THE OCEAN AS A BATTLE-FIELD 285 



unjust and unreasonable to deny the honest, peaceably 

 minded merchant adventurer at sea the protection 

 which he claimed and received ashore. The worthy 

 men who ruled over the destinies of these two great 

 maritime countries began to perceive, dimly and afar 

 off perhaps, but still they did see, that commerce and 

 war were incompatible, and that if the trade for which 

 both countries were pre-eminently fitted, both by their 

 geographical position and the genius of their people, 

 was to flourish, there must be a total rearrangement 

 of maritime affairs. The ship of war must be built 

 and equipped for warlike purposes only, yet her 

 principal mission must be the care of her country's 

 trading craft, and not unprovoked aggression upon other 

 nations. The merchant ship, on the other hand, must 

 be freed from the necessity of carrying a large arma- 

 ment, and a crew far greater than was needed to work 

 the ship, in order that the merchant might reap his 

 legitimate profit, unhampered by these totally un- 

 necessary expenses. 



It was a revolutionary idea, for except, as I have 

 hinted, in China, no such thing as an unarmed ship 

 equipped for purely trading purposes had been hitherto 

 known. And even the Chinese example was vitiated 

 by the fact that every Chinese merchantman was a 

 potential pirate, given sufficient opportunity, which 

 indeed is the case to-day. But it took root and grew, 

 very, very slowly it is true, still there was growth. 

 Of course, the chief hindrance to its development 

 arose from the merchants themselves, who were ulti- 

 mately to be its chief beneficiaries. Full well they 

 knew what great profits were suddenly to be made 

 by the piratical onslaught upon a richly laden ship 



