To provide new cruisers under the program, the French Minister of the Navy, Louis Raymond de Montaignac de Chauvance, forwarded a pair of designs to the (Council of Works) on 8 March 1875. The minister had requested designs that strengthened the armament compared to earlier cruisers while keeping displacement similar, at the cost of speed. The two proposals, which the council reviewed on 28 May, were prepared by Victorin Sabattier and Arthur Bienaymé, the latter based on his earlier s. They were similar vessels, armed with fifteen guns, all on the upper deck, forecastle, and sterncastle.
