It seems more likely that the Pius faction will try to bring the Children into the picture, hoping that the Children will put a stop to this, so to speak, impropriety. Of course, the Republic has all of the weapons and fighting men, while the Children contribute nothing economically to the benefit of the Republic besides perhaps a market for goods, if that? I don't think they actually pay for anything so they are really worse than useless.
The Victory class sloop seems suitable for local defense and little else, still that is about all you can expect from a ship of this size and tech level. Perhaps a small bumping-up of the tracking speed and/or range on the fire control could be accomplished with the remaining 10 tons but this is really a secondary concern at most.