he port of
Cherbourg, England trembled more than if he had launched fifty frigates.
And well she might. For what is Cherbourg? Nothing less than an immense
permanent addition to the French power of naval production. Here,
protected from the sea by a breakwater miles in extent, and which might
have been the work of the Titans, and girdled by almost impregnable
fortifications, is more than a safe harbor for all the fleets of the
world. For here are docks for the repairs I dare not say of how many
vessels, and ship-houses for the construction of one knows not how many
more, and work-shops and arsenals and stores of timber and iron well-nigh
inexhaustible. This is to have more than a hundred ships. This is to
create productive capacity out of which may come many hundred ships, when
they are wanted. The faith men have in the maritime greatness of England
rests not simply on the fact that she has afloat a few hundred frail
ships, but rather on this more pregnant fact, that England, from Pentland
Frith to Land's End, is one gigantic work-shop,--and that, whether she
turn her attention to the clothing of the world or the building of navies,
there is no outmeasuring her mechanical activity. The world has called us
a weak naval power. But the world has been mistaken. We are strong almost
as the strongest, if not in fleets, then in the capacity to produce
fleets. Three hundred armed vessels, extemporized in eighteen months, and
maintaining what, considering the extent of coast to be watched, must be
called a most efficient blockade, will stand as an impressive evidence
that capacity to produce is one of the best of nautical gifts.

* * * * *

But passing from these questions, which relate to what may be called a
nation's innate character and capacity, we come to a _third_
consideration, of perhaps even more immediate interest. One of the
elements which help to make a nation's power is certainly its available
strength. An important question, then, is, not only, How many ships can a
nation produce? but, How many has it complete and ready for use? In an
emergency, what force could it send at a moment's notice to the point of
danger? If we apply this consideration to European powers, we shall
appreciate better how young we are, and how little of our latent strength
has been organized into actual efficiency. In 1857 England had 300 steam
ships-of-war, carrying some 7,000 guns, nearly as many more sailing