(or should have been) a better tonic for the British Fleet than all the reforms and improvements internally introduced over a period of five or six years. So true is this, that the worst blow Germany could strike at the British Navy would be to declare war and have her entire fleet easily and completely annihilated! It was probably the fact that French ships remained in harbour as a standing menace which saved the British Navy from going to seed after the striking victory of Trafalgar—that, and the excellent fight made by a few of the French ships at Trafalgar.
The navies which at the present day are in the greatest danger of going to seed are the Japanese and United States—the former especially. The ease with which they annihilated the Spanish Fleet did the Americans no good; but the dangers to which they are liable are nothing to the dangers threatening Japan, after her two signal victories over China and Russia. She was saved after the war with China by having to bow to the superior naval power of Russia, France and Germany. But the very ease with which the Baltic Fleet was annihilated must ever be a terrible danger to Japan's future efficiency. The most deadly blow that Russia struck was when Admiral Nebogatoff with a squadron of little-injured ships, including one first-class vessel, surrendered after Tsushima without firing a shot. He surrendered to the mere menace of some distant battleships,—the actual surrender being to some mere cruisers. Had he fought, his annihilation
