The Ethics of Invention, 
[December, 
'26 
It may surely, then, be asserted that every man who has 
anything to lose has a deep interest in the non-success of the 
present attempts at aerial navigation. 
But I must proceed further. In addition to the private 
criminal or the gang of criminals we have now what is face- 
tiously called “ private warfare ” waged by secret societies 
against Governments. Easy-going simplicity is apt to fancy 
the leading spirits of such associations as loftier in their 
motives, and therefore entitled to more consideration, than 
the pirate or the brigand. A shrewder judgment will scarcely 
accept this view. Be this as it may, such societies would 
find the flying-machine solve all their difficulties. No fear 
would exist of their infernal machines being discovered by 
the officials of the customs or the police. Not to speak of 
what would ere this have happened at Berlin or St. Peters- 
burg, where the sport of emperor killing would be much 
facilitated, it can scarcely be doubted that if the art of 
travelling through the air were known, London would before 
this have been in great part reduced to ruins and ashes. 
Surely a heavy price to pay for the facility of visiting the 
North and South Poles ! 
We now come to the third and last phase of the influence 
of aerial navigation, whenever effected, — that is, the modifi- 
cation which it would introduce into warfare. We in 
England have been hitherto in great measure protected from 
the worst horrors of war by the “ silver streak of sea ” 
interposed between us and the Continent. Large rivers, 
chains of mountains, and fortifications have hitherto fre- 
quently enabled nations to make head against a more 
numerous invader. All such defences, natural or artificial, 
would be at once sacrificed if the flying-machine becomes a 
reality. The nation which has the most numerous army, 
and which is constantly planning aggression, would be 
strengthened, whilst those nations who merely stand on the 
defensive would be weakened. It must also appear that 
when war is waged by sending flying-machines to hover over 
the cities of an enemy, and to let fall shells filled with nitro- 
glycerine, the advantage will be all on the side of any 
country which has a scanty and scattered population, with 
little 'wealth stored up in any one locality. On the other 
hand, the richer, the more populous, and industrial a coun- 
try, the worse it must fare. Suppose the French and the 
Tunisian Arabs each furnished with these appliances. Cer- 
tain it is that the Arabs could inflidt a hundredfold greater 
damage upon France than the French could upon their 
wilds and deserts. I have indeed met with a man 
