The extracts which the Times gives us daily from its
issues of a hundred years ago are always interesting, but perhaps the most noteworthy are those dealing with the movements of soldiers throughout the South of England and the frequent fears as to invasion. England was full of soldiers and pre- parations for war on English soil during 1801. At first sight this seems very strange, for it not only sounds so unlike the picture we usually form of England in the past century, but also so unlike what we have gathered from the traditions of old people, and from the memoirs of the " tens " and "twenties." The reason is, however, plain. We usually hear almost nothing of the military in England because of Tra- falgar. That signal victory gave us the command of the sea, and after 1805 no one dreamt of invasion. We hope that the Times's extracts as to the state of things before 1805 may serve as an object-lesson in regard to sea-power. It is through the Navy, and through the Navy alone, that we can feel secure from the dread of invasion.
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