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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE;

America. The first of these, which consisted of the Invincible, of 74 guns; theSerieux, of 66; the Diamant, of 56; the Jason and Ruby, of 52 guns each;the Glory, of 44; with thirty-two ships belonging to the East India company,or to private adventurers, all of them armed, had the misfortune to fall in with aBritish squadron, commanded by the late lord Anson and sir Peter Warren, onthe 3d of May. The defence made by the French, against antagonists so decidedlysuperior, for the ships with which they had to contend amounted to fourteensail of the line, merited, perhaps, a better fate. The ships of war were all taken,together with six of the Ealt Indiamen, the Apollo and Philibert, ot 30 guns;die Vigilante and Modeste, of 22 guns ; the Thetis, of 20 ; and the Dartmouth,of 18. This misfortune was but the forerunner of a second, equally consequen-tial, which befel the sister armament in the month of October following. Itsforce was considerably superior, and the value of the vessels put under its protec-tion bore the same increased proportion. It consisted of one ship of 80 guns, threeof 74, one of 70, two of 64, one of 60, and one of 54, with several frigates,having two hundred and fifty merchant vessels under their convoy. After a verysevere and gallant contest of four hours continuance, the Terrible and Monarch, of74 guns each ; the Neptune, of 70; the Trident and Fougueux, of 64 ; with theSevern, of 50 guns, taken some time before from the British themselves, by asuperior force, fell into the hands of their pursuers. With this event, which, inrespect to its success, was certainly the most consequential of any which had takenplace during the preceding contest, the scene of warfare might be said to close.The poveer of resistance had, at this time, become so much abridged by these andthe preceding misfortunes which had befallen the confederated powers, that re-flection induced them to preserve the small remains of that marine which stillremained to them, by acceding to the terms of peace which w'ere proposed, andwaiting for a more favourable hour wdien their future exertions should have raised•them from their, at that time, desponding state, to one of much more active annoy-ance. The navy of France and Spain had felt a very material diminution. Thewhole of their force, had it been conjoined, would scarcely have exceeded fiftyships of the line; so that, inadequate as it might be to the contest with Britainon the commencement of hostilities, it certainly was rendered still less equal tothe task which it had originally undertaken, by having its own force diminishedat least one third ; and that of its opponents in as great a degree augmented.

During the time which had elapsed from the conclusion of the peace atUtrecht to the recommencement of hostilities, a period of more than thirty years,

France,