory, that the offender was sentenced to three months imprisonment on shore. All the judicial institutions of their navy, and the punishments allowed to be inflicted, as well as the cases to which they apply, are strictly defined. The _conseil de discipline_ is impowered to try only inferior officers and men. The officers of the _état major_ (answering nearly to those of our ward-room) and all above them, can be tried only by a board of officers, who assemble in the admiral’s ship. Neither of these courts has the power of condemning to death: all offences of a capital nature must be tried before the revolutionary tribunal. The punishments enjoined are flogging in certain cases, the number of lashes being limited; running the gantlope; ducking from the yard-arm; confinement on shore, or in the lion’s den (boatswain’s store-room); stoppage of pay; and degradation. The three last extend to officers. A prisoner’s allowance of wine is always stopped. No man can be punished but by a sentence of the _conseil de discipline_; and, in carrying on the service of the ship, it is positively directed, that no “French citizen” shall, on any account whatever, be struck; but he may be _pushed_ as violently as may be found necessary. For giving a box on the ear an officer would be cashiered; but to dash a man’s head against the ship’s side, so as to crush his nose, or beat out his teeth, by rushing suddenly upon him, is allowable.