nothing to equal it in all the rivers of the world.
The yards of Deptford and of Woolwich are noble sights, and give us a
just idea of the great perfection to which we are arrived in building
those floating castles, and the figure which we may always make in
Europe among the other maritime powers. That of Woolwich, at least, very
strongly imprinted this idea on my mind; for there was now on the stocks
there the Royal Anne, supposed to be the largest ship ever built, and
which contains ten carriage-guns more than had ever yet equipped a
first-rate.

It is true, perhaps, that there is more of ostentation than of real
utility in ships of this vast and unwieldy burden, which are rarely
capable of acting against an enemy; but if the building such contributes
to preserve, among other nations, the notion of the British superiority
in naval affairs, the expense, though very great, is well incurred, and
the ostentation is laudable and truly political. Indeed, I should be
sorry to allow that Holland, France, or Spain, possessed a vessel larger
and more beautiful than the largest and most beautiful of ours; for this
honor I would always administer to the pride of our sailors, who should
challenge it from all their neighbors with truth and success. And sure I
am that not our honest tars alone, but every inhabitant of this island,
may exult in the comparison, when he considers the king of Great Britain
as a maritime prince, in opposition to any other prince in Europe; but
I am not so certain that the same idea of superiority will result from
comparing our land forces with those of many other crowned heads. In
numbers they all far exceed us, and in the goodness and splendor of
their troops many nations, particularly the Germans and French, and
perhaps the Dutch, cast us at a distance; for, however we may flatter
ourselves with the Edwards and Henrys of former ages, the change of the
whole art of war since those days, by which the advantage of personal
strength is in a manner entirely lost, hath produced a change in
military affairs to the advantage of our enemies. As for our successes
in later days, if they were not entirely owing to the superior genius
of our general, they were not a little due to the superior force of his
money. Indeed, if we should arraign marshal Saxe of ostentation when
he showed his army, drawn up, to our captive general, the day after the
battle of La Val, we cannot say that the ostentation was entirely vain;