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 on naval administratonadministration [sic] can be quoted, concurred in the view of Lord Clarence Paget. In the course of the same debate, he said that 'it would be a great saving of future expenditure if it could be shown that efficient sea-going turret ships might be constructed on a much smaller scale, say 3,500 tons.'

A second 'Inconstant' had been provided for in the programme of 1867-8; but, on Mr. Corry becoming First Lord, it was resolved instead to build a smaller corvette, the 'Volage.' Mr. Corry, as we are told by Sir Spencer Robinson, believed that this ship might be multiplied without extravagant cost, while her speed of 16-128 knots on a six hours' trial trip was rightly regarded as ample for every purpose.

From the United States I may quote the high authority of Admiral Porter as an advocate of small ships for the protection of commerce. In his report of 1871-2, after calling attention to the progress of the principal navies of Europe, he proposed to take steps to make good the great deficiency of the United States navy in cruising vessels, not by constructing 'Inconstants,' but by building twelve wooden vessels of not over 1,000 tons each, and six or eight similar ships of iron. They were to be full-rigged ships, with fine sailing models and good steam power, the propellers to trice up; and all were to be exactly alike.

We find our own Naval Constructors expressing their entire concurrence in a policy of moderate dimensions. Mr. Barnaby, in a paper read in 1874 before the Institution of Naval Architects, described