For three centuries the nations of Continental Europe have been
hating, fighting, and devastating each other for the sake of strips of
frontier land and a shadowy balance of power. These centuries were
England's opportunity, and she has made the most of it. That she should
mean to keep what she has and hold to her maritime supremacy as to the
apple of her eye is natural. Whether it is for the benefit of mankind
that it should be so, and whether the world in general would not be
better off if there existed a balance of power on sea as well as on
land, does not enter into the present discussion. What is more to the
purpose is that in reality England's sea power stood in no danger at
all. To any thinking and fair-minded observer it must be clear that
Germany, hemmed in by hostile neighbors in the east and west, and
obliged, therefore, to keep up her armaments on land, would not have
been able to threaten England's maritime superiority for generations to
come. If the issue has been thrown into the balance, it has been done so
by England's own doing.
But it is not only the nascent German Navy that excited the distrust
and envy of England.
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