NEWS OF THE WEEK.
" ITURN to all of you and I turn to my countrymen and I say, Sleep quiet in your beds, and do not be disturbed by those bogies, of invasion and. otherwise, which are being periodically resuscitated by all sorts of Leagues." With these words the First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher, closed his speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet just sixteen months ago,—a speech remarkable for its optimistic arrogance and boastful insistence on the absolute invincibility of our naval forces. In commenting upon this appeal in favour of a policy of national somnolence tempered by brag we used these words : "Without exaggeration we feel that boasting is a sort of impiety in a British official, and we shall be relieved if no harm comes of it in the long run :—
For frantic boast and foolish word Thy mercy on Thy people, Lord."
