lume
'The Life and Letters of Erasmus.' The others, 'English Seamen of the
XVIth Century,' 'Lectures on the Council of Trent,' and the very able
paper on Job in 'Short Studies on Great Subjects,' even if taken by
themselves, would cause us to form a high opinion of the scope and
range of Froude's powers. Those to whom brilliancy is synonymous with
unsoundness may perhaps continue to call him merely a "brilliant
writer"; but the general verdict will be that his brilliancy is the
structural adornment of a well-fitted framework of thought.

[Signature: Charles F. Johnson]

THE GROWTH OF ENGLAND'S NAVY

From 'English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century'

Jean Paul the German poet said that God had given to France the empire
of the land, to England the empire of the sea, and to his own country
the empire of the air. The world has changed since Jean Paul's days.
The wings of France have been clipped: the German Empire has become a
solid thing: but England still holds her watery dominion; Britannia
does still rule the waves, and in this proud position she has spread
the English race over the globe; she is peopling new Englands at the
Antipodes; she has made her Queen Empress of India; and is in fact the
very considerable phenomenon in the social and political world which
all acknowledge her to be. And all this she has achieved in the course
of three centuries, entirely in consequence of her predominance as an
ocean power. Take away her merchant fleets, take away the navy that
guards them,--her empire will come to an end, her colonies will fall
off like leaves from a withered tree, and Britain will become once
more an insignificant island in the North Sea, for the future students
in Australian and New Zealand universities to discuss the fate of in
their debating societies.

How the English navy came to hold so extraordinary a position is worth
reflecting on. Much has been written on it, but little, as it seems to
me, which touches the heart of the matter. We are shown the power of
our country growing and expanding. But how it grew; why, after a sleep
of so many hundred years, the genius of our Scandinavian forefathers
suddenly sprang again into life,--of this we are left without
explanation.

The beginning was undoubtedly the defeat of the Spanish Armada in
1588. Down to that time the sea sovereignty belonged to the Spaniards,
and had been fairly won by them. The conquest of Granada