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On looking over Mr. James’s account of the battle between the Macedonian and United States, we find that gentleman, after commenting upon what he terms the ineffectual fire of the British, frigate, expressing himself as follows:– “A Captain, where he knows that his men, for want of practice, are deficient in gunnery, should strive his utmost to close with his antagonist; especially when he also knows, that that antagonist excels in an art, without some skill in which, no American ship of war would trust herself at sea.” That the crew of the Macedonian were constantly exercised at the great guns, whilst commanded by Captain Carden, is sufficiently proved by the letters which he received from his late third and first Lieutenants, the present Captain George Richard Pechell, and Commander David Hope. The following are extracts from those letters:–

“Aldwich, Chichester, May 14, 1824.

“My dear Sir,– From having served as junior Lieutenant in the Macedonian, for nearly two years, under your command, till within a few weeks of the action with the United States, I cannot refuse myself the satisfaction of declaring, that in no ship in which I had served, was the exercise of the great guns so constantly attended to, as in the Macedonian. That nearly every afternoon whilst at sea, the guns were cast loose and practised, and the system altogether, striking me at that time as so extremely beneficial, that I instantly adopted the same principle of exercise when commanding his Majesty’s sloop Colibri, which took place three months from my quitting the Macedonian. So far did I consider the crew of the Macedonian from being deficient in gunnery, and so confident was her commander of the result of his continued exertions in training his crew, that whilst employed in shore of the squadron in Basque Roads, every opportunity was as eagerly seized, and as confidently anticipated, to bring the enemy’s advanced frigates to battle. Scarcely was there a day in which the Macedonian for months was not engaged, either with the batteries, or stopping the convoys, and not an enemy’s vessel in that roadstead even moved without the Macedonian’s signal being made to advance! – which alone gave repeated occasions for manoeuvring and firing. And nothing but the intricacy of the navigation, and the shallowness of the water, prevented the success which otherwise would have attended this harrassing service. The precision of the fire from the Macedonian was never more observable than on the evening of the 6th of August, 1812, when a French lugger was chased on shore under the batteries, near l’Isle d’Aix, which vessel was brought out the same evening, by the boats you did me the honor to place under my command; and to recapture which an attempt was made by the enemy, with two frigates, the following morning; but which, on the Macedonian’s approaching to gun-shot, instantly retreated to their anchorage; and it