UNIVERSAL SERVICE.
pro TEE EDITOR OF THB "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—A correspondent repeats in your last issue the old argument that if we were defeated at sea a land force would be of no use to us, &c., &c. There are two things to be said about this. Firstly, it would be very difficult to drive us off the sea so completely as to blockade all our ports and so starve us out, but it might be comparatively easy for an enemy to get control of the North Sea or the Channel for the short period necessary for the safe passage of an expedition already waiting embarkation. Secondly,even if we were utterly defeated at sea, and compelled to accept a most humiliating and disastrous peace, including, say, the permanent cession of Dover and the country round it, on pain of starvation if we attempted to continue the conflict ; yet, if we had a sufficient home army to overwhelm and annihilate any invader, as we ought to have, the country left to us would not be fought over, burnt, pillaged, and requisitioned, and its salvation from those evils would be well worth any time and expense that it might cost. These points seem to be generally lost sight of.—
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