For the third class cruisers adopted by the English Admiralty we may take, as a typical vessel, the 'Magicienne,' of 1,800 tons displacement and 350 horsepower. This class includes the 'Encounter,' 'Amethyst,' and 'Modeste.' These ships steam 13 knots, and have been highly approved by the officers, who have commanded them.
The typical vessel of the corresponding type in the French Navy is the 'Rigault de Genouilly,' the only ship of her class now in progress. This vessel is of 1,643 tons and 453 horse-power. Here, again, the French ship has an alleged advantage in point of speed, estimated by her constructors at 15 knots, while there is a considerable inferiority in the proposed armament of eight 14 c/m. guns when compared with the fourteen 64-pounders of the 'Magicienne' class.
Both the 'Duquesne' and the 'Duquay Trouin' are to be capable of carrying coal sufficient to steam a distance of 5,000 miles at 10 knots an hour. The second class shows an inferiority in speed, and a yet more considerable inferiority in armament; but for the services for which these ships are designed they give, in the opinion of M. Dislère, who agrees in this regard with Mr. Barnaby, a more satisfactory result than the larger ships, in proportion to the expenditure incurred.
For a blockade numerous ships essential.The experience of the war against the Confederates in America is enough to show that, when a blockade is to be maintained on a long line of coast, or, where the Navy is called upon to furnish ships to go in pursuit of