HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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decay or accident were lost to the service ; for the dimensions and principles whichhad been introduced so early as the year 1700, were continued, as will be here-after shewn, with little or no alteration, like fixed principles, which it were almostimpious to deny the propriety of, and certainly impolitic to deviate from, till the-conduct of other countries rendered a material alteration a matter of necessity,and not of choice. To return, however, to the various events, uninteresting asthey in general may prove, which took place from the commencement of thereign of George the First, to that of the serious and justly provoked war withSpain in 1739.

Sweden, distant as her situation was, and little as any dispute with that countrymight be apprehended, first, on account of her naval impotence, speakingcomparatively with the strength of Britain, and secondly, on account of herlocality, was the first object against which it became necessary to shew to whatextent the power of Britain could be raised, whenever circumstances should re-quire its being called into action. The affront was provoking, though the attemptwas almost too contemptible to demand a serious chastisement, had the satisfactionrequired been resisted with less prudence, and more peremptoriness than it was.The nation had, as it is well known, been for many years in a state of the utmostconfusion. The monarch, an exile in a distant country, the victim to his own folly,and very extravagant conduct, had reduced the state itself to the most deplorablecondition. Beset with enemies on every side, the senate or regency, in whom thepower of governing was vested during his absence, scarcely possessed the power ofdefending their frontiers from the encroachments and ravages of the foes which sur-rounded them. The distresses which the body of the people suffered on accountof imposts unavoidably laid on, compelled, as it were, the government to connive orwink at a number of improper acts, which private adventurers, having a bold andenterprizing spirit, engaged in, for the double purpose of enriching themselves, andaffording, in a secondary light, some trivial benefit to the state by the captureswhich, with an irregularity of conduct bordering on piracy, were made indiscri-minately on the vessels of almost all nations which were unfortunate enough totall in their way. Britain, as being the most powerful, stood foremost to chastisethis conduct: representations were made, and as is not unfrequently the case onsuch occasions, almost without effect; but the appearance of Sir John Norris,with nearly twenty ships of the line under his orders in the Baltic, seemed morelikely to accomplish the desired purpose. There existed, indeed, a second ground.of complaint, not so public, perhaps, as that already assigned, which originated in

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