ssian Poland is regarded as almost perfect. Even
if the German and Austrian forces could evade the Polish defences, they
would waste their strength against the second Russian fortified line;
and even if that were broken through, St. Petersburg and Moscow would
still be far distant, and Russia's immense resources in men would enable
her to bring up body after body of reserves against the dwindling
invading force.

A Russian invasion of Prussia would have to encounter an elaborately
scientific defensive system, and would be liable to all the other
difficulties to which an invasion is exposed--particularly, in this
case, the difficulty of feeding a vast host of men on hostile territory.
The weakness of Austria's Galician frontier seems tempting; but Russia
would have to strike at Germany--an invasion of Austria which left
Germany untouched would be mere waste of energy.

The general conclusion is that invasion of an enemy's country, in a
great European struggle, would, in all probability, lead to the
destruction of the invaders and the entire exhaustion of both
combatants.

_III.--Modern War at Sea_

The modern warship is a floating fortress equipped with complex
machinery, and the rivalry in naval invention has led to a terrible
expenditure upon which the powers have embarked in utter heedlessness of
the warnings of economists. So prodigious is the destructive power of
modern naval weapons that, in the opinion of most specialists, vessels
which take part in great battles will issue from them damaged to such an
extent that, during the rest of the war, they will not need to be taken
into account.

In war the strongest nation will be that which possesses the greatest
number of arsenals and ready stores of ammunition, and coal at points
selected in times of peace; and, in addition to these, a fleet in
reserve, even a fleet of old type, but equipped with modern artillery.
With such a fleet it will be possible to strike deadly blows at the
enemy when the fleets of the first line have been incapacitated.

To cruisers and torpedo-boats will be allotted the ferocious duty of
pursuing merchant ships, falling upon them at night, and sinking them,
with the object of cutting the communications and paralysing the trade
of the enemy. The effect of naval wars on trade will in future be
incomparably more disastrous than it has ever been before.

Calculations show that England alone in a prolonged war could gain the
mastery of t