In France there has always been a generous system of legislation for the support of the marine, but in this country the navy has never been considered of the vital importance to the safety of the nation that it has in England; consequently naval controllers have always been obliged to exercise a much greater economy in development, and the rigidly mathematical system of the French in the exercise of all control is nowhere better exemplified than in the development of their fleet. The ships of the fleet will be found most rigidly classified, each type being clearly distinct. Reconstruction and development is carried on as it were _en masse_ in accordance with the prescriptions of fleet programmes carefully studied out to meet the exigencies of the time, and once settled upon being rigidly followed to the end. It is on this account that the French are found as a rule backward in introducing radical changes of detail. Whilst keeping to their systems of classification, the French have kept close to the English in the matter of fleet strength. There has been one period in which France fell so far to the rear as almost to take third place in strength of fleet, whilst development ceased entirely. This was caused by the disastrous Franco-Prussian war, from whose effects the navy still suffers, although it has fully regained its former position close to that of Great Britain. In the United States, naval development has been constantly hampered not only by parsimonious legislation but by a constant legislative meddling, imposing a restraint far more injurious than lack of funds or the distractions of war itself. At no time has the strength of the fleet been sufficient to bear a comparison with that of either England or France, but in the matter of architectural development the United States has repeatedly passed to the front at a single stride. In spite, however, of the advantages gained, parsimoniousness and political meddling have invariably interfered to hold the navy fast at its single stage of advance until its first developments sank into insignificance beside the modifications and perfections applied in Europe. During the Crimean war American architects laid down a programme for an efficient steam fleet and led the world in the development of the steam frigate and corvette. Notwithstanding this start, the outbreak of the civil war in 1861 found the navy with but the nucleus of a steam fleet. Whilst sailing war-vessels had almost disappeared from European navies, giving place to steam types founded mainly upon the principles which had given American architects the lead, the bulk of the United States Navy was still composed of the old sailing frigates and sloops. The turreted iron-clad, the river gun-boat, and the rapid cruiser again showed the way to the world; but the close of the war brought demoralization to all systems of development.