influence either upon European or world policy. The truth of this statement is conclusively proved by the following table showing the relative strength of the only five navies of the world which were, at that time, of appreciable importance, the fleets of Japan and of the United States being then still in their infancy: +---------------------+--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ | |Britain.|France.|Russia.|Italy.|Germany.| +---------------------+--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ |Battleships: | | | | | | | First-class | 29 | 14 | 6 | 8 | 4 | | Second-class | 7 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 | | Third-class | 18 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | | +--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ | Total battleships| 54 | 29 | 15 | 13 | 14 | | +--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ |Coast-defence ships | 14 | 16 | 13 | -- | 18 | | +--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ |Cruisers: | | | | | | | First-class | 23 | 8 | 6 | -- | 1 | | Second-class | 47 | 13 | 3 | 5 | 3 | | Third-class | 34 | 9 | 1 | 9 | 9 | | +--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ | Total cruisers | 104 | 30 | 10 | 14 | 13 | | +--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ |Torpedo gunboats | 34 | 19 | 8 | 15 | 4 | +---------------------+--------+-------+-------+------+--------+ It must be confessed that at this time the German Fleet bore no reasonable relation to Germany's growing trade and oversea interests. But the mass of the people of the German Empire were still unconscious of any deficiency, and, blinded by the success of their armies during the war with France and the small influence which naval power exerted in that struggle, they had refused for many years to take upon themselves the burden which the new naval ambitions represented. But with the passage of the Navy Act of 1898, and the widespread agitation carried on by the Navy League, under the highest patronage, and--even more important--by the Press Bureau under Admiral von Tirpitz, a change immediately occurred; and the success with which the British forces were enabled to conduct their military operations in South Africa, while Europe was forced to stand by inactive, owing to the supreme control which the British Fleet possessed of sea communications, produced a revulsion of feeling. The current of European events, and the reception with which the Emperor's speeches met, convinced the Government, within a comparatively few months of the passage of the Act of 1898, that they might safely abandon this modest measure and replace it by a new Bill.