HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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expence attending the extension, nor the danger which accompanied the lossof a ship, built on the most enlarged principle, were considered as sufficientto counterbalance the advantages derived from the possession of it. France lirstmade the experiment, and other countries, though slowly, followed her ex-ample. Spain, in consequence of those ambitious projects, which Philip andhis queen had formed in their own minds, appeared among the earliest to enterinto the fashion. With this country, indeed, it might rather be considered as therevival of an ancient custom, than the introduction of a new one. The same ideaswhich suggested the construction of the Princessa, one of the largest ship, con-sidering her force, which had, at that time, ever been built, w'as nothing morethan a re-adoption of those measures, which, in tire reign of Elizabeth, hadcaused the imperious monarch, of the same country, to extend, in some in-stances, the dimensions of his shipping, far beyond what had ever beenpractised since the regeneration of the art, subsequent to the irruption of theGoths.

Although the example first shewn by Louis the Fourteenth, a short time beforethe peace of Utrecht actually took place, might certainly be considered as thefoundation, yet the superstructure appeared so weighty, as to require no slightdegree of attention, in order to render the union between them sufficientlyapparent. The augmentation was certainly advantageous, although the ex-travagant extent to which it has, on some occasions, been carried in timesless remote, may induce many cool and disjiassionate admirers of the science todoubt whether the dangerous efi'ects that might be produced, on one hand, by theextravagant extension alluded to, might not more than counterbalance those in-conveniences which gave birth to the augmentation.

Among the different European states, France and Spain only, appear, at this time,to have stepped beyond the track of their ancestors. The United Provinces, de-riving wisdom, if attention to nothing but their own pecuniary interests can be saidto deserve that name, from experience, banished from their minds the vision-ary hope of conquest and dominion. They seemed perfectly contented withthe occupation of acquiring wealth, through commercial intercourse, ratherthan risk an attempt at the acquisition of it, by the dangerous attack of anyother country, which, at all events, was an expensive, and not improbably adangerous measure. The result was natural : many of the private vessels, theproperty of their merchants, and, almost without .an exception, those belonging

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