SCIENTIFIC NATIONAL DEFENCE 123 



the van of progress and bear the banner of civilisation to the 

 uttermost ends of the earth. 



Such had always been his simple creed of national defence. 



A partial awakening— so to speak, a yawning and a stretching 

 — occurred in 1899, when he was quite suddenly and unex- 

 pectedly attacked by the Boers. To his profound astonishment, 

 not only did the Boers care nothing at all for his navy, but that 

 navy itself proved to be practically helpless. For the moment 

 the citizen was seriously disturbed ; he feared that all was not 

 well with a navy which could fail him in his crisis. But he 

 cheered up when he heard that some naval guns had been 

 very cleverly transported to Ladysmith by sailors, on carriages 

 designed by sailors ; and that, at the very first shot — or was it 

 the second shot?— the matter is unimportant— had struck a Boer 

 gun full on the nose. His navy had retrieved its reputation. 

 Later on, he found that his navy had done him great service ; for 

 its overwhelming power had rendered intervention by certain 

 neutral powers impracticable. His army proved to be altogether 

 too small to execute its task ; and he passed through his " black 

 week." But, to his delight, the Empire and the Volunteers rose 

 to the occasion ; money was poured out like water ; recruits were 

 enlisted wherever they could be found ; and, once more, the 

 Briton triumphed. 



A further awakening occurred in 1904, when the struggle 

 between the Russians and the Japanese commenced ; and the 

 Press teemed with descriptions of bloody and desperate con- 

 flicts of a type which the British citizen had thought to be long 

 since obsolete. The savagery of it shocked him. It was an 

 interesting war, because a nation of islanders was fighting for 

 its existence against a powerful continental State. The citizen 

 watched it with keen interest, and with keen sympathy for the 

 islanders. He foretold that they would defeat the continental 

 power on the sea, because they were islanders whose blood 

 was partly composed of ozone, and that the breath of the sea 

 kills all but the hardiest. It may yet be proved that there is 

 a certain substratum of truth in his reasoning, or instinct. He 

 was inclined to regard himself as something of a prophet when 

 his forecast came true. He was somewhat astonished, however, 

 when the islanders, not content with having defeated their 

 enemy on the sea, proceeded to disembark large armies on the 

 mainland and attack the Russian armies. They beat the conti- 



