WAR has ever derived its progressions and changes from the varied proportions and combinations of man-power and art-power. Man to man, breast to breast, foot to foot, muscle to muscle, was the struggle of the primal state. Man-power with the aid of science, against man alone, was the contest of growing civilisation with barbarous strength. When these great elements were nearly balanced came the grand and terrible combats of civilised peoples, the great encounters of intellect and strength, in combination and proximate equality. The past, however, teaches us that there must be ever a proportion in these elements. History is full of proofs that the one can never become so predominant as to supersede the other. Science in the hands of degenerate manhood has never yet sufficed to withstand the onslaught of new and vigorous races; and the impulses of unscientific valour, or the pressure of multitudes, even if acting with a rush like that of the northern nations, would surge vainly and break against the art and organisation of modern war. This fact, this experience, is of import now-now in the days when the theory is gaining ground, that science has levelled, and will further level. the qualities inherent in nations

VOL. LXXXV. NO. DXXIV.

races. This can never be. It is contrary to the ordination of the world's government. Science may and will doubtless vary and decrease the differences and gradations in race-supremacy, but it can never nullify them. Man must be ever the first agent in war or policy. The power of art he raises around him must be a secondary, though ever effective instrument. This age will try the question more thoroughly than ever it has yet been tested. Steam and projectile power are the two strongest war-agencies which science has ever yet set in array against the ascendancy of the native will and valour of man, the most formidable challenge it has ever given to the innate attributes of heart and nature, as the propelling forces of battle. Yet these can never be set in action by mere mechanism; the genius, the courage of man must be always the motive powers which shall direct and propel them, which shall give them a due effect and development. And thus again the diverse qualities of races and peoples must ever appear prominently in the application of science as a war force. Man must be ever the soul to the body.

In negation of this principle, it has been mooted of late, that our seamen and ships will henceforth relin

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that England was ready to enforce her tendered and gratuitous advice to their rulers. It is generally understood on the Continent that a great nation like ours never speaks but with a voice potential that her recommendations may fairly be construed as somewhat equivalent to demands-and that she is prepared, when needful, to give something more than moral support to the cause which she thinks proper to espouse. Advice, however sound and judicious, is rarely useful unless it is tendered with a show of authority; and we must needs say that the perpetual intermeddling of Lord Palmerston and his colleagues with the affairs of the peninsula, was neither creditable to England nor calculated to ameliorate the condition of the Italian people. It irritated the princes; it excited the hopes of the revolutionists; and it led to endless complications and confusion. The true policy of Britain with regard to foreign states, is to abstain from all interference, except in extreme cases; to allow each sovereign or independent state to regulate its own affairs; rigidly to observe treaties, and to see that treaties are observed. That is the policy of the present Cabinet; and had those which preceded it acted on the like principle, it is more than probable that this crisis never would have arrived. Since it has arrived, let us be thankful that the reins of government are in such capable hands; and let all those who fove their country manifest that disposition by giving strenuous support to her Majesty's Ministers. If the new House of Commons should prove to be factious and divided-if, in the midst of a tremendous war abroad,

when it is possible that the integrity of our own shores may be threatened, we are again to behold the lamentable spectacle of disappointed and broken-down statesmen intriguing for office, and contriving pitfalls for their antagonists-if some measures are to be advocated, not because they are advantageous to the country, but because they may be useful for party purposes-if other measures are to be obstructed, not because they are unsuited to the real requirements of the time, but because they do not satisfy the demands of the democrats, or are calculated, from their wise and moderate nature, to put an end to that agitation-then we may indeed despair of the ultimate destinies of the country. But we do not anticipate any such result. We look forward with hope to this general election, believing that the appeal which the Ministry have made for support and confidence will meet with a loyal response, and that the constitution of the new House of Commons will be such as to enable them to conduct the government with a firm hand and a steady aim through the intricate passages of the future. In the midst of the terrible deluge which threatens to overwhelm Europe, uprooting dynasties, effacing landmarks, and carrying ruin and desolation over her fertile fields and beautiful cities, may the ark of Britain ride secure, uninvaded by the waves, and unshattered by the tempest; and when in His own good time the Almighty shall see fit to stop the fountains of the deep, and bid the plague of waters be assuaged, may it be our high privilege to send forth the dove of peace, and to restore the equilibrium of Europe.

WAR has ever derived its progressions and changes from the varied proportions and combinations of man-power and art-power. Man to man, breast to breast, foot to foot, muscle to muscle, was the struggle of the primal state. Man-power with the aid of science, against man alone, was the contest of growing civilisation with barbarous strength. When these great elements were nearly balanced came the grand and terrible combats of civilised peoples, the great encounters of intellect and strength, in combination and proximate equality. The past, however, teaches us that there must be ever a proportion in these elements. History is full of proofs that the one can never become so predominant as to supersede the other. Science in the hands of degenerate manhood has never yet sufficed to withstand the onslaught of new and vigorous races; and the impulses of unscientific valour, or the pressure of multitudes, even if acting with a rush like that of the northern nations, would surge vainly and break against the art and organisation of modern war. This fact, this experience, is of import now-now in the days when the theory is gaining ground, that science has levelled, and will further level, the qualities inherent in nations and

VOL. LXXXV.-NO. DXXIV.

races. This can never be. It is contrary to the ordination of the world's government. Science may and will doubtless vary and decrease the differences and gradations in race-supremacy, but it can never nullify them. Man must be ever the first agent in war or policy. The power of art he raises around him must be a secondary, though ever effective instrument. This age will try the question more thoroughly than ever it has yet been tested. Steam and projectile power are the two strongest war-agencies which science has ever yet set in array against the ascendancy of the native will and valour of man, the most formidable challenge it has ever given to the innate attributes of heart and nature, as the propelling forces of battle. Yet these can never be set in action by mere mechanism; the genius, the courage of man must be always the motive powers which shall direct and propel them, which shall give them a due effect and development. And thus again the diverse qualities of races and peoples must ever appear prominently in the application of science as a war force. Man must be ever the soul to the body.

In negation of this principle, it has been mooted of late, that our seamen and ships will henceforth relin

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quish their old vantage-ground, and that one crew, one ship, will be the same or better than another according to the armament or horse-power which it represents. Britannia is no longer to rule the waves. Science will assume the trident. The navies of the world are for the future to be estimated by the most powerful engines and the most destructive guns. This we believe to be a grand fallacy. As long as there are winds and waves-as long as ships are not self-motive, but require to be guided by skill, and be handled with courage and dexterity-as long as the position and placing of a ship can give her vantage and superiority, so long must seamanship be a power, so long must the people, to whom it is a nature, be capable of holding supremacy on the seas. This nature must, however, doubtlessly be allied with an application of art, and a possession of material somewhat equal to the resources and means of other navies, and then it will and must turn the scale, making equality superiority, inferiority equality. Strangely enough, this change in the proportions of man-power and artpower, it is prophesied, will affect most the people who were supposed to have the advantage in both. The tars of old England have long been acknowledged as the seamen of the world; and the number of her sons whose business takes them to the great waters, is equal to the collective marine of Europe; her craftsmen are the workmen of the world; wood and iron are her familiar elements, which she moulds together to do her bidding; steam is the child of her adoption and fostering; her engines are imported into all lands; her engineers are found under every flag; her resources are gigantic; her wealth elastic; and yet, with all these advantages, the voice of public opinion, echoed by nation after nation, rouses her to the knowledge that in all the material and equipment of naval war, in all the appliances of naval force, she is only equal to the great power with which she has hitherto victoriously contested the empire of the seas-that in the ready supply of seamen she may be

inferior. How can this be? It is a problem for the nation to solve. Many are the solutions which have been offered; the changes of material caused by steam; the extensive construction of small vessels demanded by the exigencies of the Baltic and Black Sea campaigns; the succession of administrators, and consequent change of systems; the sacrifice of the country's weal to the struggles of parties; of its offensive and defensive power to the expediency of estimates and budgets. All these have some reason, some argument; yet none nor all collectively can exculpate the body politic, or the nation itself, from the error, the almost crime, which has thus perilled or rendered doubtful our supremacy at sea. And this supremacy is not to us a question of national ambition or national pride, it is a principle of existence. Equality to us is danger-in superiority, manifest and unchallenged, is safety. Meanwhile, a country and a people for whom the supremacy has not this vitality-to whom it is not this necessity-to whom it is mere supremacy-have advanced upon us with an energy and an intent, a vigour and a result, which evince a strong and fixed resolve to challenge, and, if possible, to attain it.

Impelled by one strong will, aimed at one fixed purpose, the national effort has progressed steadily, strongly, undeviatingly, unattracted by temporary requirements or expediencies, to the construction and organisation of a great navy, proportionate in its parts, powerful in its unity and preparation; and the result is, that the peoples of Europe have begun to institute comparisons betwixt the navies of France and England, to speculate on the issue of a trial, and balance the claims for the championship. And these comparisons are not only drawn betwixt the nations, but betwixt the governments; betwixt the effects of despotism and freedom; rulers and the ruled await the denouement anxiously and earnestly; and the proof which determines the supremacy may affect the destinies of the future.

On one side are the natural agencies-material, national fitness, prac

tical talent, resources of wealth, production and industry, the incitements of ancient prestige and national feeling; on the other, the concentration of power, the will of a man, the resolve of aristocracy. It will be a sad lesson for the worlda sad experience for coming generations, if, in such a contest, the energies of a free people shall prove unequal to the efforts of absolutism. It may not be, that these comparisons should ever be tried by a wartest; the contest may be carried on and decided amid the amenities of peace; yet the result, as seen only in the possession of power, in the ascendancy of effort and resource, will have a speech for the nations more telling and effective than protocols or diplomatic notes-may have a casting-vote in the great question of peace or war. The assertion of our old supremacy, by the creation and actual existence of a navy-men and ships equal to its maintenance, may suffice to avert the war-test, may tend to suppress the war-spirit, to calm the war-attitudes which now agitate and disturb the dynasties, the people, and policies of Europe.

Power, if not in principle aggressive, is a great peace-maker, a great arbitrator, a great defence.

How comes it, however, that this question of supremacy again arises after the issues of the last war-how can it be resolved without a resort to the same stern trial?-A comparison of the actual state of the two navies, of their possible and probable development, of the policies they represent, the consequences they may produce, can alone give an answer.

France and England-allies now and rivals-representatives ever of different ideas, different theories, different forces, different elements, the two leading powers of civilisation, cannot alter their relative positions towards each other without affecting the general equilibrium, without influencing materially the progress and direction of that civilisation. France, by ancient tradition, by ancient prestige, and natural policy, has been the military nation of the modern age, has been, spite of revolutions and revolutionists, of

equality and fraternity, the champíon of force and arbitrary government, has ever assumed for itself the destiny of conquest. England, as naturally, has claimed and held the dominance on the seas, and has ever set herself in the advance of progressive liberty and intelligence, has ever undertaken the mission of spreading and extending the moral influences and physical benefits of civilisation by migrations, intercourse with the remotest parts of the earth, and by commerce. Should this relationship of principles and forces be disturbed, should the naval and military supremacy be combined in one people, the balance of governing theories would be upset, and an impulse and an opportunity given to the doctrine of force which would afford it a vantage in determining the destinies of man. This question of navies is not, therefore, only a national one, not one of the individual supremacy of the two countries; but one which may have a world-wide world-felt bearing and effect. Let us investigate it; and first let us examine the naval power of France.

The late prominence of her navy has appeared to act on the world as a surprise. It had been assumed that, content with her military ascendancy and absorbed in its development, she cared little comparatively for her maritime forces, and shrank from the sea as an ungenial element for the display of her puissance. The history of her policy for centuries shows no such indifference. When did she ever voluntarily consent to have a secondary place or play a secondary part in any sphere of action or ambition? Such indifference was not only contrary to all her statecraft, but would have been unworthy of a great country, possessed of a vast sea-board, and capable of a great maritime advancement. A navy would have been to France in time a necessity; but it was a policy before it became a necessity. Its creation was a conception of the rulers who first began to concentrate her power, and its development has been a chief policy of every strong government, an element in every great epoch of her history.