be "reasonable,"
and expressly repudiating any claim to do "wanton injury to property of
poor communities, and still less to individuals." In the light of these
concessions, I venture to claim Admiral de Horsey's concurrence in my
condemnation of most of the doings mentioned in my first letter,
although on the whole he ranges himself on the side of the advocates of
what I maintain to be a change in the existing law of war. Whether or no
the existing law needs revision is a question for politicians and for
military and naval experts. It is within my province only to express a
hope that the contradiction between existing law and new military
necessities (if, indeed, such contradiction exists) will not be solved
by a repudiation of all law as "nonsense"; and, further, that, if a
change of law is to be effected, it will be done with due deliberation
and under a sense of responsibility. It should be remembered that
operations conducted with the apparent approval of the highest naval
authorities, and letters in _The Times_ from distinguished admirals, are
in truth the stuff that public opinion, and in particular that
department of public opinion known as "international law," is made of.

The ignorance, by the by, which certain of my critics have displayed of
the nature and claims of international law is not a little surprising.
Some seem to identify it with treaties; others with "Vattel." Several,
having become aware that it is not law of the kind which is enforced by
a policeman or a County Court bailiff, have hastened, much exhilarated,
to give the world the benefit of their discovery. Most of them are under
the impression that it has been concocted by "bookworms," "jurists,"
"professors," or other "theorists," instead of, as is the fact, mainly
by statesmen, diplomatists, prize courts, generals and admirals. This
is, however, a wide field, into which I must not stray. I have even
avoided the pleasant by-paths of disquisition on contraband,
privateering, and the Declaration of Paris generally, into which some of
your correspondents have courteously invited me. I fear we are as yet
far from having disposed of the comparatively simple question as to the
operations which may be properly undertaken by a naval squadron against
an undefended seaboard.

I am, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Llanfairfechan, August 27 (1888).

NAVAL BOMBARDMENTS OF UNFORTIFIED PLACES

Sir,--The protest reported to have been lodged by t