two and one-half inches thick in places, but it is true likewise of some twenty vessels, ranging, many of them, as low as 1420 tons in displacement, and with decks and partial decks of less thickness than that of the _Sfax_, the weakest of the three French ships in this respect. In short, while the twenty-two English ships are withheld from the category of unarmored ships, although every one of them is inferior in protecting decks to the three French ships, the latter are placed in the inferior category, and not a word of explanation is offered to prevent the uninitiated and unsuspecting reader from regarding as weaker than our vessels those French vessels which are in fact the strongest and best protected. I must say that, as an Englishman, I grieve to see returns to the British Parliament made use of for the dissemination of information so misleading as this; and I should do so if I could believe there was nothing but official negligence involved; but I am sorry to say I cannot doubt that had the mere reproduction of foreign classifications put three of the very fastest and most important cruisers of our own navy, of Admiralty origin, at the very great disadvantage to which the French ships are put in this return, we should have had a very full and a very prominent explanation of the seeming discrepancy given. It is to the credit of _Lloyd’s Register_ office that what the Admiralty Office failed to do in a paper issued at the end of July was properly done in their _Universal Register_, published two or three months earlier; for in the latter the three French ships are separately detailed under the heading of “Deck-protected Cruisers.” [Illustration: THE “VENGEUR:” FRENCH IRON-CLAD COAST-GUARD VESSEL.] It is absolutely necessary to bring to light the matter just explained, for otherwise the present state and the prospects of the French navy cannot be properly understood, the _Tage_, _Cécile_, and _Sfax_ being, on the whole, the most important of the French ships which are without armor-belts. Two others there are, however, which are weaker than the _Tage_ and _Sfax_ only in the fact of their being without special deck protection. These are the _Duquesne_ and the _Tourville_, two ships approximately alike in size and construction, and both having their iron bottoms sheathed with two thicknesses of wood and then coppered, after the manner introduced by myself in H.M.S. _Inconstant_. Both of these French ships have attained 16-9/10 knots of speed. They are armed with seven guns of eight tons and fourteen of three tons weight.