The Washington herald., 1915-08-29

| powers and the worst examples OF
chronic military unpreparedness. Blu,
together they rule more than half the
earth, and half the human race. COW
ering with ridicule the boast of arms
and the blatant claims of war.
1t is a choice irony of history. the
| height of absurdity. that while her
| military neighbors have been cutting
| one anothers throats for the posses
sion of a few acres in Italy or Alsace,
| the Balkans or Poland or Jutland. a
| nation of shopkeepers has quietly pick
ed up 100000 square miles of the
globe. With a few buccaneers. Eng
| land crowded war-loving Spain off the
ocean highways which Spanish explor-
ers had chartered. With only a hand
full of red coats she elbowed martial
France out of America, the Indies, and
Egypt.
In the midst Of a world in arms. she
held and quadrupled her immense pos
sessions without having to fire a shot in
| their defense throughout the century
middle of that century. the Prince Join
vile declared to his brother King Louis
Philippe of France, that the English
were so unprepared to defend their home
coast that a French expedition could
surprise them and easily effect a landing
To prove his point. the prince sailed over
the channel and into the mouth of the
Thames. where he fired a friendly salute
to the fort at Sherness, which was SUP
posed to guard that front door of the
English. And the silly old fort had not
enough powder to return the salute.
After Waterloo. England left her
shores undefended and let her navy rot.
No longer ago than when Gilbert wrote
H. NJ. S. Pinafore," the Queens
Navee" was a fit subject for the jester.
While other countries were staggering
under their military burdens, the British
navy remained more or less in a state
of neglect until only twenty or twenty
five years ago. Then the continental
powers awoke to the long marches that
had been stolen on them in the conquest
of the world and there sprang up that
fierce spirit of jealousy which now at last
has set the envious nations ablaze from
the Aisne to the Euphrates.
A Joke on the Militarists.
The military history of the biggest and
richest empire of all time truly is a great
joke on the militarisA. Although until
En
onto any battlefield. she has extended
her power over worldwide imperial
dominion greater than the conquests of
Greece and Rome and France combined
Without ever having produced military
commander of first rank, for even Marl-
borough and Wellington were outranked
in their times. she has won more lands
than Alexander. Caesar and Napoleon to-
gether succeeded in conquering
The annals of British arms are by no
means without instances of glory. But
the English ever have thriftily practiced
what Sydney Smith preached Avoid
shame. but do not seek glory-nothing
so expensive as glory" They have.
tiicA cloic, Wou H. dS lAcSpcLslNtly dS
possible.
At Crecy, where the Black Prince
plucked the three ostrich feathers from
the King Of Bohemia and stuck them
there were 5000 all told on the English
side. But there were only 5000 at Agin-
court when the helmet of Henry V re-
ceived the dents that still may be seen
by the visitor to Westminster Abbey. At
the renowned siege of Orleans. there
were but 10000 when Shaksperes Falstaff
cut his way to them with wagon loads
of herrings as their necessary Lenten
rations.
The army in Holland with which Sir
Philip Sidney won immortality had an
English contingent Of only 500. There
were more Germans than Britons at the
battle of Blenheim. which makes such a
shining page in English history.
England held Gibraltar in the war Of
the Spanish succession with a little band
of 1000 and at the most desperate stage
of the siege, the rock was saved to her
by just seventeen marines. The first
British expedition for the conquest of In
dia totalled 400. and only Ia of them
landed on the shore of that great empire
Braddock was sent out with 500 Britons
to conquer the Valley of the Ohio. and
England had only regiment of marines
at the conquest Of Nova Scotia. She
gave Wolf 5000 men. but only l.5oo Of
them climbed the heights OF Quebec and
captured on the Plains of Abraham the
5000 900 square miles of Canada.
In the last great war before this, Eng l