o naval reserves. And if she war with England, she will need them.
To put her marine on a war-basis would require all her available seamen.
To fill the gaps of war, she has not, and she cannot have, until a truly
commercial spirit grows up in the hearts of her people, the multitudes
of reserved men, more familiar with the sea than the land, such as swarm
in English ports. Yet, with every deduction, her capacity of naval
production, her strong fleets, and her trained seamen make her a naval
power whose might no one can estimate, and whose assault any nation may
well shun by all means except the sacrifice of honor and rights.

* * * * *

If now we turn from the naval progress of France to her recent colonial
enterprises, we shall find fresh evidence that she has resumed that
contest which came to so disastrous a close fifty years ago. The old
dream of colonial empire has come back again. This was inevitable. A
great nation like France cannot always drink the cup of humiliation.
With an ambition no less high and arrogant than that which pervades the
British mind, she would plant far and wide French ideas and
civilization. While England has colonies scattered in every part of the
habitable globe, while Holland has almost monopolized the rich islands
of the Eastern Archipelago, and while even Spain has Manila in the East
and Cuba in the West, it could hardly be expected that France, the equal
of either, and in some respects the superior of all, should rest content
with a virtual exclusion from everything but her narrow
home-possessions.

And then, however disguised, there is in the heart of France an intense
naval rivalry of England. Though the stern logic of events has been
against her more than once, she does not accept the verdict. She means
to revise it with a strong hand. But she must have a navy, and a navy
cannot exhibit its highest vigor, unless it have a just foundation in an
energetic, wide-ranging commerce. And such a commerce cannot exist
except it have its depots and its agencies, its outlets and its markets,
everywhere. Above all, we are to seek the source of this new colonial
ambition in the character and purposes of that singular man who controls
the destinies of France. Not even his enemies would now question his
ability. The power he wields in Europe, the impression he has stamped
upon its policy, the skill with which he has made even his foes minister
to his greatness, all