field was the equal of the huge, carefully prepared, thoroughly
coordinated military machines of those against whom and beside whom it
fought. Now, the English army is itself as fine and as highly efficient
a military machine as the wisdom of man can devise; now, the valour and
hardihood of the individual soldier are being utilised to the full under
a vast and perfected system which enables those in control of the great
engine to use every unit in such fashion as to aid in driving the mass
forward to victory.

Even the Napoleonic contest was child's play compared to this. Never has
Great Britain been put to such a test. Never since the spacious days of
Elizabeth has she been in such danger. Never, in any crisis, has she
risen to so lofty a height of self-sacrifice and achievement. In the
giant struggle against Napoleon, England's own safety was secured by the
demoralisation of the French fleet. But in this contest the German naval
authorities have at their disposal a fleet of extraordinary efficiency,
and have devised for use on an extended scale the most formidable and
destructive of all instruments of marine warfare. In previous coalitions
England has partially financed her continental allies; in this case the
expenditures have been on an unheard-of scale, and in consequence
England's industrial strength, in men and money, in business and
mercantile and agricultural ability, has been drawn on as never before.
As in the days of Marlborough and Wellington, so now, England has sent
her troops to the continent; but whereas formerly her expeditionary
forces, although of excellent quality, were numerically too small to be
of primary importance, at present her army is already, by size as well
as by excellence, a factor of prime importance, in the military
situation; and its relative as well as absolute importance is
steadily growing.