HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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superior weight it was evident she must of necessity bend, unless supported by ex-traneous assistance, which she could only sue for as a compassionate act, and notequitably demand, as a natural right. Happy was her state of insignificance, for,except the immaterial convulsion which took place in 1735, no event whateverappeared to threaten her perfect quietude from the conclusion of the treaty ofUtrecht, to the commencement of the rupture between Spain and Great Britain in1739. The situation of France was, indeed, materially different; although itmight not have been possible for that country to have effectually convulsed thepeace of Europe, vet it certainly was in her power to have very materially disturbedit. The conduct of Louis the Fourteenth had proved the capability ; but thehonesty of those to whom the regal authority, during the minority of his successor,became delegated, prevented the exercise of it. The regency of the duke ofOrleans was favourable to peace : lie had too much prudence and political saga-city to plunge his native country into any dispute which, though successful in itsextreme, he saw, from the contemplation of preceding contests, must be ultimatelyinjurious to it; and he had too much philanthrophy, as well as benevolence in hiscomposition, to endanger the peace of other countries, with whom that of his ownwas probably connected. The internal distress of the kingdom, occasioned by theMissisippi scheme, and other causes, which it were immaterial to enter into anyparticular detail of, contributed to favour the pacific disposition of the regenthimself; and the continuance and adherence to the same principle, though fromdifferent motives, which marked the administration of Floury, the favourite andminister of Louis the Fifteenth, after he assumed the reigns of government, wereas equally productive of the same effects, which the more enviable qualities hadbeen, in the former instance. The marine of France, though reduced to a stateincapable of materially disturbing the peace of Europe at the time the treaty ofUtrecht took place, still remained perfectly sufficient to every system of defenceand protection which reason, and a moderate system of political principles couldrequire. Notwithstanding it experienced little or no augmentation during the pacificperiod which succeeded the event just mentioned, yet it certainly sufferedlittle or no degradation ; and its state of respectability ensured to the country acontinuance of quiet. The interval alluded to was indeed particularly favourableto the naval tranquillity of all Europe. Sweden, Denmark, and Russia itself,following in the rear of those countries to whom they yielded, without dispute,precedence, passed through the same icra almost without molestation, because they

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