[Illustration: THE "NIGER'S" CAPTAIN, WHO STAYED ON THE BRIDGE TO THE
LAST THOUGH BADLY WOUNDED: LIEUT.-COMMANDER A.P. MUIR.]

When the "Niger" was torpedoed, Captain Muir was on the bridge and was
severely injured by the explosion, but remained at his post till every
officer and man had left the ship. He was taken ashore at Deal in a boat
and had to be at once placed in hospital.--[Photo. by Russell.]

Most bitterly hated, but at the same time most formidable--as the Germans
themselves now generally admit, and hence all those tears of rage--hinc
illae lacrymae. Even when the Prussian Guards--not to speak of the vaunted
Brandenburgers and Bavarians--can make no impression on the British lines
in Belgium, it should at last break in upon the German General Staff that
they are somewhat out in their calculations. The word "contemptible" is
never used now in relation to Sir John French's army, and it will be used
still less when this army shall have been reinforced by the million of men
apart altogether from the Territorials which are now under training to
supplement it, while a further million has now, in turn, been asked for
and will be cheerfully raised, with the help of the additional vote of
credit for £250,000,000--which was just about the cost of the Boer War,
and £25,000,000 more than the French indemnity of 1870--which will be
willingly granted by Parliament for the conduct of a war that is said to
be costing us about £7,000,000 a week. When a young man throws all his
soul into his training and ardently wants to become a soldier, his
progress will be at least three times as quick as that of the dull, driven
conscript; and that is why Lord Kitchener has told us that the new
million-man'd army which popularly bears his name, though it might just as
well be called after the King--has already been making a wonderful advance