Page:The Second Armada - Hayward - 1871.pdf/9

 child's play (Kinderspiel). The time was opportune; for the long-smouldering hostility of the United States to Great Britain, through a series of untoward accidents, was again kindling into flame. Accordingly, all the shipping of the Baltic, all the naval resources of the league, were put under requisition, and a sufficient number of vessels was built especially adapted for the landing of troops, including cavalry and artillery. In particular, a large provision was made of flat-bottomed boats, carrying 100 or 150 men, the sides of which could be let down when they were in shallow water or had been run on shore. A formidable force of ironclads was to precede the transports and engage any opposing force while the landing was effected, which, it was calculated, could easily be accomplished in six hours. As the Army of Invasion was computed at from 150,000 to 200,000 men, the allotted time seemed short to those who had witnessed the landing of the French and English army in the Crimea, which occupied two days, although that army did not exceed 55,000 men, and the landing was unopposed. But the great Strategist had pronounced six hours sufficient,and the great Strategist could not possibly have miscalculated such a problem.

In recent histories, claiming to be as veracious and trustworthy as this, it has been confidently assumed that we thick-skulled islanders would wait quietly to be knocked on the head like the birds called boobies, or caught, like sparrows, by putting salt upon our tails. But although we are constantly running into extremes, although we are by turns profuse from groundless alarm and niggardly from undue confidence, although representative institutions are by no means favorable