A word must be said as to the navy’s diplomatic work. International law is mostly both made and administered by navies. The navy is thus a great and constant school of diplomacy, the right hand of the Department of State. We have had a notable instance, almost as I write, in the events in Mexico, and from none have naval officers received higher praise for their work than from the late lamented Secretary of State, John Hay. It is duty such as this which gives the naval profession its breadth and importance in peace, as great in its way, as in war. And the diplomacy of naval officers is always in the direction of peace, though it may sometimes be peace with a strong hand, as in Admiral Benham’s most admirable handling of the situation in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro during the revolt of 1895. He brought instantaneous peace between the revolutionary forces and the Government; he upheld international law, stood by the rights of our merchant captains, and rendered a service beyond price to Brazil. Such international uses of the navy accentuate the value of the Marine Corps, now a naval army of 10,267 men and officers. Little has been said heretofore in this book of this valuable, indeed invaluable, force, as its duties are merged largely in the general duties of the navy. It differs from the army proper in its mobility and ever-readiness for foreign service. Its mobility is that of the navy itself; its transport is ever ready; its supply train is the fleet. It is an international understanding that seamen or marines may be landed in any part of the world for the protection of life and property, and that such action may even extend to the use of force without being regarded as an act of war. There is no need to expand the value of such a convention which gives the navy such an extension of its field of forceful, and at the same time peaceable, action. We speak much of our development into a world power through the war of 1898. We were such a power potentially as soon as we had a navy of a strength to enable us to say to another power, “I forbid.” And we can only remain a world power through a navy which can command safety and peace. Linked to such power there must be political good sense and just dealing. Long habit in obedience and in command, a life-long study of international relations, a knowledge of the races of men such as no other great profession can offer, an ideal which puts duty as its first law; these enable the navy to furnish its just quota of both the high qualifications mentioned. To it the country can securely trust its honor and safety. It will ever do its duty. A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY It would take a great many pages to give a complete bibliography of the subject of the American navy. I must content myself with mentioning only a few of the more prominent works.