. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. rnations of Europecombined, and theseships were infinitelybetter manned andcommanded. Eng-lish sailors claimedto have brought toperfection the art ofhandling those gi-gantic yet bird-likecreations, the oldsailing first-rateships of the line,which seemed thefinal assertion ofmans superiorityover the hundred battleson twenty seas hadconfirmed Britains right to rule the waves. The defeat of aBritish ship in fair fight was counted wholly exceptional. Theend of the Napoleonic wars (1815) left the French navy in ruins,and
. A history of mediaeval and modern Europe for secondary schools. rnations of Europecombined, and theseships were infinitelybetter manned andcommanded. Eng-lish sailors claimedto have brought toperfection the art ofhandling those gi-gantic yet bird-likecreations, the oldsailing first-rateships of the line,which seemed thefinal assertion ofmans superiorityover the hundred battleson twenty seas hadconfirmed Britains right to rule the waves. The defeat of aBritish ship in fair fight was counted wholly exceptional. Theend of the Napoleonic wars (1815) left the French navy in ruins,and without the slightest chance for any Continental power tochallenge the naval empire of the great island nation. Noruntil very recent times has this naval empire seemed in jeopardy. 1 The largest three-decker ships of the line carried 120-odd guns and were ofsome 2600 tons: — remarkably huge structures when it is considered that theywere built of wood and propelled by sail. For ordinary fighting purposes, how-ever, the handier 74-gun ships were counted LINE OF BATTLE SHIP OF 108 GUNS(From a mode! in the Marine Museum, Louvre, Paris) ENGLAND UNDER THE GEORGES 369 211. The winning of India. One great section of English his-tory at this time reads like a glamorous Oriental romance —the winning of India. It is impossible to summarize conditionsin that distant empire. The chief facts are these: — India wasa huge conglomerate of kingdoms and principalities mostlyunder the feeble suzerainty of the Great Mogul of jewel mines, her infinite products, her trade, were all await-ing the European Power that could throw itself heartily intothe task of conquest, and be able to make its rivals stand Dutch and Portuguese had already tried: but all they hadwon were a few trading-posts. In the eighteenth century, theEnglish East India Company1 had also held some trading-posts, notably at the sites of the modern cities of Calcutta,Bombay, and Madras. The French were
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