If the reform of the Russian Admiralty and Naval Staff,
of which the Daily Mail correspondent speaks, has been, as we trust it may have been, successful, and if also the shipbuilding has been efficiently carried out, and, further, if good crews and good officers can be organized—and there is no reason why they should not be, for the Russians naturally make exceed- ingly good sailors—the whole balance of power in the North of Europe will be altered. At present, owing to the destruction of her fleet, Russia is dangerously open to attack in the Baltic. Military successes, even if obtained on her western frontier, might be entirely discounted by naval action. St. Petersburg is a sea capital, and if Russia were lighting a Power like Germany, which had command of the Baltic and also of very large transport facilities, her flank might he turned by an attack in the neighbourhood of St. Petersburg.
