New Edition
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1896
[All rights reserved]
Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
London & Bungay.
Jean Paul, the German poet, said that God had given to France the empireof the land, to England the empire of the sea, and to his own countrythe empire of the air. The world has changed since Jean Paul's days. Thewings of France have been clipped; the German Empire has become a solidthing; but England still holds her watery dominion; Britannia does stillrule the waves, and in this proud position she has spread the Englishrace over the globe; she[Pg 2] has created the great American nation; she ispeopling new Englands at the Antipodes; she has made her Queen Empressof India; and is in fact the very considerable phenomenon in the socialand political world which all acknowledge her to be. And all this shehas achieved in the course of three centuries, entirely in consequenceof her predominance as an ocean power. Take away her merchant fleets;take away the navy that guards them: her empire will come to an end; hercolonies will fall off, like leaves from a withered tree; and Britainwill become once more an insignificant island in the North Sea, for thefuture students in Australian and New Zealand universities to discussthe fate of in their debating societies.
How the English navy came to hold so extraordinary a position is worthreflecting on. Much has been written about it, but little, as it seemsto me, which touches the heart of the matter. We are shown the power ofour country growing and expanding. But how it grew, why, after a sleepof so many hundred years, the genius of our Scandinavian forefatherssuddenly sprang[Pg 3] again into life—of this we are left withoutexplanation.
The beginning was undoubtedly the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.Down to that time the sea sovereignty belonged to the Spaniards, and hadbeen fairly won by