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powers that had obtained possession of the tunnel could send into England through it.
"We alone, of all European nations, have hitherto escaped the necessity of arming and organizing the entire population, but if this tunnel be constructed, I wish to record my opinion—an opinion shared by the ablest of our officers—that our only positive security can be found in following the example of our neighbours by creating a vast army like theirs, an army which would probably entail the necessity of a compulsory system of universal military service.
"All the sacrifices which Frenchmen and Germans make, year after year, in order that vast armies, which are now literally reckoned by the million, may be at the disposal of the State would indeed be senseless and absurd if, when once they can bring the question to fair trial on dry land, they were not, despite all the courage of our soldiers and the abilities of our officers, able to overpower the little army which we keep up.
"Nothing perhaps shows more clearly the extent to which our population, immersed in peaceful pursuits, remains unaware of the military condition of neighbouring states than the tone which was at first adopted on this question by many of the public.
"It was asserted by many intelligent writers that if the tunnel were constructed there would be no more reason why a foreign power should find its advantage in seizing Dover than we should gain by seizing Calais. But Her Majesty's Government know well what is the difference in point of military preparation between England and all the continental states. They know well that if once the question of military superiority were brought to an issue between us, and any one of these great powers upon English soil, the end could only be our destruction as a free nation.
"They know well that no delusion can be greater or more fatal than to imagine that an army of unorganised and very partially trained Volunteers and Militia could, by anything short of a miracle, stand up successfully against a regularly trained and well-organised army; they know what would be the effect upon our commercial credit, and upon our most delicate com-
