464 



The kp:viEW of Reviews. 



list of llic Na\'v is now formed into three great 

 (Itets :— ' 



I'leet. Smiiulnins. Uase. 



First Fleet 1st UattU: Squadron Home. 



211(1 Batile Squadron Home. 

 3rd I3attlc Squadron Home. 

 4th liattle Squadron Gibraltar. 

 Second Fleet... 5tli liattle Sciuadron Home. 

 6lh Battle Squadron Home. 

 Third Fleet ... 7th Battle Squadron Home. 

 Sth Battle .Squadron Home. 

 Kach squadron has eight battleships and a cruiser squadron 

 numbered in sequence. The F'irst Squadron will conqjrise the 

 newest ships and the Eighth Squadron will be r.ated lower than 

 the nucleus crew ships in only having a maintenance parly 

 aboard. There will also be a Mediterranean Cruiser Squadron, 

 a Training Squadron, and the usual Fleet units for China, 

 Australia, and tl:e East Indies ; also a Ninth, Tenth, and 

 Eleventh Cruiser Squadron in reserve. 



The review of the Fleet next week will be the first under 



the new organi.sation. The King will spend three 



days with his Fleet, and will witness the use of the 



aeroplanes at sea. The presence of His Majesty will 



bring additional lustre to this historic occasion, 



when the department of defence which he has made 



peculiarly his own embarks on this new venture. 



General Bernhardi's book on the 



Military Ethics next war has caused much discu.s- 



and . ,,^ , , 



National Duty. sion. He denounces the peace 



movement as poisonous, and all 

 the peace propaganda of foreign Powers as hypocrisy. 

 The attempt to abolish war is, he says, immoral and 

 unworthy of humanity. A suppressed state of war 

 between two States, though carried on only in peaceful 

 competition, " justifies the use of cunning and 

 deception." He says that as French hostility cannot 

 be disposed of by i)eaceful means, it must be done 

 by force of arms. " War with England is probably the 

 war which we shall first have to fight out." Lord 

 J'lshcr's reply in the Times shows the difference of 

 moral meridian under which he lives. He says : " It 

 is hardly conceivalile that, after two thousand years 

 of Christian teaching, and in the midst of a people 

 from whom have sprung some of the loftiest thinkers 

 and some of the greatest scientific benefactors of the 

 human race, such opinion should find expression. 

 Cicneral liernhardi belongs to the Middle Ages, and 

 his thotights surge about in armour." Lord Fsher 

 adds, significantly, " If these views were realh' shared 

 by the great German people, we should have to admit 

 that the entente between Great Britain and France 

 rests upon foundations far deeper than those of material 

 'nterest." -Mr. Roiiert Hanoiirt rejoins that in point 

 of fact, " John Hull and German Aliihel. as repre- 

 sented bv their militant experts, ;ire Ixith in a likie 

 funk the one of the other, but the actual intentions 

 (jf each are probably a.s pacific as those of Mr. Winkle ' 



French Tribute 



10 



British Monarchs. 



and Mr. Dowlcr." The only way out of this obvious 

 misunderstanding is, as Lord Esher suggests, that 

 there should be a more frequent interchange of personal 

 visits. 



The friendship between England 

 and France was touchingly illus- 

 trated in the eloquent tributes paid 

 bv the French Prime Minister, 

 M. Poincare, to the memory of Queen Victoria and 

 Edward VII. when unveiling monuments in honour 

 of both monarchs on the Riviera. Of Queen V^ictoria 

 he said : — 



She was a Constitutional Queen, and she would never have 

 thought of infringing upon the authority and the independence 

 of her Ministers. But from her exalted position she watched 

 over the great interests of the country ; she herself studied with 

 vigilant attention all business of a gener.al character ; and 

 especially in questions of foreign policyshe placed at the service 

 of British diplomacy the growing prestige which kinship and 

 relationship by marriage had secured for her among a number of 

 reigning Houses. The legitimate ascendency which she had 

 achieved over the nations and their Governments was shown in 

 1887 and in 1897 by the celebration of the fiftieth and sixtieth 

 anniversaries of her accession. There never was an official 

 solemnity which was more like an apotheosis. Sons, sons-in- 

 law, and grandsons of the Queen formed a long princely 

 cavalcade ; ICings walked in procession ; rajahs, clothed in 

 brilliant raiment, had come to offei their homage to her who 

 since 1877 had added to her hereditary title the new and 

 triumphant name of Empress of India. Canadians, Australians, 

 South Africans, white men, black men, and men of the yellow 

 races had assembled to present to the Mother Country the 

 universal tribute of Colonial loyalty. If, during these incom- 

 parable days, theaged (,)ueen remembered the'.tears which in early 

 life she had shed when she put on the Crown, she could now 

 say with pride that the Royal dignity which had seemed so 

 terrifying to her youth offered her old age emotions which were 

 almost more than lumian and pleasures which were almost 

 divine. Her death threw- all the Courts of Europe into 

 mourning ; through her nine children she had had forty grand- 

 children and thirly-seven great-grandchildren. She was the 

 ancestress before whom Emperors and Kings bowed their heads ; 

 but she was likewise one who loved to place herself in heart and 

 in thought beside the lowly, one who had promised to be good 

 and who had been good. 



In his eulogy of King Edward M. Poincare spoke of 

 the princely ease of manner, the keen common sense, 

 the intellectual simplicity, the instinctive tact, and the 

 supreme power of adaptation which were the charac- 

 teristics of his genius : — 



He w.as too wise to break abruptly with the p.ast. He did 

 nc^ attempt to tear England violently from the splendid 

 isolation which she had chosen. Gently and wdth moderation 

 he threw his weight ujion the helm to change the course of the 

 Ship of State. Edward VH. .saw at a glance the work lo be 

 done, and realised imniedialely the po.ssibility and advanlages 

 of a combination which without breaking any existing F.urnpean 

 alliance or understanding, and without any character of oltence: 

 or provocation .against any Power, would associate in a common] 

 desire of jieace and laliour two of the European nations who 

 are richest in their econnmic and financial resources, most 

 glorious in their history, and freest in their political institutions. 

 Great realist as he was, he realised that the accomplishment of 

 this understanding did not necessarily involve a formal Treaty 

 set out on |>archmenl, and that lo guarantee its permanence 

 and solidity it was enough to accustom the two peoples to mutual 



