But he knew everything that it was requisite a King should know--unless Learning prepares a man for action, it is not of much value in this work-a-day world: and no Sovereign since the Tudors was so brave and wise in action as this King! Your anecdotes of him are splendid. Add to them all that you can remember. It was a pleasure to be scolded by the King for the sake of the smile you subsequently got. The most awful time I ever had with him was at Balmoral when I refused to be Secretary of State for War. But I beat him on that, thank God! Ever yours, My beloved Admiral, ESHER. _Letter from Lord Redesdale_ 1 KENSINGTON COURT, W. _May 24, 1915._ MY DEAR FISHER, Do me the favour of accepting this little attempt to render justice to the best friend you ever had. (King Edward the Seventh.) You and he were worthy of one another. Your old and very affectionate friend, REDESDALE. The following letter, written in 1907, would never have been penned but for the kindly intimacy and confidence placed and reposed in me by King Edward; it therefore rightly comes in these remarks about him; and so does the subsequent explanatory note on “Nelson and Copenhagen.” EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM SIR JOHN FISHER TO KING EDWARD I have just received Reich’s book. It is one unmitigated mass of misrepresentations. In March this year, 1907, it is an absolute fact that Germany had not laid down a single “Dreadnought,” nor had she commenced building a single Battleship or Big Cruiser for eighteen months. _Germany has been paralysed by the “Dreadnought.”_ The more the German Admiralty looked into her qualities the more convinced they became that they must follow suit, and the more convinced they were that the whole of their existing Battle Fleet was utterly useless because utterly wanting in gun power! For instance, half of the whole German Battle Fleet is only about equal to the English Armoured Cruisers.