trade, positions useless to France in peace, but well chosen, as the Prince de Joinville observes, to inflict incalculable damage on our commerce in war.*

Still, whatever the designs of France may be, it is only our own inadvertence, false economy, or over-confidence, that can give them effect; and it is especially against the latter danger that I have attempted to offer some words of warning.

If excuse be necessary for this humble effort to serve my country, I must plead the example of the Royal Admiral above referred to, whose pen has certainly rendered as good service to France as his sword, without disparagement to the latter.

Though he has not attained to the high naval rank of the Princely Admiral, the writer of these observations might plead a longer course of service, with an equal regard for the future welfare of his own profession.

Madagascar by France would greatly lower the value of East India property in war, and raise insurances on vessels trading with India and China immensely.

* "Elles croiseraient autour de nos colonies, autour de ces nouveaux points saisis sur les mers lointaines par une politique prévoyante, et destinés à servir de base à leurs opérations aussi bien qu'à devenir l'asile de nos corsaires." -Prince de Joinville's Pamphlet, p. 19.

CHAPTER I.

VIEW OF THE MARITIME RESOURCES OF ENGLAND COMPARED WITH THOSE OF FRANCE. COMPARISON OF THE MATERIEL OF THE TWO NAVIES.

LET any person stand on London bridge and look upon that dense mass of shipping, which, far as the eye can reach, and in number that defies any attempt at counting or even at guessing, covers the water. Let him then embark and thread his way through the narrow passage that intersects this floating forest, and trace it through its miles of length; let him cast his eye beyond it on the right bank, and on the left, and trace, by the masts showing above the houses, those vast artificial basins and canals, covering hundreds of acres, which receive the surplus shipping of the over-crowded river. Let him look at the building yards, public and private, on either side, in which are at this moment building, besides innumerable traders, ships of war, for our own government, for the East India Company, for Spain, Portugal, and other powers. Let him examine (for the dusky unpretending buildings do not strike the eye)

those factories, where scores, nay hundreds, of marine steam-engines are being constructed for Great Britain and the whole world. Let him look at the steamers, varying in size from the frigate to the river-boat, whose paddles, as they pass to and fro, keep the river in endless commotion. Let him then be told that what he sees before him is repeated, though in rather a smaller scale, in the Mersey and the Clyde. Let, I say, any person gaze at this scene, and he will see before him the rough materials, the unorganised resources in personnel and matériel, of such a navy as the world has not yet seen: and resources, let it be remembered, which are only the natural emanations and exponents of our manufacturing wealth, which wealth is again the natural and spontaneous growth of our mineral riches in coals and iron and the native industry of the people. Will not the person gazing on this scene, whatever be his nation, say of England, "Here is a country destined to be the first maritime power of the globe?"

Let the same person, again following the course of the crowded river, which bears on its surface the wealth of every climate, pass through the scarcely less crowded Downs, and steer a south-westerly course until the ever-moving scene, studded with endless sails, grows less and

less animated as he draws near the coast of France. His approach to that shore will be indicated by the gradual decrease in the number of sails visible. Steamers, with their long trains of smoke, will no longer obscure the atmosphere. The small coasters and fishing-boats will be not only less numerous but less "shipshape" in the cut and setting of the sails. Yachts will disappear; smart looking galleys will be replaced by clumsy boats with primitive oars. In short, he will observe, although a landsman, an unmistakeable difference, a perfect contrast between the two shores.

Perhaps, indeed, he will enter a tolerably filled harbour; but of the shipping present, a large part will be under the British or other foreign flags, and of that which is national no small part will be found to trade, not in the usual way of commerce, but upon the bounty or special immunities granted by government. Building yards there will be too, but on a far different scale from those on the Thames. No. ships of a thousand tons and upwards, such as those built at Blackwall and elsewhere, will excite his admiration by their noble proportions and the beauty of their lines. A few steamers with, perhaps, English engines. One or two small factories, for machines of trifling power,

will make up the display of commercial activity and power, on the other side of the Channel; and even of this, let me repeat, much is forced and artificial.

Such then is, I believe, a correct view of the maritime resources of the two countries. If I have exaggerated our own, it has been unintentionally, for it is not my wish to strengthen that dangerous over-confidence, which naturally, and almost necessarily, arises out of our past history. I have only dwelt on the fact of such superiority, to place in the strongest light the apparently unaccountable confidence expressed by French professional writers, and generally entertained in France, of the possibility of contending with us successfully, on what we are accustomed to consider as our own element.

But before adducing authority (quite incontestible) for the singular fact, that it is to her navy, rather than her army, France looks for future success, I must say something of the organised naval resources, on the national fleets of the two countries.

Looking first at the matériel of the two navies, though we shall not find the same overwhelming superiority, which has been observed in our commercial resources, yet it may be asserted that our own force about doubles that