Under the auspices of the Navy League on Thursday last,
Mr. Spenser Wilkinson delivered st the Royal United Service Institute an address on " The Command of the Sea and British Policy?' An island, he pointed out, required for its perfect defence the command of the sea. One of the conse- quences of the command of the sea was that the coasts of the world were peculiarly under the influence of the nation that held it. Bat though the power given by the command of the sea was so great, it was conditioned by a moral law. The world would not tolerate long any great power or influence that was not exercised for the general good. The British Empire could subsist only so long as it was a useful agent for the general benefit of humanity. That hitherto she had obeyed this law we might fairly claim. She had used her almost undisputed monopoly of the ocean to introduce law and civilisation all over the globe. She had destroyed piracy and the slave-trade, and had opened to the trade of all nations every port on the globe except those that belonged to the Continental Powers. But all this led to the conclusion that Britain must either lead the world, or must utterly perish and decay as a nation. The whole address was very ably put. We are in special sympathy with Mr. Wilkinson when insisting upon the moral responsibilities by which we are bound. They are the antiseptics of Empire.
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