them much less sufficient for the defence of the country than was
generally supposed. If all our soldiers were scattered along various
parts of the coast, it would not be difficult for the enemy, by a bold
and sudden onslaught, or still more by a feint of the sort in which he
himself was master, to take possession of one, and then there would be
no concentrated army available to prevent the onward march of the
assailant. Much wiser would it be to leave the seaboard comparatively
unprotected from the land, and to have a powerful army so arranged as to
be ready for prompt resistance of the enemy, if, by any means, he had
gained a footing on the shore.

To prevent that footing being gained, however, Lord Dundonald was quite
as eager as any champion of monster fortifications could be; but this
prevention, he urged, must be by means of moveable ships, and not by
immoveable land-works. A strong fleet of gunboats, stationed all along
the coast, and with carefully-devised arrangements for mutual
communication, so that at any time their force could be speedily
concentrated in one or more important positions, would be far more
efficacious and far more economical than the more popular expedients for
the military defence of England. He heartily believed, in fact, in the
old and often-proved maxim that the sea was England's wall, and he
desired to have that wall guarded by a force able to watch its whole
extent and pass at ease from one point to another as occasion required.

Desiring that thus the coast should be immediately protected by
efficient gunboats, he desired no less to augment the naval strength of
the country by means of improved war-ships as much like gunboats as
possible. To large ships, if constructed in moderation and applied to
special purposes, he was not averse; but he set a far higher value upon
small and well-armed vessels, able to pass rapidly from place to place
and to navigate shallow seas. "Give me," he often said, "a fast small
steamer, with a heavy long-range gun in the bow, and another in the hold
to fall back upon, and I would not hesitate to attack the largest ship
afloat." His opinion on this point also was confirmed by his own
experience--most notably in the exploits of his little _Speedy_ in the
Mediterranean--and by the whole history of English naval triumphs. Since
the time when the so-called Invincible Armada of Spain entered the
British Channel, designed to conquer England by means of its huge