HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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futile nature had arisen between the courts of Spain and Portugal; the latter, asbeing the weakest, was, of course, threatened with all the vengeance, arroganceand consciousness of superiority could inspire, while Portugal, like the pigeonunder the talons of the eagle, crouched from the dreaded stroke. Britain hereeffected the deliverance of the oppressed; and the mere appearance of hersquadrons in the Tagus produced, without hesitation, the same effect whichhad, almost without exception, attended the adoption of the same measure in otherquarters of the world ; so that the consequent emancipation of Portugal from thefangs of its enemy was produced, as it were, by political magic.

Sixteen of 60 or 64 ; the Dreadnought, Canterbury, Dunkirk, Kingston, Lion, Exeter, Mary, ■Medway, Montague, Rippen, Nottingham, Plymouth, Sunderland, Superb, Windsor, York ;■with the Antelope of 58 guns; and the forty-four fourth rates already mentioned.

Independent of thefe, were two ships of 50 guns ; one of 48 ; feven of 42 ; and fixteen of 40 ; three*large frigates of 3-6 ; two of 32 ; nine of 28 or 24 ; and eighteen of 20 ; to which were to be addednearly two hundred sloops of war, fire-ships, bomb-ketches, tenders, store-ships, yachts, hulks,cutters, and small vessels, forming a part of the state navy.

Wliat might not have been expected from a force apparently so consequential ! It had increased,during the nominally pacific interval which succeeded the demise of queen Ann, to the amount ofsixteen sail ; all of them belonging to that particular class of ships, the third-rates, which are veryjustly estimated astlie strength of a fleet; while in the lower classes, which are also of the utmost con-sequence in the hour of actual hostility, to preserve the country from the insults and depredations whichwould otherwise be committed by the enemies corsairs, a fourfold augmentation had arisen during thesame interval.'

The negleft, or to assign a less reprehensible political reason, the want of power, on the part ofFrance or Spain, which had sunk their marine to a state of contempt, even taken conjointly, whencompared with that of Britain, appeared to promise her a long continuance of that tranquillity whichher forbearance, in some instances, and her energy on others, appeared as entitling her to.

Amid these hopes, however flattering, specious, and well'founded as they might appear, scienceseems to have been much more neglected than at any preceding, or, as it is hoped, it will beat anysubsequent period. The consequence, and value of a ship of war, was estimated by her nominal'force ; her capacity and power of exerting it properly was almost totally disregarded, as though foreigncountries were to be intimidated from entering into contest on barely inspecting the statement of thenaval force which' Britain nominally possessed, without inquiring into the quality, or its capabilityof exertion. A consciousness of this circumstance seems to have actuated all countries in theirmeasures, without theirperhaps being sensible of the cause from whence their different political con-duct toward each other fprung. However this might be, the neglect and contempt of example mightliave proved fatal: but the danger innocently passed over, and a consciousness of having avoided it,will, in all probability, afford so useful a lesson to posterity, that it never will incur a chance of Usrepetition.

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