the sea and maritime warfare, and for this purpose the few ships which
were first built were sent on long voyages by way of training the crews
and of giving the officers that self-reliance and initiative which were
thought to be the characteristic mark of the officers of the British
navy. In due time was founded the naval college of Kiel, designed on a
large scale to be a great school of naval thought and of naval war. The
history of maritime wars was diligently studied, _especially_ of
course the history of the British navy. The professors and lecturers
made it their business to explore the workings of Nelson's mind just as
German military professors had made themselves pupils of Napoleon. And
not until a clear and consistent theory of naval war had been elaborated
and made the common property of all the officers of the navy was the
attempt made to expand the fleet to a scale thought to be proportionate
to the position of Germany among the nations. When it was at length
determined that that constructive effort should be made, the plan was
thought out and embodied in a law regulating the construction for a
number of years of a fleet of predetermined size and composition to be
used for a purpose defined in the law itself. The object was to have a
fleet of sufficient strength and of suitable formation to be able to
hold its own in case of need even against the greatest maritime Power.
In other words, Germany thought that if her prosperity continued and her
superiority in organisation over other continental nations continued to
increase, she might find England's policy backed by England's naval
power an obstacle in the way of her natural ambition. After all, no one
can be surprised if the Germans think Germany as well entitled as _any
other_ State to cherish the ambition of being the first nation in the
world.

It has for a century been the rational practice of the German Government
that its chief strategist should at all times keep ready designs for