After the feverish activity of the war came a period of comparative inaction. The whole political atmosphere of the world, however, was too heavily charged--too electric, as it were, to permit of hopes of lasting peace. In the United States of America the tension between the northern and southern states was already becoming acute, while in Europe the prevailing attitude of the powers towards one another was that of frigid politeness, which at any moment might thaw into hostilities. So there was no lack of incentive to continue the development of the fighting marine. The principal reasons why more was not done at this time were that naval architects and administrators were at the parting of the ways. Some urged that the types with which they were familiar should be adhered to, and that though armoured vessels were useful in the war against Russia, where peculiar conditions had to be met, it did not follow that such vessels would be of use in another war; and it was pointed out that they would be of no value whatever in a naval engagement on account of their unseaworthiness, or rather clumsiness, and the difficulty of handling them. Others, more far-seeing, urged that iron-clad vessels were bound to come sooner or later, and sooner rather than later, since it had been demonstrated that such were not only possible but, so far as they had been used in the war, effective, and that they showed that vessels of less size, armour-plated and carrying a few heavy guns, would be more than a match for any wooden line-of-battle ship afloat. It was contended that the gunboats which silenced the Kinburn forts would be able to give a good account of themselves against the best three-deckers in the allied fleets. But the Admiralty, still convinced of the excellence of the type which had done so well in the past, retained that type and went on building wooden ships, as for that matter did all the admiralties of the world. In 1858, there was designed the last and the finest line-of-battle ship constructed of wood for the British navy. She was launched at Portsmouth in 1859, and commissioned in 1864, and under the name of the _Victoria_ served as flagship in the Mediterranean, and was removed from active service three years later. She was a screw steamer, with horizontal return-connecting-rod engines by Maudslay, indicating 4,000 h.p., and with the boilers giving 22 lb. pressure she could steam at 12 miles an hour. She carried, on her upper deck, twenty-two 32-pounders and one 68-pounder; on her main deck thirty-four 32-pounders, on her middle deck thirty-two guns of the same size, and on her lower deck thirty-two 8-inch guns. A comparison of her armament and that of the next _Victoria_ shows the remarkable change made in the course of a few years in naval artillery, no less than in the arrangement of the weapons on ship board.