above the water line, giving a splendid plunging fire.

Either of these ships could enter any of our harbors and hold us at her
mercy.

The entrance to the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt, is about 5 miles across.
At the time of the bombardment the protecting fortifications were situated
at the east end, in the center, and at the west end. On the west there were
mounted 20 modern guns of great size and power, and there were 7 others at
the east end.

Although the Egyptians fought bravely, they did very little harm to the
English fleet, while on the second day the defense was silenced altogether.
Following the bombardment--as in Paris--came the reign of mob law, doing
more harm than the shells had done; and it is a possibility that every such
bombardment would be followed by such an overthrow--at least temporary--of
all forms of law and order.

The ships that had silenced the Alexandria batteries--which had 27 heavy
guns more than we have--could reach our coasts in 10 or 12 days, and we
would have nothing to meet them.

Armor-clad casemates are beginning to take the place of masonry. A
tremendous thickness of masonry is built up to the very embrasures for the
guns in the steel-clad turrets. This (the Gruson) system has been adopted
by Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, and Italy.

In 1882 England had 434 heavy modern guns behind armored shore batteries;
besides these at home, she had 92 in her colonies, of which 13 were in
Halifax and 11 in Bermuda--for our express benefit.