Photo by A. W. Cutler 



A BEND IN THE ROAD AT THE VILLAGE OF WICK, WORCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND 



These old half-timbered houses, dating back to Queen Elizabeth's reign, are a feature of 



this country 



rivals, and in the course of time almost 

 destroyed the Dutch carrying trade. 



While no doubt the structure of the 

 Channel was a factor of consequence, 

 while the control of the Baltic and of the 

 naval stores, whence alone wooden fleets 

 could be built and repaired, were of the 

 greatest importance in creating and in 

 maintaining the English supremacy, we 

 must never forget that the true basis of 

 English naval power lay in the natural 

 ability and genius of Englishmen as sail- 

 ors. This, in fact, is the vital thing and 

 this, no doubt, the English owe to the lo- 

 cation of their country, to its isolation, 

 and to the stormy character of the waters 

 around it. Practice makes perfect. With 

 hardly any exception the world owes 

 every feature of modern maritime archi- 

 tecture, seamanship, and naval strategy 

 to the British race. 



We see here the factors producing and 

 developing two of the great sources of 

 English wealth — her profits as broker and 

 exchanger for the trade of northern Eu- 

 rope, her profits as international carrier. 

 It has been said that an international 

 transaction of magnitude cannot be com- 

 pleted without somehow giving some 

 Englishman a share of the profits. Into 



this business of exchanging and trans- 

 porting England put, long ago, the capi- 

 tal which the long, quiet, steady increase 

 of the earlier centuries had provided. 



THE WONDERFUL ACHIEVEMENTS OF 

 BRITISH INVENTION 



We shall entirely fail to realize how 

 sound England's economic development 

 is, how largely the result of her own ef- 

 fort, unless we lay due stress upon the 

 achievements of British genius. The long 

 development of the spiritual life of the 

 nation, made possible by the early at- 

 tainment of territorial and racial unity, 

 has perhaps something to do with the 

 blossoming forth of inventive genius to a 

 greater extent, if we consider the whole 

 of English history, than in any other 

 country. It is perhaps enough in this 

 place to adduce the example of the In- 

 dustrial Revolution of the eighteenth 

 century, upon whose stupendous achieve- 

 ments the development of science, indus- 

 try, and agriculture in the nineteenth cen- 

 tury entirely depended. 



While many European scientists have 

 with great ability developed the general 

 principles and have in the specific appli- 

 cation of science to human life accom- 



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