HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

16.9

means, they might as well avail themselves of every pecuniary advantage theirsituation and superiority enabled them to take, as that aliens, to whose welfarethey were indifferent, should reap those benefits which they certainly would,should they themselves reject the opportunity offered. Such were the causesof Batavian consequence, and of Batavian insolence. The effects produced bythem were the natural efflux of those impressions which success is invariablythe parent of, when it crowns the bold and speculative attempts of sordid andavaricious men. Not content with a station and political rank in the world,which they might have held with honour, and maintained with dignity, theysuffered all that praise, which they at first fairly won by labour and indefatigableindustry, to moulder away, and be totally obliterated by their repeated instancesof craft, tyranny, treachery, extortion ; and, to sum up the whole of their ini-quities in one word, baseness. This conduct first drew on them the contempt,and it was quickly followed by the detestation of nearly the whole world.

With respect to the state of Marine Architecture, as practised by the northernpowers, Russia had not as yet given birth to Peter, very justly surnamed the Great,the founder of her naval consequence. It is therefore needless to say more than thatthe extent of their skill boasted no greater excellence than the construction andoccasional equipment of a few small vessels, or rather large boats, awkwardlycontrived, whose navigation was principally limited to the Volga, where theywere sometimes needed, in consequence of rebellions and insurrections amongthe Cossacks. The rival kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden stood muchhigher in rank: the former had, for a series of ages, been assiduous inobtaining and deserving the character of a maritime power, and the state of itsnavy at the commencement of the seventeenth century proved it by no meansunworthy of so being styled. It consisted of more than forty sail of vessels,properly equipped for war, many of which carried more than forty guns each.No occasion offered which rendered it necessary to bring it into active servicetill the year 1630, when a fleet, consisting of thirty-six ships of war, was orderedto be equipped, in consequence of a dispute which had taken place betweenChristiern the Fourth and the senate of Hamburgh; but hostilities had scarcelycommenced, when they were suddenly checked, owing to those jealousieswhich, as already observed in the case of Spain, prevents the total overthrowand annihilation of a dispirited and discomfited government. This instanta-neous close of the war was occasioned by an idea that the renowned GustavusAdolphus, who then reigned in Sweden, would not suffer any measure, likely to

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