The French marine corps, which, similarly to ours, was instituted for the service of the navy, is abolished, and troops of the line embarked in their room, who are subjected, by an express order, which I have read, to all the general regulations of the crew, and placed under the absolute command of the sea-officers. The detachment on board this ship belongs to a regiment in the Western Pyrenees: it is composed of stout healthy young men, who, if not formidable from discipline and knowledge of tactics, are full of energy and republican enthusiasm. I must here remark a vulgar error, which prevails too much among Englishmen who have never travelled out of their own country----that the lower orders of the French are puny debilitated creatures, inferior to ourselves in physical powers. Could these persons be present at a muster of the seamen and soldiers of this ship, they would find their size and strength the same as their own, and in hardihood they are certainly superior to us. I never before saw people support cold so well; this is owing to their having no stoves on board to heat themselves by, a privation which extends to the officers, not from election but necessity; for Admiral Bligh’s stove was immediately transported to La Montagne, for Admiral Vilaret, and one which belonged to the ward-room of the Alexander, became the prey of Monsieur de Nieully. All their men seem to be well supplied with clothing. It is furnished to them by the government at an easy price, which has remained the same, while on shore it has been trebled. Of this they are obliged to keep up a stated quantity, and whenever men are turned over from one ship to another, a list of their clothes is sent with them, and if it falls short of the prescribed regulation, the men are forbidden to be received. Each man is supplied with a hammock and two rugs, but no bed. In case men belonging to ships are compelled by bad weather, or any other cause, to remain for the night on shore, there is a receiving-house, to which they can retire, where they are both fed and lodged until they can be sent on board.