In the early part of 1794 Mr. Brenton returned to England, and was appointed second of the Sybil, of twenty-eight guns, in which situation he remained for a few months and then became first lieutenant of that ship; but with regard to the intermediate steps, by which he rose to this command, his own pen must supply the narrative. He says, “I was appointed, in the summer of 1792, to the command of the Trepassey cutter, at Newfoundland, a very small vessel, and facetiously termed by naval men, a machine for making officers. There were two cutters built, it might be said for this very purpose, on an understanding that a lieutenant should be made into each, every year; one from Admiralty patronage, and the other by the commander in chief for the time being. The first two were Lieutenants Rowley and Halket; the next pair Caithen and Gilbert; then Herbert and Holme. I name these officers that the regularity of the system may appear. The lieutenant at the end of the year, or just previously to the sailing of the Admiral for England, (for he never wintered on the station) went through a nominal invaliding; and their successors were appointed from the cockpit of the Admiral’s ship. “At length, in the year 1792, the Admiralty decided upon putting an end to this certainly most exceptionable method of patronage, and ordered two lieutenants out from England to command these cutters. I was one of these, and arrived at Newfoundland in September. I found the Trepassey a very extraordinary description of a man of war. She was only forty-two tons; something about the size of one of the Gravesend boats, previously to the adoption of steam vessels upon the Thames. Her crew consisted of _five_ men, and a pilot, who performed the functions of every class of officer below the commander. She had four swivels mounted; and was employed in going along the coast to protect the fisheries, and to enquire into abuses. On the last appointment the Admiral added two midshipmen to each cutter, making the whole number of each complement eight. These vessels lay in the harbour of St. John’s during the winter, and were fitted out in the spring, to be in readiness to visit the different ports on their station, as soon as the harbour was clear from ice.