the whole number of persons employed in the naval service, compelled the Department to discharge boys instead of men.

By Act of June 17, 1868, the number of persons enlisted into the Navy, including apprentices and boys, was limited to 8,500-a limitation actually below the maximum which existed prior to the war, and compelled the department to reduce the number of naval apprentices, and finally to again abandon that system.

The number of line officers is now (1871) limited by law to one admiral, one vice-admiral, 10 rear admirals, 25 commodores, 50 captains, 90 commanders; total flag and commanding officers, 177. To these are added 80 lieutenant commanders, 280 lieutenants, 200 masters and ensigns-making the total line officers of all grades, excepting midshipmen (309 including those at Annapolis), 737.

The medical staff consists of 180, viz.: 15 medical directors (captains); 15 inspectors (commanders); 50 surgeons (lieut.-commanders), and 100 passed assistant and assistant surgeons.

The engineers' department (total 250) includes 10 chief engineers (captains); 15 do. (commanders); 45 do. (lieut.-commanders); 100 assistants (masters and ensigns). There are 126 paymasters, 13 ranking as captains; 13 as commanders; 50 as lieut.-commanders. The number of chaplains is limited to 24, and of professors to 12. Although, strangely enough, not under the administration of the Navy Department, the inauguration of the Coast Survey in 1807, and its thorough prosecution since 1844, when the employment of officers of the army and navy in the work was authorized; the recognition of the Naval Observatory at Washington city, and authorizing the making astronomical and meteorological observations, in the Act of August 3, 1848; the assignment of a competent officer of the navy to the preparation of the Nautical Almanac; the institution of the bureau of Hydrography and Ordnance, in 1842; the employment of three suitable vessels of the navy to test and perfect the plans of Lieutenant Maury in his investigations of the winds and the currents of the ocean, by Act of March 3, 1849; the concentration of the teaching staff of the corps of midshipmen preparatory for their examination at the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia, and their removal to separate accommodations at the old military station of Fort Severn, in Annapolis, by order of Secretary Bancroft in 1845, and the formal recognition of the institution as the Naval School, in the appropriations for the navy in 1847—these and other acts of Congress, and the action of the Department under them, are important data in the history of the Navy and Naval Education-especially of their scientific character.

The following Tables, prepared by Capt. George H. Preble, U. S. N., which are copied from the Army and Navy Journal for Nov. and Dec., 1871, exhibit in a condensed view the expansion of the military and merchant marine of the United States, from 1816 to 1871 inclusive, as well as its condition in each year from 1816. TABLE I.-Naval Vessels, Tonnage, Officers, Seamen, and Cost. Tonnage.

1,372,219

1,260,752

3,154,042

3,535,454

4,940,842

Change of the fiscal year.

† From this number should be deducted 130 mates not permanent officers of the Navy.

† Including 98 mates, temporary officers not eligible for promotion and not properly belonging to the Regular Navy, and should be classed as Volunteers.

Including 130 mates, temporary officers not eligible for promotion and not properly belonging to the Regular Navy, and should be classed as Volunteers.

142

90

22

89 178 141 151 69 69 240

495

415

404

362

350

364

336

75

249

71

312

356

15

361

374

94

356

818

TABLE III. Warrant or Forward Officers, and Marine Corps, 1816 to 1871.

One brigadier-general since 1868. The senior officer has always been styled the lieutenantcolonel-commandant, colonel-commandant, or brigadier-general commandant. Since 1868, in the number of majors and captains is included those of the staff ranking with the line. At preser there are three staff officers holding the rank of major, and two that of captain.