ate."
Precisely what was in his mind when he said "of late" does not appear,
but the phrase itself shows that the conditions which induced any
momentary equality between ships and forts when brought within range
were essentially transient.

As seaports, and all entrances from the sea, are stationary, it
follows naturally that the arrangements for their defence also should,
as a rule, be permanent and stationary, for as such they are
strongest. Indeed, unless stationary, they are apt not to be
permanent, as was conclusively shown in the late hostilities, where
all the new monitors, six in number, intended for coast defence, were
diverted from that object and despatched to distant points; two going
to Manila, and stripping the Pacific coast of protection, so far as
based upon them. This is one of the essential vices of a system of
coast defence dependent upon ships, even when constructed for that
purpose; they are always liable to be withdrawn by an emergency, real
or fancied. Upon the danger of such diversion to the local security,
Nelson insisted, when charged with the guard of the Thames in 1801.
The block ships (floating batteries), he directed, were on no account
to be moved for any momentary advantage; for it might very well be
impossible for them to regain their carefully chosen positions when
wanted there. Our naval scheme in past years has been seriously
damaged, and now suffers, from two misleading conceptions: one that a
navy is for defence primarily, and not for offensive war; the other,
consequent mainly upon the first, that the monitor, being stronger
defensively than offensively, and of inferior mobility, was the best
type of warship. The Civil War, being, so far as the sea was
concerned, essentially a coast war, naturally fostered this opinion.
The monitor in smooth water is better able to stand up to shore guns
than ships are which present a larger target; but, for all that, it is
more vulnerable, both above water and below, than shore guns are if
these are properly distributed. It is a hybrid, neither able to bear
the weight that fortifications do, nor having the mobility of ships;
and it is, moreover, a poor gun-platform in a sea-way.

There is no saying of Napoleon's known to the writer more pregnant of
the whole art and practice of war than this, "Exclusiveness of purpose
is the secret of great successes and of great operations." If,
therefore, in maritime war, you wish permanent defences for your