The ignorance, by the by, which certain of my critics have displayed of the nature and claims of international law is not a little surprising. Some seem to identify it with treaties; others with "Vattel." Several, having become aware that it is not law of the kind which is enforced by a policeman or a County Court bailiff, have hastened, much exhilarated, to give the world the benefit of their discovery. Most of them are under the impression that it has been concocted by "bookworms," "jurists," "professors," or other "theorists," instead of, as is the fact, mainly by statesmen, diplomatists, prize courts, generals and admirals. This is, however, a wide field, into which I must not stray. I have even avoided the pleasant by-paths of disquisition on contraband, privateering, and the Declaration of Paris generally, into which some of your correspondents have courteously invited me. I fear we are as yet far from having disposed of the comparatively simple question as to the operations which may be properly undertaken by a naval squadron against an undefended seaboard. I am, your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. Llanfairfechan, August 27 (1888). NAVAL BOMBARDMENTS OF UNFORTIFIED PLACES Sir,--The protest reported to have been lodged by the Russian Government against the bombardment by the Japanese fleet of a quarantine station on the island of San-shan-tao, apart from questions of fact, as to which we have as yet no reliable information, recalls attention to a question of international law of no slight importance--viz. under what, if any, circumstances it is permissible for a naval force to bombard an "open" coast town.