The Washington herald., 1915-03-28

When but a decade had passed after
that pregnant event, the longest ana
latest war between the two powers
burst upon the narrow sea that d.
videS them. The French people. over
flowing with III. energies loosed by the
revolution. had beaten back the for
eiEn invaders. Were spreading over
Belgium and flowing toward Holland.
when in 1898 England entered upon a
struggle TO rcpress them. a struggle
that was destined to go on for twenty
two years. Thencefortn she was the
inspiration and paymaster OF every
coalition against tn" republic and the
empire, while her ships shut France
within wooden wall.
When at last England had immured
Napoleon at st. Helena in the midst or
the hostile waters. she resumed her
triumphant march on the wave. where
no enemy rose in her conquerinE path
until after tn" lapse of century.
when another emperor and another
empire called a halt. Her victory over
Napoleon brought her 100 years of i'm
munity even a. her victory over Louis
XIV had brought her nearly seventy
five years Of security. for there was
not naval battle worthy the name
between the war of tho Spanish sue
cesSion and the war of the American
Revolution.
In those long periods Of peace tho
victor raap"d the richest harvest ever
garnared on tffc sea. bay in and day
out. year after year. England played
the game of empire superhly without
rising from the table or lifting her
eyes from tn" cards. Her one and only
serious miSplay III tho long course of
twO centuries was in her deal with
stake of all. otherwise she made a
clean sweep.
The Despot of the Wave.
Vt the outset she wisely sacrificed
her one remaining foothold on the
mainland shore of The Channel. gave
up Dunkirk and put aside her long
cherished and costly ambition to plant
herself in the midst Of France. Freed
from that distractinE dream. having
thrown over that heavy ballast. she
gave herself wholly to the task of con-
troll ing. the sea and gaining great
Already she had Holland. at her
mercy Al the first sign of the Span
ish navy coming to life again. she
swiftly smashed the infant fleet and
Spain to he destroyed in 1919. At the
same instant. she whirled on Peter the
Great. who had moved up from Mos
COW to Petrograd: where. as he said.
| ne could have a window on the sea. A
British fleet appeared in the Baltic
and threatened the Russian shipyar ds
with the fate OF tho Spanish and the
Car discrcctly withdrew into his ma
tive ice. Denmark thought she would
like a trading station in India. but she.
| too. changed hrrmind when she look
ed into the ihuzzles Of England
floating batteries. Austria. which then
! held Belgium. mad" ready to embark
upon ocean ventures, but she yielded
/ to stern persuasion. AS early as 1873
standard for her navy: that is. her
! fleet outclaSsed the combined fleets OF
any two OF her rivals.
Paint the Map Red.
IAN the while the mistress of the
| seas diligently was painting the mai
red. planting tho cross OF st. George
in tn" faircst regions of the earth and
| at the most commanding points ev-
crywherc. France was crowded out OF
India and chased out of Canada. al
though she was the pioneer in both
lands. The Dutch had driven their
| stakes in Australia. but they were
pulled up and the name OF the conti-
nent was changed from New Holland.
Those rich conaucsts might all be
| attributed to sheer brute strength and
a blind earth hunger. The wise calcu--
latIon and the clear forcthouSht oil
England appear far moro convincinSiy
| in her minor Conquests. on the sterile
hcaulands and in the rocky ISLANDS.
| where. with an unerring instinct, she
/ has hoisted her flag and mounted her
guns at most of the dominating points
vided herself with a pathway of step
ping stones across every sea. encir-
cling the globe with her naval sta
/ tions and harbors OF refuge. but she
also SelZeu upon the VI
all the passes and straits between the
seas.
The Gatckccper Of the Sens.
The voyager around the world never
escapes from the shadow of England
| fortresses drawn about the globe like a
! chain. Pass out of her own gateway
! between the Channel and the ocean and
GO to the threshold OF the Mediterranean:
! There like a lion. stands her rock OF
Gibraltar. which she filched from her
! Spanish ally in 1.0l-l and whlch she
| of a pepper shaker. Dodge Scylla and
Charybdis and emerge from the Straits
of Messina. or go around through the
Southern Straits, and another ,Britisn
lion crouches there. with his paws on