READING THE SEMAPHORE. 43 



to take interest in a paper which was supposed 

 to be his property. Naturally Mr Hylet was 

 greatly surprised at the accuracy with which the 

 message had been spelt out, and at the intelligent 

 comprehension of the principle on which the sema- 

 phore was worked displayed by the document. 

 It was therefore forwarded to the Head Office in 

 London, and a complete change in signalling was 

 immediately adopted. The two students were at 

 first very much puzzled by the new signals, but 

 were not long in discovering their meaning. The 

 first message which they were able to read cor- 

 rectly after this occurrence, conveyed the following 

 words: "A complete revolution in Holland"! 

 Their persistency in observing and deciphering the 

 signals was another instance of the truth of Lord 

 George Bentinck's remark, to which I have so 

 often heard him give utterance, that " you can 

 accomplish anything if you will only try hard 

 enough " ! I doubt whether in those ignorant days 

 there was any other watcher of the signals ex- 

 changed from semaphore to semaphore, all over 

 these islands, who succeeded in accomplishing a 

 similar feat. The two allies began by mastering 

 the shutter system of signalling, and thereby forced 

 the Government to substitute for it the workable 

 arms which are still employed on board H.M.'s 

 ships of war for the same purpose. 



Let me turn to another field of observation 

 widely different from that to w r hich I have just 



