HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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Exclusive of these unoffending states, whose pretended delinquency was chas-tised without a contest, England was on the point of entering into perhaps amore serious naval war (if the fury with which the battles that took place inthe course of it, and the quantity of blood which was shed, be considered) thanshe had ever before sustained against any power whatever. It was somewhatsingular, that two countries, professing the same principles of government, thesame pretended maxims of public equity, and the skme attention to nationalhonour, as well in regard to giving umbrage, as affording proper satisfactionwhenever it should be given, were the first to single each other out *, as if inmutual and dreadful punishment for their offences, and the injuries which one sorecently, and the other had so long been in the habit of inflicting, on states whichwere too weak or too pusillanimous to resist them. Holland had one ;potverfbladvantage. The character of her seamen, as well for skill as for bravery, hadlong been established : it had for nearly fifty years been the subject of admira-tion, intermixed with no small portion of fear, throughout the greater part ofEurope. Her navy was constantly in a condition for service, and she hadlong affected to consider the sea as an empire to which she had almost anexclusive right. # Britain, on the other hand, had, during the same period,continued nearly in a state of inaction. Her officers and seamen, howeverperfect they might be in the theory, could boast little dr no practice in thescience of naval war. Her fleets had been confined, nearly without intermis-sion, to their own harbours, and the whole of the century, then elapsed, hadpassed on without a single encounter having taken place. In numbers, not-withstanding every exertion that could be made, the ships of Britain remainedinferior to that of her opponent; so that gallantry appeared the only quality

* Historians seem somewhat divided in their opinions as to the origin and cause of this war. Thegreater part of them, however, agree in one principle, that the grand circumstance which sprung themine of warfare was the jealousy entertained by what was quaintly called the old republic, and thearrogance of the new one. Campbell gives a very summary and correct accourit 'of the -conduct ofboth, and explains the first causes Which influenced the behaviour of them, exposing, at the same time, theselfishness of one -party, together with the arrogance and tyranny Of the Other. “ The Dutch,” says he,“ were extremely -alarmed when they found the English commonwealth insist on the sovereignty of thesea, the right of fishing, and licensing to fish, disposed them to carry the point of saluting by the flag-to the utmost height; arid behaving so m all respects, that the states were convinced it would acton King Charles’s plan, with their .great advantage of raising money in much larger turns, and yetwith far less trouble than he did.”

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