334 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. CHAP. xix. 



tend to enmity among nations and to the misery of the 

 people. 



The first steps in this military development were the 

 adoption of a new rifle for the whole Prussian Army in 

 1846, the application of steam to our ships of war in 

 1840, and the use of iron armor for the protection of 

 battleships by the French in 1859. The remainder of 

 the century has witnessed a mad race between all the 

 Great Powers of Europe to increase the death-dealing 

 power of their weapons, and to add to the number and 

 efficiency of their armies; Avhile among the maritime 

 powers there has been a still wilder struggle, in which 

 all the resources of modern science have been utilized in 

 order to add to the destructive power of cannon, and 

 both the defensive and the offensive powers of ships. 

 The various new explosives have been utilized in shells, 

 mines, and torpedoes ; rifled cannon of enormous size and 

 power have been manufactured; while battleships of 

 10,000 to 15,000 tons' displacement, protected by steel 

 armor from ten inches to twenty inches thick, with enor- 

 mous engines, often at the rate of a horse-power to every 

 ton, driving the ships at a speed of from twelve to 

 twenty-two knots an hour, have so transformed our fleet 

 that the majority of the ships bear no resemblance what- 

 ever to the majestic three-deckers and beautiful frigates 

 with which all our great naval victories were gained, and 

 which formed the bulk of our navy only fifty years ago. 



Although the total number of warships and of vessels 

 of all kinds in our fleet are about the same as they were 

 in the middle of the century, their power for offence and 

 defence, and their cost, are immensely greater. Almost 

 all of them are built of iron or steel, and are full of costly 



