t think anything about it--I _know_ it," said the
Englishman. "Why, you haven't got any navy."

"The deuce we haven't!" observed the other. "I guess you have not _seen_
our navy!"

"No!--nor has any one else seen an armament worthy of the name," said
the Englishman, of course supposing that he referred to the dozen of old
and worm-eaten wooden ships that then made up our whole preparation for
contesting the empire of the seas. "Why any one of our half dozen fleets
would eat up your whole navy in half an hour. If you had seen our Baltic
fleet reviewed at Spithead, as I did just at the close of the Crimean
war, you would know something of what the word 'navy' meant, and you
would also have some idea, you know, of what a chance you would have at
fighting England!"

"Humph! well, yes, you _have_ a pretty long string of vessels, such as
they are," said his American friend. "But I told you that you did not
know anything about _our_ navy, and you do not. You speak of the 'Baltic
fleet.' Now what will you say when I tell you that at one point on the
Mississippi we have a line of gun-boats that would knock not only your
Baltic fleet but all the rest of your fleets into smithereens, without
even firing a gun?"

"Why I should only say that you were crazy, as I think you _are_!" said
the Englishman, really expecting that his friend would by-and-bye
attempt to demonstrate that the easiest way of travelling was by walking
on the head instead of the feet.

"Yes, I daresay you do," said the American. "And yet I am _not_ crazy.
The only thing is that you do not yet understand me. The line of
gun-boats of which I speak, is a line of warehouses at Chicago,
containing at this moment from six to ten millions of bushels of grain,
constantly emptying and constantly being replenished. _That_ is the line
of gun-boats to fight the world, and we can conquer the world if we only
use them correctly. We can live within ourselves, without buying one
dollar's-worth of anything from any nation abroad, except possibly _tea_
(for we can make our own _coffee_ while we can grow _peas_ and _beans_);
and there is not another nation on the globe that can do the same. Not a
nation of you all but must have our breadstuffs or go hungry; and the
sailors of your 'Baltic fleet' would not fight well, I fancy, on empty
stomachs."

"Humph!" said the Englishman. "That is an odd view to take of war." But
he said no more, and was evidently thinking. He had grounds