y be called the smaller description--is
considered, the danger involved in adopting it will be quite as
apparent, and the waste of money will be more obvious. Localised
defence is a near relation of passive defence. It owes its origin
to the same sentiment, viz. a belief in the efficacy of staying
where you are instead of carrying the war into the enemy's country.

There may be cases in which no other kind of naval defence is
practicable. The immense costliness of modern navies puts it out
of the power of smaller states to maintain considerable sea-going
fleets. The historic maritime countries--Sweden, Denmark, the
Netherlands, and Portugal, the performances of whose seamen are
so justly celebrated--could not now send to sea a force equal in
number and fighting efficiency to a quarter of the force possessed
by anyone of the chief naval powers. The countries named, when
determined not to expose themselves unarmed to an assailant, can
provide themselves only with a kind of defence which, whatever
its detailed composition, must be of an intrinsically localised
character.

In their case there is nothing else to be done; and in their
case defence of the character specified would be likely to prove
more efficacious than it could be expected to be elsewhere. War
is usually made in pursuit of an object valuable enough to justify
the risks inseparable from the attempt to gain it. Aggression by
any of the countries that have been mentioned is too improbable to
call for serious apprehension. Aggression against them is far more
likely. What they have to do is to make the danger of attacking them
so great that it will equal or outweigh any advantage that could
be gained by conquering them. Their wealth and resources, compared
with those of great aggressive states, are not large enough to
make up for much loss in war on the part of the latter engaging
in attempts to seize them. Therefore, what the small maritime
countries have to do is to make the form of naval defence to
which they are restricted efficacious enough to hurt an aggressor
so much that the victory which he may feel certain of gaining
will be quite barren. He will get no glory, even in these days
of self-advertisement, from the conquest of such relatively weak
antagonists; and the plunder will not suffice to repay him for
the damage received in effecting it.

The case of a member of the great body known as the British Empire
is altogether different. Its conquest wou