Df\ Young's Remarks^ 
33 ^ 
only were improved, at an equal expense, the adoption of his 
alterations would still be highly advisable. 
14. Conclusion, 
It is by no means impossible, that experience may suggest 
some better substantiated objections to these innovations, than 
have hitherto occurred : but none of those objections, which 
have yet been advanced, appear to be sufficiently valid to war- 
rant a discontinuance of the cautious and experimental intro- 
duction of Mr. Seppings's /arrangements, which has been 
commenced by orders of the Board of Admiralty. The filling 
in seems to be wholly unexceptionable: the braces between 
the ports appear to be decidedly more beneficial than the 
planks for which they are substituted; and the coakings seem 
to be very judiciously employed in yarious parts of the struc- 
ture : but something more may possibly be hereafter effected 
for the further improvement of the decks, and for the more 
complete provision of a substitute for the thick stuff' of the 
cieling, in addition to the diagonal riders, if experience should 
prove that there is any deficiency in the resistance of these 
parts. But it must be remembered, in forming conclusions 
from such experience, that when an arrangement of any kind 
has nearly attained the maximum of its perfection, it may 
demonstrably be varied in a considerable degree, without a 
proportional alteration of its effect ; so that the most correct 
knowledge of scientific principles, and the minutest accuracy 
in their application, must become indispensably necessary, in 
order to secure us from the introduction of material errors, 
derived from the latent operation of accidental causes, foreign 
to the immediate subjects of investigation. 
Welbeck Street, 30 Dec. 1811. 
