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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

of the Artois and Aigle, captured from them by the British in the years i;si and1782, whose dimensions, as forming a part of the British navy, will be foundin the ensuing chapter. The former of these vessels was contributed to the ser-vice of the country by the voluntary gift of the people inhabiting that provincein France bearing the same name, and was constructed according to such, ma-thematical and experimental principles as studious theory had declared theexcellence of. The labour of the architect was soon discovered to have beenwell applied, but the execution of the design by no means kept pace with theingenuity of it. After being received into the British navv, while it continuedin a condition for service, it answered the expectations which had been formedof it, in respect to its form ; but owing to the very careless, slovenly manner,in which it was put together, as well as the inferior quality of the materialsused on the occasion, it scarcely continued in a condition for sea during theshort remainder of the war, a space of time hardly exceeding two years.

An equal attention to the same principle had been paid to the higher rates.Those of fifty guns -on two decks, which had in former wars constituted a nu-merous class, became considerably reduced, nor was a single new recruitlaunched to supply the place of those which, through casualties, or by the handof time, were either annihilated, or condemned as worthless. Those of 64 gunswere held in almost the same species of disrepute ; but the class immediatelyabove them, not only considerably outnumbered every other, but exceeded allof them combined, far as comprehended those classes which were denominatedas of the line. From the agility, capacity, velocity, stability, and ease, withwhich the French ships, mounting 74 guns, were able to bring the whole of theirforce into action, or, in plainer terms, to open their lower ports, even in stormvweather, they were, independent of their numbers, justly considered as the strengthof the French navy. Their dimensions, as may be seen by referring to thoseof the Pegase, in the ensuing chapter, far exceeded the general establishment ofBritish ships in the same class, though there were some which had been builtmany vears earlier, as an experiment, which equalled, or even exceeded some ofthem. Of this circumstance, the Triumph and Valiant, already noticed, stand as asufficient proof; by ascending still higher, to those of ships mounting SO guns,which in the preceding war had been considered as first rates, it will be foundthe augmentation was still more extensive, many of them having equalled, andsome exceeded, in burthen, the largest first-rates in the British service. Amono-

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