ilitary forces are of small consequence. In the end, peace must
become a necessity to the power which has much to lose and little to
gain. Let us see what took place in America during the disputes on the
Oregon question. Despite the immense superiority of the English navy,
the Americans maintained their pretensions. England found out that their
well-equipped frigates and countless privateers were sufficient to carry
on a war against her commerce in all parts of the globe; whilst all the
damage she could do to America was the destruction of a few coast-towns,
by which she could gain neither honour nor profit; and so she decided to
preserve peace by yielding the question. It is this American system that
we in France must adopt. Renouncing the glory of fleet victories, we
must make active war on the commercial shipping of Great Britain. If
America with her small means could gain such an advantage over England,
what results may we not expect to obtain with a hundred and fifty ships
of war and three hundred corsairs armed with long-range guns?"

The report recommended that the naval force of France should be
organized in twenty "corsair-divisions." These were to have Cherbourg
for their head-quarters; one to look after the merchant-shipping in the
British Channel; another to watch the mouth of the Thames; and a third
to cruise along the Dutch and German coasts, so as to intercept our
Baltic trade; and all these were to be aided by a line of telegraphs
from Brest to Dunkirk, in correspondence with a line of scouts ranged
along the French coast, with orders to communicate to the central
station at Cherbourg every movement of British merchantmen. Three
similar divisions were to be formed at Brest, charged respectively with
the oversight of the East and West Indian shipping as it passed Cape
Clear, of the Azores, and of the Irish Coast. A seventh division,
stationed at Rochefort, was to watch for a favourable opportunity of
co-operating with the other six, if desirable, in transporting an army
to Ireland. An eighth division was to watch the neighbourhood of
Gibraltar, and four others were to be stationed in various parts of the
Mediterranean. Three other divisions were to cruise along the North
American coast, to harass our commerce with the United States, to
intercept the trade of Canada and the neighbouring colonies, and, in
spring time, to capture the produce of the Newfoundland fisheries. Three
smaller divisions were to be ch