(Laughter.) The young Lieutenant in command took me round. She was in beautiful order, and I came aft to the wheel and saw there the inscription: “Ut Veniant Omnes.” “Hallo,” I said, “what the deuce is that?” (Laughter.) Saluting me, he said: “Let ’em all come, Sir.” (Great laughter and cheers.) Well, that was not boasting; that was the sense of conscious efficiency--(cheers)--the sense that permeates the whole Fleet--(cheers)--and I used to think, as the Admiral, it will be irresistible provided the Admiral is up to the mark. The Lord Chief Justice, sitting near me now, has kindly promised to pull me down if I say too much! (Laughter.) But what I wish to remark to you is this--and it is a good thing for everybody to know it--there has been a tremendous change in Navy matters since the old time. In regard to Naval warfare history is a record of exploded ideas. (Laughter and cheers.) In the old days they were sailors’ battles; now they are Admirals’ battles. I should like to recall to you the greatest battle at sea ever fought. What was the central episode of that? Nelson receiving his death-wound! What was he doing? Walking up and down on the quarter-deck arm-in-arm with his Captain. It is dramatically described to us by an onlooker. His Secretary is shot down; Nelson turns round and says: “Poor Scott! Take him down to the cockpit,” and then he goes on again walking up and down, having a yarn with his Captain. What does that mean? It means that in the old days the Admiral took his fleet into action; each ship got alongside the enemy; and, as Nelson finely said, “they got into their proper place.” (Cheers.) And then the Admiral had not much more to do. The ships were touching one another nearly, the Bos’un went with some rope and lashed them together so as to make them quite comfortable--(laughter)--and the sailors loaded and fired away till it was time to board. But what is the case now? It is conceivable that within twenty minutes of sighting the enemy on the horizon the action will have begun, and on the disposition of his Fleet by the Admiral--on his tactics--the battle will depend, for all the gunnery in the world is no good if the guns are masked by our own ships or cannot bear on the enemy! In that way I wish to tell you how much depends on the Admirals now and on their education. Therefore, joined with this spirit, of which the remark of the young Lieutenant I mentioned to you is an indication, permeating the whole Service, we require a fearless, vigorous, and progressive administration, open to any reform--(loud cheers)--never resting on its oars--for to stop is to go back--and forecasting every eventuality. I will just take two instances at hazard. _Look at the Submarine Boat and Wireless Telegraphy. When they are perfected we do not know what a Revolution will come about._ In their inception they were the weapons of the weak. Now they loom large as the weapons of the strong.