Inquisition at Westminster Hall. Nor can we forget with what longing
eyes the Corsican barbarian who wielded for mischief the forces of
France in 1805 looked across from Boulogne at the shores of the one
European land that never in word or deed granted him homage. But in
these latter days England has had no need of stormy weather to aid the
prowess of the sea-kings who are her natural defenders. It is impossible
for the thoughtful student of history to walk across Trafalgar Square,
and gaze on the image of the mightiest naval hero that ever lived, on
the summit of his lofty column and guarded by the royal lions, looking
down towards the government-house of the land that he freed from the
dread of Napoleonic invasion and towards that ancient church wherein the
most sacred memories of English talent and English toil are clustered
together,--it is impossible, I say, to look at this, and not admire both
the artistic instinct that devised so happy a symbolism, and the rare
good-fortune of our Teutonic ancestors in securing a territorial
position so readily defensible against the assaults of despotic powers.
But it was not merely in the simple facility of warding off external
attack that the insular position of England was so serviceable. This
ease in warding off external attack had its most marked effect upon the
internal polity of the nation. It never became necessary for the English
government to keep up a great standing army. For purposes of external
defence a navy was all-sufficient; and there is this practical
difference between a permanent army and a permanent navy. Both are
originally designed for purposes of external defence; but the one can
readily be used for purposes of internal oppression, and the other
cannot. Nobody ever heard of a navy putting up an empire at auction and
knocking down the throne of the world to a Didius Julianus. When,
therefore, a country is effectually screened by water from external
attack, it is screened in a way that permits its normal political
development to go on internally without those manifold military