at found utterance in the remarks of some men, presumably well
informed on general matters. It is evidently a very long and quite
illogical step to infer that, because the results of an accident may
be dreadful, therefore the danger of the accident occurring at all is
very great. On land, a slight derangement of a rail, a slight obstacle
on a track, the breaking of a wheel or of an axle, may plunge a
railroad train to frightful disaster; but we know from annual
experience that while such accidents do happen, and sometimes with
appalling consequences, the chance of their happening in a particular
case is so remote that we disregard it. At sea, every day of every
year for centuries back, a couple of hundred warships--to speak
moderately--have been traversing the ocean or lying in port, like the
_Maine_, with abundance of powder on board; and for the last quarter
of a century very many of these have been, and now are, essentially of
the type of that unfortunate vessel. The accident that befell her, if
its origin be precisely determined, may possibly impose some further
precaution not hitherto taken; but whatever the cause may prove to
have been, it is clear that the danger of such an event happening is
at no time great, because it is almost, if not quite, unprecedented
among the great number of warships now continuously in service.
Similarly, on the seas, the disasters to the _Ville du Havre_, to the
_Oregon_, and, only three years ago, to the _Elbe_, show the terrific
results of collision, to which every ship crossing the ocean is
liable. Collisions between vessels less known than those named are of
weekly occurrence. Yet no general outcry is raised against the general
safety of the transatlantic liners. People unconsciously realize that,
where accidents are so infrequent, the risk to themselves in the
individual case is slight, though the results, when they happen, are
dreadful. Men know instinctively that the precautions taken must be
practically adequate, or safety would not be the almost universal rule
which it is.

It should be remembered, too, that the present battleship is not a
sudden invention, springing up in a night, like Jonah's gourd, or
newly contrived by a council sitting for the purpose, like a brand-new
Constitution of the French Revolution. The battleship of to-day is the
outcome of a gradual evolution extending over forty years. Its
development has been governed by experience, showing defects or
sugges