Off the wind, the President was unquestionably one of the fastest ships that ever floated, but on a wind, the Constitution was her match, any day, especially if the vessels were brought to double-reefed topsails. The President was a more roomy ship, perhaps, tumbling home the least, but Old Ironsides was confessedly of the stoutest frame, and the best ribbed.

The sailing of many of the vessels fell off about this time, and we think an intelligent inquiry would show that it was owing to a cause common to them all. The commanders were anxious to make their vessels as efficient as possible, by loading them with guns, and filling them with men. The spars too, were somewhat increased in weight, which produced an increase in ballast. The guns and spars were not of so much moment, but the additional men required additional provisions and water, and this sunk the hull deeper in the water, and demanded a greater moving power. When Barry first took the States out to the West Indies, she was one of the fastest frigates that ever floated, though the Constitution was thought to be her equal. About the year 1810, nevertheless, the States had got so bad a name for sailing, that she went by the soubriquet of the Old Waggoner, and was held quite cheap by all who were in a hurry. The Macedonian, her prize, certainly beat her under a jury mizzenmast; but some one took the trouble to overhaul the hold of the States one day, and to lighten her, and now she defies the world!

Rodgers had a good and a deserved reputation for fitting out a ship; but he was fond of men, and usually filled his vessels too full of one thing and another. Owing to this, or some other reason, he lost his first love for Old Ironsides, and deserted her for the President.

It is a great mistake to try to give a puissant battery to a vessel that was never meant to carry one. One cannot make a frigate of a sloop-of-war, by any expedient; and the uses of an active sloop may be injured by an abortive attempt so to do. This is particularly true of very small, sharp vessels, which lose their trim by slight variations, and which, at the best, can be nothing but small, sharp vessels, and if properly stowed, of great efficiency, on account of their speed; if not, of very little, on account of an unavoidable want of force.

Hull succeeded Rodgers in the command of the Constitution, and the good ship was compelled to strike her broad pennant. As for Hull, he knew his ship well—having been a lieutenant in her, and her first lieutenant besides. Morris, too, who had sailed in her as a midshipman, under Preble, and who bad been promoted out of her into the Argus, Hull's old brig, before Tripoli, now joined her, as her new first lieutenant. The transfer was made at Hampton Roads, in the summer of 1810. During the remainder of the season, the ship cruised on the coast, and she wintered at New London.

Nothing worthy of being recorded occurred under this new state of things, until the Constitution was ordered to Europe, in the course of the year 1811, with Mr. Barlow on board, and with money to pay the interest on the Dutch debt. In that day, it was a common thing to send vessels of war across the Atlantic, on the errands of the public, though this was the first time, since 1800, that a ship as heavy as the Constitution was thus employed. Under Hull, while thus employed, the Constitution's lieutenants appear to have been, Messrs. Morris, Page, Wadsworth, Read, ****** and Morgan. Of these officers, Messrs. Morris, Wadsworth, Read, and Morgan, are still living, and have all carried broad pennants.

The ship sailed for Cherbourg direct. Off that port she found a strong British squadron, under the late Sir Pultney Malcolm, who was in the Royal Oak seventy-four. Old Ironsides, on this occasion, was nearly surrounded by Englishmen, all of whom came up on her quarters, one, a frigate, speaking her, first telling her own name, as is usual between vessels of war, and then asking hers. When the last was given, permission was asked to send a boat on board, which was readily granted. The English commodore now sent a request to see Captain Hull, on board the Royal Oak, if it were his intention to go into Cherbourg. The answer was, it was contrary to usage for an American captain to leave his vessel at sea, unless to wait on his own immediate superior. A second request followed, that he would not go in until a certain hour next morning. To this Hull replied, that he was bound into Cherbourg, with a minister on board, and he felt it to be his duty to enter the port the moment circumstances permitted. These were ticklish times—the affair of the Chesapeake, and the generally high pretensions of the English marine, placing every American commander strictly on the alert. No further communications passed, however, and the ship went into her port, as soon as circumstances would allow.

Having landed Mr.