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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

shore. Two years after, they landed in great numbers in Wales, where theywere repulsed both by land and sea with great slaughter. Extraordinary andprominent an event as was the accession of this monarch to the throne, con-sidered in the light of the sovereign over that part of Britain ever since knownby the name of England, it seems but little interesting to the history of mari-time pursuits, far as that country is concerned. The union of seven states underthe dominion of one person, produced not on the instant, as might in some de-gree have been expected, that enlargement of power and consequence whichthe reflection and leisure, added to the patriotic gallantry of succeeding princes,allowed them to raise. But though this allotted section of history may perhapsnot end with that degree of eclat, which the honest enthusiasm of those whoprofess themselves admirers of maritime pursuits might wish, yet the nearly-coinciding consequential events which took place not merely in Britain, butother countries, appear to point out the propriety of drawing a general compa-rative view, in respect to the nautical history of the world, in the ninth century.

The death of the emperor Charlemagne, who had, by the incessant activity ofhis mind, and those exertions which his natural prowess gave birth to, not onlysupported, but revived the name, and in some degree the consequence of the Ro-man empire, appeared to forebode a revolution in the political state of Europe,which few or no persons then living, perhaps, could even guess at the extentof. The industry and gallantry of his predecessors had bequeathed to Charlesa veteran army, inured to dangers, and nearly to an absolute contempt ofthem, by a long course of warfare, almost totally unchequered by defeat.Success naturally inspires confidence in the hearts of one party, and spreadsterror, in an equal degree, over those of its opponents. The empire of theFranks, or rather of Rome, as it was affectedly called, could only be retainedin the extent to which it had been raised, by a continuance of those qualitieswhich, after having given it birth, had increased it, till it had reached a speciesof maturity. Still, however, its health and strength was not so sufficientlyestablished, as to render it capable of defying the feverish attacks of foreignfoes, or the convulsive disease of disunion. Of those territories which hadheretofore appeared as distinct and independent kingdoms, Germany, Hungary,and a considerable part of Italy, were incapable, from their situation, of con-tributing to the naval strength of the empire, had its sovereign even wished it.Spain, France, and the remaining part of the Italian dominions, were not,

indeed,