faced
difficulties as he did, and helped to lay the foundations of their
country's excellence in the newly-discovered art. It has become almost
usual, among those who do nothing but write, to insist that the duty of
officials, and other persons publicly appointed, is to save Englishmen
the trouble of thinking and acting for themselves. If the nation were
converted to this belief, the greatness of England would be nearing its
term. But the nation stands in the old ways, and clings to the old
adventurous instincts. As it took to the sea in the sixteenth century to
defeat the Spanish tyranny, so it took to the air in the twentieth
century to defeat the insolence of the Germans. The late Mr. Gladstone
once explained, in the freedom of social conversation, that it is the
duty of a progressive party leader to test the strength of his movement
by leaning back, so that he may be sure that any advance he makes is
adequately supported by the pressure of the forces behind him. It is not
the most heroic view of the duties of a leader, but it has in it some of
the wisdom of an old engineer, whose business compels him to measure
forces accurately. Queen Elizabeth, if she never expounded the doctrine
in relation to the leadership of a nation, at least acted on it. The
English people have always proved themselves equal to the demand thus
made upon them; if initiative be lacking in the leaders, there is plenty
of it among the rank and file. The leaders themselves, once they are
buoyed up and carried forward by the rising tide, often seize their
opportunity, and surpass themselves.

The history of flight in England from 1908, when Mr. Roe and Mr. Cody
first flew, to 1912, when flying became a part of the duty of the
military and naval forces of the Crown, is the history of a ferment, and
cannot be exhibited in any tight or ordered sequence of cause and
effect. Before the Government took in hand the building up of an air
service, there were many beginnings of private organization. A man
cannot fly until he has a machine and a place for starting and
alighting. These are expensive and elaborate requirements, not easily
furnished without co-operation. The Aeronautical Society did much to
make flight possible, but its labours were mainly scientific and
theoretical. In 1901 Mr. F. Hedges Butler earned his place among the
pioneers of the air by founding the Aero Club of the United Kingdom.
This club has played a great and honourable part in th