THE EVENT OF WAR, CONSIDERED.-IMPOSSIBILITY OF PROTECTING - OF OUR MARITIME DEFENCES. CHAPTER I. ALTHOUGH Great Britain, from her insular position, is much more secure against foreign aggression than any other European nation, the posibility of invasion has ever been a source of the deepest anxiety to her people, and frequently of needless alarms. Indeed, from the time when Napoleon I. commenced that career of territorial conquest which ended in his exile to St. Helena, we lived in the midst of alarms. Nor did these cease with his overthrow, or when all that was mortal of that restless conqueror lay entombed far away from the strife of nations. I shall not stop to enquire into the cause, but since then we have expended many millions on fortifications and otherwise, for the protection of our shores. Although events have proved that for more than halfa-century the vast sums of money thus expended, as well as the further expenditure on our Army and Navy, might, in a great measure, have been saved, I am not prepared to coincide with those writers who attempt to show that our preparations for war have on every occasion been a waste of our national resources. Far from it: our warlike attitude, while it no doubt induced other nations to increase their armaments, may, in more than one instance, have prevented war, for nations prone to war are, in the motives which actuate their conduct, frequently not unlike the common burglar who calculates the risks before he pounces upon his prey. Indeed, I go so far as B to admit, though I have considered the rumours of invasion in my own time as something worse than idle, that the Volunteer movement a few years ago, while tending to place at ease the minds of timid people, produced a material effect on these would-be invaders, and banished the thought of invading this country if it were ever seriously entertained by any Government. I am no alarmist; on the contrary, I entertain the opinion-held by too few men who have taken part in public affairs-that all differences between nations should be settled by arbitration. But while holding that opinion, I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that human nature is as prone to quarrel as ever. In our courts of law litigants frequently expend, in contesting money payments, a very great deal more than the sum at issue, to obtain what they call "their rights." Ludicrous cases occasionally occur, especially amongst my own countrymen (Scotsmen), where a litigant will carry a question respecting the position of a ditch or hedge, of practically no value to either of the contending parties, from the Court of Session to the House of Lords to decide to whom the ditch or hedge may belong, or who should clean the one or trim the other; and hundreds, and even thousands of pounds sterling are sometimes expended in the settlement of a question involving an outlay of a few shillings. As it is with individuals, so it is with nations, and I suppose it is for these reasons that monarchs and princes, born to rule and accustomed to have their own way at home, as well as oppressed nationalties, still decline to settle their disputes by any means short of war. It, however, says little for the progress of civilisation that they do not attempt, by every means short of national honour, to settle their differences amicably, instead of mustering legions of innocent men, who are frequently altogether ignorant of the cause of dispute, to bring it to an issue by the sacrifice of their lives and the ruin of their homes-in a word, by the same brute force, which savages still adopt, and only differing from it by more scientific and more wholesale modes of destruction. Although sharing at the time with many other persons the feeling that £3,000,000 was much too heavy a penalty for us to pay for the loss the mercantile community of the United States sustained by our negligence during the late unfortunate war in that country, I should rather, when it was decided we were wrong, have paid ten times that penalty than have gone to war. So far from being lowered in the estimation of all good and wise men by the course we adopted, it redounded to our honour as a nation. Great Britain certainly stands much higher now than she would have done had she gone to war and won her cause by force of arms to say nothing about the suffering and loss that war would have entailed on the people of both countries. Nevertheless, with all my hatred of war and anxiety for peace, I can see few signs of the time when nations are to beat "their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-hooks." On the contrary, the gloomy hosts of war appear to be gathering round us, more darkly and densely than ever. What mean those vast armies which the nations of Europe are now collecting? For what purpose does Germany increase her legions of armed men, and seek for seaports to construct stupendous ironclad ships of war? Wherein lies the necessity of Russia, * Germany has thirteen ironclads afloat, three of which are turretships-viz., the Preussen, Friedrich der Grosse, and the Grosse Kurfürst. The first of these was built at the private dockyard of the Vulcan Company, at Stettin, and was launched in November, 1873; the second named was built at Ellerbeck, near Kiel, and launched in September, 1874; the third named was built at Wilhelmshafen, and launched in September, 1875. They are full-rigged vessels, and constructed after the model of the British ship Monarch. There are also three broadside frigates-viz., the Konig Wilhelm, built at the Thames Ironworks, and reckoned to be the most powerful in the fleet; the Kronprinz, built by France, and Italy, with few or no colonies, and only a comparatively small maritime commerce to protect, expending huge sums of money in the construction of vessels of that description? These are questions not easily answered, unless we find their solution in the deep-rooted animosity which exists between France and Germany, or in what is known as the perplexed and critical "Eastern Question," wherein we may unhappily be involved, against our will, at any moment. In such an unfortunate contingency, this island offers so many temptations that, however improbable, invasion is not an impossible event; and, considering the enormous amount at stake, we must ever be prepared to resist any attempt to land a foreign army on our shores or to blockade our ports. If our strength be measured by our wealth, by the number of ironclads we have now afloat, and by our resources in other respects as compared with other nations, we are, perhaps, more powerful now than we were when "all the world was in arms against us." But the relative positions of nations have, since then, materially changed in various important matters. Nor must we flatter ourselves with the too popular notion that money can do everything, and that we could turn our resources to account between the time when war was declared, and when operations actually commenced. A complete organisation of our forces, active and in reserve, Samuda; and the Friedrich Karl, built near Toulon. Then there are two casemated frigates, the Kaiser and the Deutschland, both built by Samuda, and delivered at Wilhelmshafen last year. There are also three ironclad corvettes, the Leipzig and Hansa, both built bythe Vulcan Company, near Stettin, and the Elisabeth; the monitor Arminius, and the little armoured vessel Prince Adalbert, make up the thirteen, the former built in France, and the latter by Samuda, at Poplar, The corvette Elisabeth has just undergone a thorough repair at Dantsic, and was commissioned on June 1, instead of October 1, as was at first intended. She is now taking in her provisions and ammunition, and |