"THE BATTLE OF DORKING."
[TO THE EDITOR OF TRH " SPROTATOR.1 SIR, —May I ask for space to thank you for having pointed out, as you did so clearly in last week's Spectator, that "The Battle of Dorking" is not intended to be a "Tory alarmist" article, or a political article in any sense. Although not the person for whom you have done me the honour to mistake me, I may at least say that I am nothing if not a Liberal, while if the Army Regulation Bill does not carry us very far on the road to Army re- form, still, as Mr. Disraeli himself admits, the present Government has at any rate been the first to attempt to deal with the matter at all. And with respect to what I would venture to characterize as the very feeble criticism of the Times on the subject, I would observe that I am one of those who think the present rate of military expenditure is sufficient, and more than sufficient, to give us a proper defence of the country, and that larger establishments are not wanted. What we need is organization, and it is our painful deficiency in this respect, which extends from the cumbrous and over-centralized War Office itself through all the departments under its control ; it is our conviction of the existing defects of our military system, of the imperfect condition of the Reserve forces, and of the defenceless state of our only arsenal and of the capital itself, that causes our anxiety.
The Times says that the overthrow of our Fleet is improb- able; but the question is surely not one of probability, but of possibility. Unless an invasion is, under any circumstances impossible, then clearly the Volunteers have no raison d'être, for they are not wanted for offensive warfare. And if it be possible, then is it not the height of infatuation to grudge the trifling insurance of the national wealth needed for protecting London and creating a reserve arsenal in a central position, an well as the moderate trouble and self-denial requisite for properly organizing our defensive forces ? When our dockyards were un- protected, it was they that used to be the source of panics ; they have been fortified, and the nation is now justifiably at ease on that score. But so long as London and Woolwich lie open to tempt a successful coup de main, and our final defence rests on an organ- ization which hardly works in peace, and would infallibly break down under the first strain of emergency, others may alternate between fits of panic and parsimony, but the state of the better informed, who know what is possible in war, must needs be that of permanent uneasiness, because they feel that the fate of the country is dependent on good luck and the forbearance of possible enemies. The Times says we are safe because our army is larger than that which fought at Waterloo. It would be as logical to say that we are unsafe because Julius Caesar effected an invasion with three legions. In the present state of European armaments, the one precedent is about as apposite as the other.—I am,
Sir, &c., THE WRITER OF THE TALE IN " BLACKWOOD."
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