‘Oh,’ said Sir Charles, with an easy laugh, ‘I cannot see how your articles could do anything but good; certainly they have done no harm—that is, from a moral point of view; but, as regards certain other aspects of their teaching, I am not quite so certain. I am afraid that people will say only, “Here are great experts who give us the victory,” and will imagine, therefore, whatever you may say, that our state of preparation must be excellent, and our enormous expenditure upon defence not thrown away. It should be borne in mind that you have given us a victory in the Mediterranean by procuring for us an Italian alliance; but that there is, and always must be, a grave risk of our having some day to find ourselves at war with France, or with France and Russia without any European alliance, and on questions which do not interest Continental Powers. Again, the Poland resuscitation is prehistoric. If you leave out the aristocracy and a few townspeople, there is no part of the Russian Empire in which the Russian Government is less unpopular than in Poland, and no Polish force could be collected except one composed of nobles and that small middle-class which really consists of the little nobility. The capture of Sierra Leone by France was capital, for under the present circumstances it would be, of course, inevitable, and it is well that attention has been so ably called to this point, which involves grave risk to the Cape route. I cannot think, however, that the Canadian Pacific route is a very safe one to employ, as our enemies, by spending a little money in sparsely-settled portions of the United States, could easily break up the line by bands of hired raiders. And here my criticisms come to an end. But I would like to say again that in my opinion the War as conceived by your contributors has been admirably carried out. With few exceptions, the consequences flow well and naturally, and in perfect logical sequence from the foundation in facts.’ Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, at the Edinburgh University Press. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES 1. Changed “th bitterness” to “that bitterness” on p. 6. 2. Changed “silver of white bone” to “sliver of white bone” on p. 109. 3. Changed “brought it again to a top” to “brought it again to a stop” on p. 217. 4. Silently corrected typographical errors. 5. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. 7. Superscripts are denoted by a caret before a single superscript character, e.g. M^r. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Great War of 189-, by P. Colomb and J. F. Maurice and F. N. Maude and Archibald Forbes and Charles Lowe