Next we have a little inn by the roadside with a cart stopped beside
it. The dog is waiting for his master, the carter, who has gone
within to talk and rest and drink.

[Sidenote: 16. Mapledurham House.]

Such is the quiet life of the humbler people in the country parts of
England. But here and there through all the land there rises also
the country home of a rich family. Of all the features of England,
perhaps the most beautiful and the most indicative of peace and
strength and wealth, are these country houses of the upper classes.
We have one here surrounded by perfect trees and by spreading lawns
of thick short green grass.

[Sidenote: 17. Interior at Long Marston, Charles I. kitchen.]

Many of these houses are old, and have been little changed, though
well cared for, during several generations. This, for instance, is
a kitchen in one of them dating from 250 years ago. Do you note the
great beam of oak which supports the ceiling? Oak is an English tree
which, like teak in India, gives a timber as strong as iron.

[Sidenote: 18. Knole House.]

Here is another and yet grander house, surrounded by one of those
noble parks of which you heard in the last lecture.

[Sidenote: 19. Hunt Scene, Streatley, Berks.]

You may imagine with what pleasure the leading men of England escape
from their work in London, either in Parliament or in the Law Courts
or in the City, to these quiet, proud homes in the country, where
they may give themselves to sport both in winter and in summer--for
the climate of England is rarely either too hot or too cold for
activity throughout the day. Here, for instance, is a winter scene
in a country park, with a pack of dogs, or, as they are called,
hounds, in the foreground, for the hunting of the fox. The men on
horseback are ready to follow the hounds across the country, leaping
the hedgerows of which you heard in the third Lecture. With them you
may notice two or three ladies on horseback, who also will follow the
hounds and leap the hedges. That it is winter time you may tell from
the leafless branches of most of the trees.

[Sidenote: 20. Nuneham Park.]

On the other hand, we have here a summer scene in a country park with
a cricket match in progress.

Now I think you can understand something of the country life of
England. The village generally consists of the Squire, the Vicar,
the Schoolmaster, the Farmers, and the Labourers. The Squire owns
most of the land. He was educated at a great school. His sons become
officers in the Army and in the Navy. He is the unpaid magistrate of
the district, and lives in the great house in the park. Beside him,
and living in a smaller home, is the Vicar, who ministers on Sundays
in the church and visits the people in their homes to help them in
illness or trouble. In addition there are often Ministers of the
Free Churches, for religion is a matter for each man’s conscience,
notwithstanding the existence of a State Church. Beside the Vicar and
the Ministers is the Schoolmaster, to whom by law the children must
be sent to learn to read and write. Then there come the farmers, who
rent pieces of land from the Squire, and farm them with the help of
the labourers. The farmers live in farmhouses surrounded by cattle
sheds and corn barns, and the labourers occupy cottages such as we
have seen.

[Sidenote: 21. A Farmhouse.]

All these dwellers in the country--squires, vicars, schoolmasters,
farmers, and labourers, and also the tradesmen of the market
towns, depend for their livelihood on the crops of the field. In
one way or another they all receive a share of the harvests. Let
us therefore spend a few moments in considering the operations
of British agriculture. They are very different from those of a
tropical country, and it is impossible to understand the writings of
British authors unless you know something of the aspects of British
agriculture. The centre of the farm is the farmhouse, such as we have
here, with its outhouses for the farm implements, and for the young
animals which require protection against the weather. In the centre
of the picture you see the poultry, which are fed by the farmer’s
wife and daughters, while the farmer and his sons are away in the
fields. Close by the house a heap of firewood is laid ready for the
winter, and there is also the farmer’s gig, in which he drives to
sell his corn at the weekly market in the nearest town.

[Sidenote: 22. Hay Cutting: old style.]

A great change has taken place of late in the methods of farming,
for the steam engine has been applied to agriculture as well as to
the industries. Let us look for a moment at the old style of farming
which is now rapidly going out. Here, in a field surrounded by a
hedge, are three men mowing grass with scythes. The grass will be
left to dry in the sun; it will turn brown, and will then be heaped
into a hay stack for the winter food of the farm horses.

[Sidenote: 23. Thrashing: old style.]

Next we see the old method of thrashing corn. The man in the picture
holds a flail, or rod jointed in the centre, with which he beats the
corn, and so separates the grain from the straw.

[Sidenote: 24. Old Man Digging.]

And here we have an old rustic digging the ground with a spade.
Probably he is a man who can neither write nor read; for when he was
a boy the children of country villages were not obliged to go to
school.

[Sidenote: 25. Old Shepherd.]

[Sidenote: 26. Old Woman.]

Here is another such old rustic, a shepherd, who has spent his life
in tending sheep. Probably he never went to London, or, indeed, to
any of the large towns which have now been brought by railways to
within an hour or two of his home. But quite likely he often has
letters from a son who is a sailor in the Fleet in the China Seas,
from another son who is a soldier in India, and from a daughter who
is married to a farmer in Australia. And here is his wife, seated in
a corner of the village church.

[Sidenote: 27. Mare and Foal.]

[Sidenote: 28. Shire Horse.]

[Sidenote: 29. Landseer’s “Blacksmith’s Shop.”]

By far the most abundant crop in England is green grass, and the
English farmer therefore keeps many animals to feed upon it. Here
we have a mare and foal. The farm horses of England are much larger
and thicker built than the small horses of most parts of the world.
They are more powerful, but they are slower. Some of the English
cart horses are nearly as large as an average elephant. Until modern
times, when the steam engine was introduced, all the work of the farm
was done by men and horses. Here is another grand horse, and here a
picture painted by a great English artist, Landseer. It is owned by
the English nation and hung in the National Gallery, which stands in
Trafalgar Square. The picture is in the midst of London, but, as you
see, it represents a country scene, the shop of a shoeing smith, who
is putting an iron shoe on to the hoof of a horse in order that it
may not be injured by the paved roads. Beside the horse you see two
other of the animals that are common in every English countryside, a
donkey, which is the poor man’s horse, and a dog. Among the northern
nations, as you know, dogs are cared for and treated as companions.

[Sidenote: 30. Ploughing.]

Here we have one of the chief operations of British farming in which
horses and men work together. They are turning over the ground with
the plough to prepare it for the seed. Ploughing is usually done in
the autumn, so that the land may lie fallow, that is to say at rest,
for a time before the crops begin to grow in the spring.

[Sidenote: 31. Wheat in Sheaf.]

[Sidenote: 32. Carrying Corn.]

With this coloured slide we come to harvest time. The grain has
turned under the summer sun to a beautiful golden brown, and has
been cut and set in these stooks, where it is drying in the hot
August weather. Presently it will be taken away in wagons, drawn by
horses, and stacked. Do you see on the ground the straight lines of
stubble due to the fact that the seed from which the corn grew was
cast into the straight furrows made by the plough? In this slide the
last sheaves of the harvest are being gathered in. There will be much
rejoicing in the village to-night because the harvest has been safely
got, and rain storms have caused it no harm during the critical days
after it had been cut, when it stood drying in the sun.

[Sidenote: 33. Reaping Machine.]

The first farm machinery introduced in modern times was worked by
horses not by steam engines. For example, in this slide we have a
horse-drawn reaping machine employed to cut down corn, thus saving
the hand-work of many men.

[Sidenote: 34. Thrashing Machine.]

Here is a thrashing machine driven by a steam engine. The corn is
placed on the top of the machine where stand the two men; it is
caught into the running parts of the machine which are driven by the
engine to the right hand; it is beaten in the machine so that the
grain falls from the straw into the bags which you see, while the
straw is lifted by the elevator on to the stack to the left hand,
there to remain until required for the bedding of horses.

[Sidenote: 35. Cows.]

[Sidenote: 36. Cattle chewing Cud.]

Besides tilling the ground for the growth of corn, the farmers of
Britain keep many millions of cattle and sheep which feed upon
grass. Here is an ordinary country scene with cows, which are kept
for the sake of their milk. One of the chief foods in these northern
countries is the milk of cows, and the butter and cheese prepared
from milk. These cows live upon the grass, which is kept green by the
moist climate. Here we have cattle lying down chewing the cud.

[Sidenote: 37. Cattle Market, Faringdon.]

Next is a scene on a market day in a small country town. It is a fair
to which the farmers have brought in their cattle for sale.

[Sidenote: 38. Sheep.]

[Sidenote: 39. Sheep with Shepherd and Dog.]

[Sidenote: 40. Sheep Dog.]

[Sidenote: 41. Sheep Market: Chipping Campden.]

The most numerous animals on British farms are the sheep. This is a
fortunate fact, for wool is the most suitable material from which
to manufacture the warm clothing needed during the northern winter.
Here is a flock of sheep grazing. And here is another flock with the
shepherd who tends them, and his dog. Sheep-dogs are usually of the
kind known as Collies.

They are very remarkable creatures. A well-trained Collie obeys the
shepherd perfectly, and can bring a large flock of sheep to him
or guide it in any direction that he orders. Here is a coloured
photograph of a Collie dog. And lastly we have a sheep market,
similar to the cattle market which we visited a moment ago.

These are the principal rural occupations of Britain, the growing
of corn and the tending of cattle and sheep, but there are others,
although on a smaller scale.

[Sidenote: 42. Hop Garden.]

Here, for instance, we have a hop garden, where the creepers known
as hops are grown upon poles, and supply a little fruit which, when
dried, is used for the purpose of giving flavour to beer. Hops are
picked in the hot weather, and a great number of people are required
for the purpose. These people are, for the most part, got from the
great city of London, for the part of England in which most hops grow
is close to London. Once a year the very poorest of the poor people
of London are carried out by train, and they camp for two or three
weeks in tents in the hop country.

[Sidenote: 43. Apple Tree in Bloom.]

[Sidenote: 44. Apple Blossom.]

This is an apple tree in blossom. Later in the year it will bear a
fruit which is used for the purpose of making a drink called cider.
There are whole orchards of such apple trees, presenting a very
beautiful sight in the spring-time when they are gay with blossom.
Here is a colour photograph of apple blossom; you may easily imagine
that when these flowers deck the trees the whole landscape is
brilliant, not so much with green, as with pink and white--indeed,
one of the great differences between England and the tropics is
that in addition to green there is so much brilliant colour in the
foliage. Not only have you these orchards of white and red, but the
grassy fields are at times all golden with flowers that are called
buttercups and daisies, and, as we shall see presently, the trees in
the autumn turn from green to brilliant shades of brown.

[Sidenote: 45. Apples.]

Here is a basket of apple fruit, each with a rosy cheek on its green
skin. In Britain other fruits take the place of the mango and guava,
which are unknown in the north.

[Sidenote: 46. Strawberries.]

[Sidenote: 47. Roses.]

Fruit is grown in large quantity for the markets of the great
town populations. Here in this slide is one of the finest of the
northern fruits, the strawberry, which you probably know. See how
it is coloured, like so many other things northern. And here is yet
another crop of England. The vast cities with their millions of
people--many of them well-to-do--demand in their houses the flowers
of the country. Therefore there are parts of England where not merely
corn and cattle, and not merely fruit, but also flowers are grown for
the supply of the towns. This is the best known of the flowers of
England, the rose, which grows also in other parts of the world, but
is pre-eminently the national emblem of England, and praised as such
in English poetry.

[Sidenote: 48. Hay-stack.]

Let us turn for a moment finally to a side of English life which
is different from all that we know here in the tropics. There are
seasons in Britain, not rainy seasons and dry seasons, but seasons
of heat and of cold. In the winter the vegetation stops growing, and
there is little food in the fields for the animals. Then all the life
of the land, animal and human, must be maintained by foresight, by
the storage of the fruits of summer, or by the import of supplies
from other countries. The cattle are kept alive by means of hay, that
is to say, of grass cut in the summer, dried in the sun, heaped into
hay-stacks, and there preserved until required in the winter. This is
a hay-stack laid by for the winter supply of the animals.

[Sidenote: 49. Beech--Autumn Tints.]

When the hay and the corn have been harvested and the apples have
been gathered and turned to cider, and the roses have bloomed, and
the strawberries have been eaten or boiled to jam, then the summer
wanes, and a change sets in. Day by day, as September and October
pass, the green leaves of the trees gradually turn to all manner of
brilliant hues of red and brown, and presently, as the rains and the
winds increase, they fall and litter all the ground as we see them
here. At last, in November, the trees become naked, and show the
tracery of their branches against the sky.

[Sidenote: 50. Park--Autumn Tints.]

[Sidenote: 51. River Scene with Autumnal Beeches.]

There are few more splendid natural scenes than those of the fall
of the northern year. Let us look at one or two more of them
photographed in colour. This is an English park in the autumn, and
this a wood by a river bank.

[Sidenote: 52. Virginia Creeper.]

[Sidenote: 53. Hughenden Church--Autumn creepers.]

Many English houses are covered with creepers which are green in
the summer and then turn to red--to blood-red at times--before the
leaves finally drop and leave the house naked. This is the Virginia
Creeper, which did not originally grow in Britain, but was brought
from America. And here is a church clothed with red Virginia Creeper.
Green ivy is a creeper native to Britain. It clothes with green many
old buildings throughout the winter, because its leaves are like
leather, and thick, and can withstand the cold.

[Sidenote: 54. Leafless Elm Trees.]

This is a December landscape. The trees have shed their leaves,
and their naked boughs are clear against the sky. See the bleak
appearance of the land, so that you may look over miles and miles of
open country, though it is studded with many trees. To the eye of one
accustomed to the tropical forest, England in the winter time is a
naked and strange land.

[Sidenote: 55. Cottage, Winter Scene.]

[Sidenote: 56. Winter Scene in Wood.]

[Sidenote: 57. Frozen Lake side with hoar-frost.]

[Sidenote: 58. Hockey on ice.]

There are times when the cold is such that the rain is frozen and
falls in hard stones, known as hail, and there are other times when
the clouds themselves freeze, and then there fall white snow-flakes
like little feathers, which accumulate on the ground, covering it
with a white carpet which melts into water and disappears when the
weather grows warm again. Here is a country cottage half buried in
snow, and the snow is on the road and on the branches of the trees.
And here is a wood-side, hung not with snow, but with hoar-frost. You
know how dew stands on the leaves in the early morning. In Britain,
in the winter time, the dew clings to the branches not as liquid
water, but as a white feathery substance like snow, and yet it is not
snow, for it has not fallen from the clouds in flakes, but has been
formed from the air around, and clings by little stalks to all the
branches, surrounding them and clothing them. Here is yet another
scene of hoar-frost. The surface of the pool is frozen over, and has
a covering of hard ice. All the ground is hard like iron; men cannot
dig with spades, and even horses cannot draw the plough through the
ground. The cattle are gathered into the sheds of the farms, where
they are fed upon the hay which was saved for them in the summer. The
nights are very long and the days are short--not like the tropical
day and night, each approximately twelve hours in length. Even poor
men must now be idle, and many spend time in active sports. Here, for
instance, the game of hockey is being played on the ice, which is
strong enough to bear people upon it safely. Here is one of the roots
of the energy of the British race; it is bred in a climate which is
warm enough for men to work in through most of the year but with
every now and then a spell of frost, which appears to stimulate human
activity. On the other hand the heat of the summer is rarely such
that men must rest in the middle of the day.

[Sidenote: 59. Skating.]

These men are skating on the ice which is very smooth. That they may
glide the more easily they put skates on their feet--sharp steel
edges which slip so easily that it requires some skill to stand upon
them. It is an exhilarating sight to see men and women moving with
the speed of railway trains, the blood aglow in their cheeks and
their eyes flashing with pleasure.

[Sidenote: 60. Curling.]

In Scotland men play the game of curling upon ice. The weights glide
over the surface instead of rolling like balls.

[Sidenote: 61. Thames frozen over.]

Lastly, we have a very curious scene. Once in every few years there
comes a colder winter than usual, and then even the running water of
considerable rivers will freeze. Here is the Thames frozen completely
over and bearing many people.

                             LECTURE VI.

           THE GREAT TOWNS, THEIR INDUSTRIES AND COMMERCE.

[Sidenote: 1. Group of Tin Miners.]

[Sidenote: 2. Tin Mine Shaft.]

[Sidenote: 3. Four Hundred Fathom Level, Dolcoath.]

[Sidenote: 4. Tin Mine Boring Machine.]

[Sidenote: 5. In a Tin Mine.]

Five hundred, six hundred, and seven hundred years ago Britain was
what Australia is now. It supplied nearly the whole of Europe with
wool. As we have seen in the last lecture, the agriculture and the
pasture of Britain are still important, but now, of course, Britain’s
fame is chiefly as a mining, an industrial, and a commercial country.
Even in antiquity there was one part of the land which was important
on account of its mines. The oldest mines of Britain are tin mines,
and they are still worked, although the tin of the world is now
mainly got in the Malay Peninsula, and the neighbouring islands.
Singapore is now the great tin port of the world, but at no very
distant time tin was obtained almost exclusively in Britain--in that
part of it which forms the rocky peninsula of Cornwall stretching out
into the western seas. The Cornish miners, though they no longer find
much employment in Cornwall, are the most skilled miners of gold in
South Africa. So we find within the British Empire three districts
which are very closely related to one another by the bond of tin:
Cornwall in England, the Malay Peninsula, and the gold mines of South
Africa. Here is a group of Cornish miners, men from whose race have
come not a few leaders in other parts of the Empire. These are two of
them descending a shaft into the depths of the earth to work for tin.
One of the deepest mines in the world is in Cornwall. And here is a
passage in the depths of the earth with rails laid for trolleys to
run along, carrying the ore which is to be raised to the surface and
there treated, so that from rock is obtained shining metallic tin. In
this slide we see miners at work on the face of the rock, drilling
holes in the hard stone into which explosives are inserted with the
object of shattering the stone and splitting the ore into fragments
that can be handled. Observe with how little clothing they work, for
at these depths the temperature is high. Our final scene in a tin
mine is comparatively near to the surface.

[Sidenote: 6. Map showing Coalfields of United Kingdom.]

[Sidenote: 7. Map showing distribution of Population about the
Coalfields.]

But, although some tin is still got, tin mines are now relatively
unimportant in the life of the country. There has developed in
Britain in the last century and a-half a vast system of industries
based, not merely on the use of human muscles, but on power derived
from the burning of coal. Here is a map showing, in black, the
coalfields of Britain. They lie chiefly in South Wales, in the
Midlands, in the North of England, and in Central Scotland. Those
of Ireland produce but little. Compare this map with the next,
which shows, in red, all the districts of denser population. It is
obvious that of all the larger areas coloured red, only the London
district is devoid of coal, and coal can easily be brought to London
by sea. These facts tell us at once that in their modern growth the
activities of the British population are based chiefly upon coal.
Three-quarters of all the people in Britain live within the areas
coloured pink, which measure not more than about one-twentieth of the
British Isles. In the main, therefore, Britain is a country of town
and factory populations, and in lesser degree only of agricultural
and fishing people. A hundred years ago the population of the whole
British Islands was not more than 16 millions, and it was mainly
agricultural. To-day it numbers 43 millions, and is mainly industrial.

[Sidenote: 8. A seam at Glasgow dissected to show the origin of Coal.]

Coal is won from the depths of the earth, where it is laid in great
sheets, which are known as coal seams, and these are underlaid and
overlaid by the solid rock. Immediately under each coal seam there is
usually a layer of clay, and if you examine that clay you will often
find in it, here and there, threads of coal penetrating downward from
the seam above. These are obviously the blackened roots of trees.
Sometimes, in the coal itself, you will find complete stumps of trees
preserved. For, in fact, the coal seams are nothing more than the
buried, rotten forests of vastly ancient times. You know that in
our great tropical forests when the wood rots it turns brown, and
even black. Wherever wood grows old in the use of men it darkens.
So we see that though the climate of Britain is cold, and though
vegetation does not grow with the same colossal power as when driven
by tropical rain and heat, yet buried deep in the rocks of Britain
there is compensation in the shape of ancient timber called coal.
The sunshine and rain of far-off times are thus the chief bases of
British prosperity, just as the sunshine and rain of to-day are the
chief bases of our prosperity in the tropics.

Most of the industries of Britain are in the North or North Midlands.
In these parts, you will remember, we are mainly away from the better
agricultural districts. The smiling fertile cornfields and rich
lowland meadows are replaced by bleak uplands with stone walls and
few trees.

[Sidenote: 9. Colliers’ houses.]

Here is a row of cottages where dwell colliers of the north of
England. What a contrast with the homes of the agricultural labourers
which we saw in the last lecture! And yet the colliers who work in
the coal mines are much better paid than the labourers on the farms.

[Sidenote: 10. View of Colliery above ground.]

This is a coal mine, or, as it is called, a colliery. Here is the
chimney of the pumping station which lifts water from the mine, lest
it should be flooded by underground springs. The same engine is used
to raise the coal to the surface.

[Sidenote: 11. The Pit-mouth.]

Next we come into the yard of the colliery, to the pit-mouth itself.
These colliers have done their spell of work, and have just come to
the surface again, all blackened and grimy with coal dust. Each of
them holds a small lamp of a special kind. It is so made that the
flame cannot pass out, even though the lamp be upset. The object is
to prevent explosions of the coal gas which is often disengaged in
the mine. Occasionally the colliers are careless and open the lamps,
and as a consequence we sometimes hear of a terrible explosion with
great loss of life.

[Sidenote: 12. In the Cage.]

[Sidenote: 13. At work on a four-foot Seam.]

[Sidenote: 14. Levelling in a Coal Mine.]

This is the cage ascending to the surface, bringing miners begrimed
with coal dust, and each carrying his lamp and his can of liquid
needed for drink in the depths of the earth, because the heat is
there great, and there is much perspiration from labour. Next we see
the actual working of the mine. The roof is supported by timbers,
which are now brought to Britain from foreign countries in great
quantity, because Britain is so populous that men cannot afford
the space for the forests in which to grow the wood needed for the
mines. Note the vertical thickness of the coal. It is to this that
the towering forest of former times has been compressed in its ruin.
Here with his lamp hung to one of the posts is the miner, stripped to
his work, using his pickaxe to detach the lumps of coal. And here,
finally, with the seam of coal more plainly visible than in the
darker corner we have just left, are miners occupied in levelling,
and so guiding the course of the tunnel. The coal is taken in trucks
from the face where it is worked to the foot of the shaft, and thence
raised to the surface.

We must now consider the uses to which the coal of England is put. We
have already seen it exported to drive British ships in foreign seas.
We have also noted the chimneys to the houses in Britain, which are
warmed by coal fires. But the chief use is in the industries which
give employment to so many millions of the British people.

[Sidenote: 15. Rope making.]

Now, the industries are chiefly textile, or of iron and steel. Men
require clothing, and this is mostly woven or textile; and they
require tools with which to work, and these are chiefly of iron and
steel. Here is the simplest form of textile industry--the manufacture
of ropes and mats. All the textiles are made of fibres, which are
mostly got either from the stalks and other fibrous parts of plants,
or from the wool and hair of animals. In olden times men clothed
themselves with skins, and still do in some barbarous lands; but
in these days nearly all the world wears clothes that are woven,
that is to say, that are made of fibres laid across one another and
interlaced so that they form a sheet of material. The roughest fibres
are fit for the making of rope. By the weaving of rope, mats of one
sort or another are manufactured. Here we have a factory for rope and
mat making. The fibres are being laid straight, and side by side,
in the machinery. We notice that the machines are driven by endless
straps, worked from a long shaft running through the top of the shed.
The shaft is rotated by the action of a steam engine, which is, of
course, driven by the burning of coal. Now, since the machinery
was made with the help of coal-heat, it follows that coal has been
utilised twice over in this process--for the making and also for
the driving of the machinery. One other thing we notice, the number
of women employed to control the machinery. Women used formerly to
spin and weave cloth in their own homes. With the introduction of
machinery and steam-power they now have to perform the same work in
factories.

[Sidenote: 16. Linen Spinning Mill.]

[Sidenote: 17. Dobbie Loom.]

[Sidenote: 18. Jacquard Loom.]

There are two essential processes in all textile
manufacture--spinning and weaving. In its simplest form spinning
is the making of rope, and weaving is the interlacing of rope in
two directions for the purpose of making a mat. When the rope is a
delicate thread we call it yarn, and when the mat is a fine cotton or
linen fabric we call it cloth. Here we have a linen mill seen from
outside, and here a loom for the weaving of the spun flax. A power
loom driven by steam can do the work of very many pairs of hands. See
the spindles on which the yarn is wound, and the cloth coming from
the loom. In a hand loom there would be but a single spindle. So that
you can imagine the immense multiplication of power due to machinery.
Here is another kind of loom. Note, again, the endless straps and the
overhead shafting connected with the engine.

[Sidenote: 19. A Bradford Mill.]

[Sidenote: 20. Wool Spinning.]

[Sidenote: 21. Cotton Spinning.]

Let us glance for just a moment at this larger mill, at this
wool-spinning room, and at this cotton-spinning room. They require no
further description, for they merely differ in scale from those we
have already studied.

[Sidenote: 22. Glass Blowing.]

[Sidenote: 23. Glass Blowing.]

And now we will turn from the making of textiles, which employs
several millions of the inhabitants of Britain, and gives rise to
perhaps the largest single trade of Britain, the cotton trade. Let us
turn from that to consider the other great group of the industries,
those which are based essentially on the melting of metals by the
heat got from coal. One of the simplest and one of the oldest forms
of this is the making and blowing of glass. It is true that glass
is not a metal, but for industrial purposes it has many properties
somewhat similar to those of metals. It can be melted, for instance,
and worked while hot. Here we have a man engaged in blowing glass
which has been melted by the use of coal. And here, when he has
blown the bottle, he is shaping it with tools.

[Sidenote: 24. Pottery making.]

[Sidenote: 25. Pottery making.]

A somewhat similar industry, although not involving the melting of
the material in the first instance, is the making of pottery. Pottery
was formerly made in the homes of the people, and the potter’s wheel
was worked by the foot, as it still is in the East. But nowadays
the wheels upon which the pots are shaped are driven by steam.
Here we have women at work upon pottery. And in the next slide are
men engaged upon a similar process, but their tools are driven by
the foot. The pottery that is being made in this instance is of
the costly kind, which is produced in small quantity, and demands
artistic labour. It requires so little power that it is not worth
while to drive the machinery by steam. In large measure steam has not
replaced human skill for the very finest work.

But the most important by far of the industries which are based on
the use of coal for the melting of the raw material are those which
deal with iron and steel.

[Sidenote: 26. Blast Furnace.]

[Sidenote: 27. Rolling Steel.]

Here we have a group of blast furnaces, where the iron ore is mixed
with coal and burnt. The molten iron flows out from the bottom of
the furnace and cools into long blocks known as “pigs.” It would
be impossible to show all the processes through which the pig iron
is passed in the manufacture of the many wares made of iron and
steel. Let us glance at a very few. Here we have a man inserting a
white-hot, thick, short block of metal into a machine. He will lift
it from that plate with his pincers and will insert it under the
roller. The roller, crushing it, will reduce it in thickness and will
greatly elongate it to this hot flexible rope. When cold, a steel rod
will be the result.

[Sidenote: 28. Making an Armour Plate.]

Next we see a great sheet of steel coming out of the furnace, not
melted but white hot. This is to be used as an armour plate on a
battleship. We see how that the men are clothed and masked for the
purpose of standing the heat, and how that they are armed with tools
appropriate for the handling of the hot metal.

[Sidenote: 29. Steam Hammer.]

In this slide hot blocks of metal are being hammered under a steam
hammer. Again we notice that the man is clothed and masked in order
that the heat may not injure him. The hammer is descending rapidly
with repeated blows upon these two pieces of white hot metal, and,
striking them as a blacksmith will strike two pieces of iron on his
anvil, it forces them together and welds them into a single piece.
Now we must remember that coal is here used no less than four times.
It heats the metal to be forged, it raises the hammer, and beforehand
it was used in the smelting of the metal from its ore, and also in
the making of the hammer.

[Sidenote: 30. Boring a large Gun.]

[Sidenote: 31. Building an Ironclad.]

[Sidenote: 32. S.S. “Oceanic” in Dock.]

[Sidenote: 33. The launching of an Ironclad.]

But the rolling of plates and bars of steel, and the hammering
of blocks of hot metal together, are but the first and roughest
processes in the highly complicated industries whereby from rocks
of the earth are obtained those wonderful complicated tools of
civilization which we call railways, and bridges, and locomotive
engines, and mail steamers, and battleships, and guns, and--perhaps
most delicate of all--the machine-tools used in factories for the
making of machinery. Let us consider a few instances of these more
advanced processes. Here we see one of the finest exhibitions of
power--the boring of a steel gun while cold. Next we see the building
of a battleship, also made of steel. Then follows the sight of the
screws of a great ship. These screws are made of the most finely
tempered metal, lest they should break under the constant strain
to which they are exposed. Finally we have here the launching of a
battleship--an occasion of rejoicing and holiday at the close of
a year’s task. As she floats she displaces perhaps 15,000 tons of
water. The great ship is of steel from end to end. It is the product
of the work of thousands of people--the colliers who got the coal
from the colliery; the miners who got the iron ore from the mine; the
makers of iron who smelted the iron from the ore; the makers of steel
who converted the iron into steel; the rollers of bars and plates,
the builders of the ship and the builders of the engines. Presently
there will have to be added also the builders of the guns. Then we
must not forget the people who made the machinery wherewith these
people worked, and also the people who built the houses, and made the
clothes, and grew the food, which they needed for their living. Thus
a whole society of people is required to construct the ships which
defend the Empire of the King.

Let us turn for a moment to consider the large towns in which the
British industries are carried on. We have here a phase of the
national life very different from the quiet existence of the little
market towns which we saw in the last Lecture. Outside London, there
are some twenty very large towns in the British Isles. There are
three of them--Glasgow, Liverpool-Birkenhead, and Manchester-Salford,
each of which has a million people.

[Sidenote: 34. Men Leaving Works.]

[Sidenote: 35. A Hospital Interior.]

[Sidenote: 36. A School Interior.]

[Sidenote: 37. A Public Park.]

[Sidenote: 38. The Municipal Buildings, Glasgow.]

This is a crowd of workers, pouring out of a factory at the close
of their work. Do you note the tall chimneys of the factory in the
background? There are probably a hundred other factories in the
neighbourhood. You may imagine the organisation that is needed to
supply the wants of these great populations. Food must be gathered
from the country districts and from distant parts of the world, and
must be brought in daily to the crowded areas where millions of men
live and little or no food is grown. And all the wants of the people
must be attended to on a similar great scale. Here, for instance, is
a hospital, in which the workers who chance to be injured in the
pursuit of their daily duties are tended. Do you see the nurses
moving about between the beds? This is a school where the children
are taught. Every child is compelled by law to receive instruction.
And this is a park such as have been provided for recreation in the
great provincial towns--Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow,
and others. Here, finally, we have the Town Hall in the centre of one
of these towns, whence a million of people are governed, and where in
these times even the generation of electricity for the supply of the
factories is organized. Note the monuments erected to commemorate the
services of those citizens, who either locally in the town, or in the
Government in London, or in the parts of the Empire beyond the seas,
have deserved well of people and King.

One thing more remains to be considered. We have seen something of
the metropolis, something of the rural districts, the small country
towns, the fishing ports, and the great industrial towns. But, in
these days, the whole land of Britain is knit closely into a single
community by the facts that the greater part of its food and raw
material for manufacture must be distributed from the seaports,
that modern means of communication have so reduced space within the
islands that almost every village has a telegraph office, and that
the extreme ends of the island are not more than 24 hours apart by
express train. Let us look at a few aspects of these most recent
developments.

[Sidenote: 39. Corn Mill, exterior.]

[Sidenote: 40. Corn Mill, interior.]

[Sidenote: 41. Packing Biscuits at Reading.]

[Sidenote: 42. Locomotive Engine, Great Western Railway.]

[Sidenote: 43. Four-line Track with London and North Western Express.]

[Sidenote: 44. In a Travelling Post Office.]

Here is a large corn mill, and here the interior of such a mill. The
grain is lifted from the importing ship and carried on these straps,
running on rollers, to the place where it is to be stored. And here
is a scene of interest to all Britons who go to the remoter frontiers
of the Empire. It represents the packing of biscuits in tin boxes
for export. The food having been imported is carried into all the
land by railways. The British railways are, of course, relatively
short, but run through dense populations, and are probably the most
efficient in the world. Here is a recent express engine capable of
hauling a passenger train without stopping for 300 miles. Next we see
such an express running on a four-line track and picking up water for
its boiler from troughs laid between the rails. Time is very valuable
in Britain. Here, as an instance, is the interior of a travelling
post office, which runs on express trains. The letters are sorted on
the road, and the mail bags thrown out and caught up at fixed points
while the train runs.

[Sidenote: 45. The Forth Bridge.]

Perhaps the grandest feat of engineering in connection with the
British railways is the Forth Bridge. See how small the houses appear
when compared with it.

[Sidenote: 46. Electric Power Station, Chelsea.]

[Sidenote: 47. Electric Train on Metropolitan District Railway.]

But another revolution in all the conditions of British life is
now preparing. Electricity is being used to distribute power from
great fixed engines, and locomotive steam engines have already
been displaced on the shorter lines. Here is part of the interior
of the largest power station in the world, where is generated the
electricity for four railways which traverse London. This is the
boiler house, with automatic stokers. And last we have an electric
train. You note the absence of a locomotive.

Thus we see how the 43 million people of Britain co-operate in a
single vast complex machine. But we must remember that it is not only
the present generation which has made Britain such as we see it, but
many millions in the past, the results of whose work we of to-day
have inherited.

                            LECTURE VII.

                     THE DEFENCES OF THE EMPIRE.

Though we are so many miles away, I think you will agree that in the
past six Lectures we have seen something of the two islands which are
the centre of the British Empire. These islands are interesting to us
because the great Empire of which we are a part has grown from them.
Let us devote this last Lecture to the Empire as a whole. Let us
learn how it is held together, and how it is defended, so that there
may be peace and justice in all its parts.

[Sidenote: 1. Map of Empire with Naval Bases.]

In this map we see once more that the British Empire consists of a
large number of separate lands scattered over the world. We have
first of all the two British Islands set in the sea off the coast
of Europe. They are separated by water from the military powers of
Europe, and have no land frontier over which invasion may come. Then
we have in North America the great Dominion of Canada, encompassed
on the east and north and on most of the west by the ocean, with
land frontiers only towards the United States. Next we have the
Australasian Colonies, all of them islands, as in the case of the
Mother Country. There are four considerable islands in the South
Seas--Australia, Tasmania, and the North Island and the South Island
of New Zealand. Crossing the Indian Ocean we come to South Africa,
with water on three sides. Although South Africa appears to be
neighboured by other States on the north, yet it is wholly different
from India or Canada, or one of the great powers of Europe, because
the adjacent territories are only thinly peopled, mainly by savages.
South Africa is, therefore, isolated almost as effectively as is
Australia. Then we come to India with ocean to the south-east and to
the south-west, with the bleak tableland of Tibet to the north-east,
and with accessible neighbours only to the north-west. Even Egypt
and the Soudan, which appear to have great lengths of land frontier,
are in effect detached by the desert, and hardly less secure than
if they were surrounded by water. Lastly, we have on either side
of the Atlantic West Africa and the West India colonies. These are
the larger lands which form the British Empire, or are protected by
it. In addition, there are many islands--some of them wealthy and
important out of all proportion to their size, because they are trade
centres or are covered with tropical plantations.

[Sidenote: 2. The Cables of the Indian Ocean.]

But the mere enumeration of the lands of the British Empire gives
little idea of what that Empire really is. All these lands, severed
by ocean and mountain and desert, would be separate countries were
they not tied together by some 9,000 steamers and many thousand miles
of submarine electric cable. Therefore, the steamers upon the ocean
and the cables upon the bed of the ocean must be counted as important
elements in the material fabric of the Empire. It is they, and they
alone, which give it unity.

Now it is clear that for practical purposes the British Empire has
only two land frontiers--the one on the north-west of India, the
other on the south of Canada. It is therefore obvious that an attack
upon any other part of the Empire must be conducted over the water.
Even if there were attack upon the land frontiers, the enemy would
undoubtedly operate also upon the ocean for the purpose of breaking
the communications between the different parts of the Empire. He
would seek to destroy the steamers and cables, so that one part of
the Empire might not send help to another part. The first interest,
therefore, of every section of the British Empire, is that there
should be peace upon the ocean, so that the steamers may ply
regularly and that the cables may not be disturbed. If the British
Navy were defeated, the Empire could no longer exist.

Do you remember the map which was shown early in the first lecture,
giving the lands of the world in black so that they might contrast
with the blue sea? And do you remember that the object of that map
was to prove that all the lands of the world, even the greatest
continents, are surrounded by the ocean, and are in reality islands?
The ocean, therefore, is a single vast sheet of water covering
three-quarters of the globe. A squadron of ships can in a voyage of
about a month go to any point on the coasts of the world. Clearly
then one Navy will suffice for the sea defence of every land in the
British Empire, for if the enemy’s fleet is attacking one part, a
British fleet can go to that part, sure that the opponent fleet
is not in any other part of the world. But if the enemy divided
his fleet then the British fleet can be divided to meet him. The
battleships of Britain are moving fortresses, which can be carried
over three-quarters of the world instead of being fixed at a single
point as they would be if they were on land.

I need hardly remind you, however, that a ship can only keep the
sea while it has coal and food. Therefore, although one Navy is
enough--providing it be strong--for the defence of every part of the
British Empire, yet it is essential that wherever a British fleet
may go it should find at no great distance British ports ready from
time to time to equip it afresh. It is in Britain’s power in one
short month to send a great fleet of battleships to any part of
the ocean where they may be required. They would arrive ready for
action, because at each stage of their journey there would be British
harbours to replenish their stores and to make good defects. On the
direct route to India, for instance, we have Gibraltar, Malta, and
Aden. On the alternative route, round the Cape of Good Hope, are
Sierra Leone, Ascension, St. Helena, Simonstown, and Mauritius.
Therefore, while the Navy defends all parts of the Empire, each part
has also a duty to the Navy.

The most necessary lesson to learn in regard to the sea power of
Britain is that even though no battle fleet should during long years
visit our own waters, yet our commerce and our peace depend upon the
Navy. Owing to the British sea power Hong Kong, for instance, now
stands fourth among all the ports of the world in the tonnage of its
shipping. It is solely because the battleships of the world, except
those of our ally, Japan, are at present in western waters that the
British battleships are concentrated there to watch them.

Do you realise the economy of the British Empire? One Navy defends
one-fifth of all the lands on the globe. Were India and Canada and
Australia and South Africa separate states, each must maintain a
navy, and the navy of each would be useless unless it were strong
enough to contend with the other great navies of the world. Even
the resources of India would not suffice to maintain a great fleet
without very heavy taxation. Indian security and prosperity are at
present wholly in the keeping of the British Navy.

[Sidenote: 3. First-Class Battleship, H.M.S. “Dreadnought.”]

Let us consider that Navy for a few moments as it exists at the
present time. It consists in the first place of battleships, each
bearing a few powerful guns. The ship is partly clad in steel
armour to resist hostile shot. The guns can fire with accuracy to a
distance of several miles. The crew numbers some 800 skilled men. The
engines have the strength of 20,000 horses. The whole vast fortress,
with her regiment of men, can be propelled over the ocean at the
rate of 20 miles an hour. It is clear, however, that the strongest
battleship afloat would run the risk of defeat if she were attacked
simultaneously by several hostile battleships. Therefore, the British
battleships move in squadrons of six or eight, and to ensure victory
these squadrons are grouped in fleets, and all the battle-fleets
of the British Navy are now gathered in Atlantic and Mediterranean
waters, because it happens that just now all other battle-fleets but
that of our ally are collected in those waters. This is the reason
why the British battleships are not distributed--here a ship and
there a ship--over all the world, but are gathered together in one
part. Should occasion require it, they can go together to any other
part. Those, therefore, who ask that battleships should be sent, a
few here and a few there, to defend every threatened port, do not
know the first principle of success in war. If you divide your force,
even a small fleet--if very efficient--might defeat you by fighting
each of your divisions in turn. In war you must concentrate to win.

[Sidenote: 4. First-Class Cruiser. H.M.S. “Carnarvon.”]

So much for the battleship. But here is a ship appearing as large
and important as any battleship. It is a first-class armoured
cruiser. Her engines are, it anything, even more powerful than those
of a battleship. She carries more coal and can keep the sea for a
longer time without returning to port, but her guns are not quite
so powerful as those of a battleship, nor is her armour quite so
thick. There are other cruisers, somewhat less powerful than armoured
cruisers, which are said to be protected, because they carry less
defence against shot, and there are still others known as scouts,
whose name reveals their special purpose. Now what is the object of
these cruisers? This is an important question, because the British
Navy contains more cruisers of one kind and another than battleships,
and yet victory in battle is determined by strength of battleships
more than of cruisers. The first object of a cruiser is to obtain
intelligence for the battleships. Although a battleship can move
fast, yet she cannot move so fast as ships that have not to bear such
vast weights. The cruisers find out for the battleships what is going
on in seas around, and whether the enemy is near. Of course they must
be prepared to fight the enemy’s cruisers, and to prevent them from
approaching to gain information for their own admiral. In these days
cruisers communicate with the battle-fleets by wireless telegraphy,
and by acting together, so that a message is taken up and passed on
by successive ships, an immense area of sea may be covered, and even
the distant position of the enemy’s fleet may be ascertained.

But the cruisers have also another function, which is to defend
commerce. Here again you must not measure the protection given to our
commerce by the frequency with which you see our cruisers. In time
of war it would not as a rule be the duty of cruisers to accompany
or, as a phrase is, to convoy our merchant ships from port to port.
You will remember that we have 9,000 ocean-going steamers, and we
should have to build an immense and costly fleet of cruisers, if we
were going to protect them all by the method of convoy. Let us try to
understand the action of cruisers by comparing them to policemen upon
the land. In almost every community there are a certain number of
thieves, who from time to time break into houses and steal, but we do
not protect our houses by having a policeman always on guard in each.
Our method is to detect the thieves and to arrest them. In other
words, our aim is not so much to defend our houses from robbery, as
to remove the thieves from society. Precisely in the same way our
cruisers would not so much defend our merchantmen, as hunt down and
destroy the cruisers of the enemy who broke the peace of the ocean.
Our aim would be so to clear the water of hostile cruisers that our
liners might steam with the same regularity and certainty in time of
war as in time of peace.

[Sidenote: 5. First-class Destroyer. H.M.S. “Derwent.”]

[Sidenote: 6. Submarine Boat passing the “Victory.”]

Battles at sea are won by the use of battleships to fight and of
cruisers to give information and to prevent the enemy from gaining
information. But near the coast, and even on the high seas when the
larger ships have been injured, there is scope for smaller vessels,
which launch torpedoes against the enemy. Some of these vessels float
on the surface and are known as destroyers. They move with great
speed so as to avoid the enemy’s shot, and their best opportunity is
by night or in thick weather. Others dive below the surface and are
known as submarines. They seek to avoid the enemy by passing out of
his sight, and might thus deliver an attack by day.

Now these are the parts of a fleet. The battleships which do the
serious fighting, the cruisers which cover the battleships, and
the torpedo craft which are used to complete the destruction of an
enemy’s fleet or to defend narrow and difficult waters, where ships
cannot move with speed and freedom.

We need not think, however, that a fleet must always fight. If it
were strong enough, the enemy would not risk a battle, but would take
refuge in his harbours. It would be the duty of a British fleet to
watch these harbours closely in order to attack the enemy at once if
he came out. Our commerce could then proceed peacefully, because the
enemy would have no ships in position to attack it. So you see that a
strong Navy makes for peace, whereas a weak Navy challenges to battle.

Before we leave this picture of a submarine let us note alongside
the old sailing battleship, Nelson’s “Victory.” You see the three
white stripes along her sides, each pierced by many portholes. In
the time of Nelson there was a gun in each porthole, so that the old
battleship sailed upon the wind and fought with many small guns.

[Sidenote: 7. Collier shipping Coal at Cardiff.]

Nowadays a fleet moves by steam and consumes much coal. The best coal
for fighting purposes is that which gives little smoke, and thus
does not reveal a fleet to the enemy or obscure tactical signalling.
Nearly all the smokeless coal of the world is got from South Wales in
the British Islands. Here is a steam collier shipping such coal at
the port of Cardiff. This vessel carries about 2,300 tons of coal,
and can be loaded in two hours. Each of the four tips which you see
is capable of shipping a 10-ton waggon every minute, so that the
ship receives 40 tons a minute. One of our great fleets, such as the
Mediterranean Fleet consumes about a shipload of coal every day. Thus
you realise of what significance would be coaling stations of the
Indian Ocean should it ever again be necessary to send a battle-fleet
into our waters.

[Sidenote: 8. Quarter-deck of H.M.S. “Majestic” showing 12-inch guns.]

[Sidenote: 9. Six-gun in action.]

[Sidenote: 10. The same.]

[Sidenote: 11. Gun in action (Marines.)]

[Sidenote: 12. Hoisting projectiles.]

Now let us go quickly through a few typical scenes on a man-of-war
and let us learn something of the life of the sailors who navigate
and fight her. This is the quarter-deck of His Majesty’s Ship,
“Majestic.” The two guns which you see have a bore 12 inches in
diameter. Here is a 6-inch quick firing gun with her crew in battle
position. Do you see the men to the left who are hoisting the
ammunition from the depths of the ship? Here is a nearer view of
the same gun. And here yet another with the gun’s crew, this time
not of bluejackets, but of marines. Every large man-of-war carries
a certain number of men trained to act as soldiers who are called
marines. These help to fight her guns and are sent ashore should it
be necessary to land a force to deal with some local difficulty. Here
we have yet another scene on deck where seamen, or bluejackets as
they are called, are hoisting ammunition from the magazine.

[Sidenote: 13. Officers of H.M.S. “Fawn” in oilskins.]

[Sidenote: 14. Lieutenant of H.M.S. “Fawn” in lammy suit.]

[Sidenote: 15. Cleaning arms, H.M.S. “Diadem.”]

[Sidenote: 16. Morning Prayer.]

[Sidenote: 17. Sub-Lieutenants at Field-Gun Drill.]

Men-of-war are built of steel. They are moved by coal and steam,
and their guns fire armour-piercing projectiles and shells filled
with high explosives. But there is one other substance essential
to a fleet, and that is brain. A gun, however powerful, is useless
unless the gunner aims with accuracy. A ship, however speedy, is
comparatively useless unless handled with skill. A fleet, however
numerous, may be defeated unless controlled by a good admiral.
Therefore the greatest importance is attached in the British Navy to
the efficiency of the men and the officers. It takes several years to
make a seaman, and a bluejacket serves for no less than 12 years,
but it takes longer to make an officer. He begins to learn as a boy,
and he is always afterwards learning. He is taught by his seniors in
the service. Therefore you will understand that no nation can build
up an effective navy very quickly. For, in the first instance, it
has no officers to teach those who come after. Even at the end of
several years it could only have a few officers of skill. So you will
understand that it has taken several generations to train the great
service to which the naval officers of Britain belong. Here are four
of them in their waterproofs on a wet or rough day. Here is another
in thick clothing for a colder day. Here, to the left of the picture,
is a warrant officer superintending his men while they clean their
rifles. And here, to give you an idea of the comradeship of the men
who spend their lives together in the small space of a ship and in
the presence of danger, is a scene on deck when the ship’s crew are
mustered for morning prayer. One last slide and we must turn from the
navy to the army. Here are some sub-lieutenants at field-gun drill
upon the land. It often happens that our ships must send men ashore
to fight in our land wars, because, naturally, our men-of-war are
very frequently first on the spot, and if the enemy does not threaten
a sea-fight, the sailors are free to defend or to attack before the
soldiers arrive. You may, perhaps, remember that in the South African
war there was a naval brigade at the defence of Ladysmith.

If you have followed me thus far, I think that you will have little
difficulty in understanding the part in the defence of the Empire
which has to be played by our land forces. If you have fully realised
the necessity for concentrating battleships into great fleets, and
for using cruisers boldly to hunt down the commerce destroyers of the
enemy, you will have learnt that incidentally most of the shores of
the Empire are at times laid open, perhaps not to invasion in force,
but at least to raids by hostile cruisers and small military forces
escorted by them. It would be very costly to tie adequate fleets to
every threatened point. In nine cases out of ten the whole war would
go by, and the enemy would never come into the neighbourhood of such
a tied force. Moreover, defeat in the crucial battle would be risked
in this attempt to give to every commercial centre the protection for
which in panic it cried out.

[Sidenote: 18. Cape Town.]

The alternative is to free the fleet for its proper purpose of
attacking the enemy and clearing him from the ocean, by providing
such land forces in each locality as shall suffice to deal with
any likely attack. More especially is it needful to protect the
coaling and refitting stations of the fleet, in order that in each
sea the ships may find the refreshment they require, and may not
have to return to distant ports while the enemy’s cruisers are left
unwatched. Here, for instance, is Cape Town, a quite likely refuge
for our damaged ships in certain contingencies. It might happen,
though it is not very probable, that Cape Town should be seized by a
hostile raiding force, whose aim was to injure the trade going round
the Cape to Australia and New Zealand. Now it is clear that if a
British cruiser squadron had to watch the Cape it could not hunt for
the enemy’s cruisers in the adjoining ocean. In time of war it might
therefore be needful, under certain circumstances, to maintain in
Cape Town and its neighbourhood such a land force as would suffice to
deny the Cape harbours to the enemy. This is called the local defence
of the Empire.

[Sidenote: 19. New South Wales Lancers.]

[Sidenote: 20. Royal Canadian Artillery.]

[Sidenote: 21. A Bengal Lancer.]

[Sidenote: 22. Madras Lancers.]

[Sidenote: 23. Bombay Artilleryman.]

[Sidenote: 24. A Goorkha.]

In various parts of British Territory we find local armies intended
for the purpose here described. In this slide, for instance, we have
a troop of New South Wales Lancers, as typical of the Australian
Forces of the King. In the next is a battery of Canadian Artillery
passing through a street in Ottawa when the winter snow is on the
ground. Then we come to the great Indian Army. It is composed,
as you know, of soldiers of many different races--of Englishmen
and Scotchmen, who used formerly to fight with one another in
the British Isles--and of such peoples as the Marathas and the
Mohammedans, who used formerly to fight with one another in India.
All are now combined for the defence of the Empire, so that there
may be peace and order from the Himalayas to the ocean. Here we have
a Bengal Lancer, wearing a medal which he has won in the service
of the Emperor; and here a group of Madras Lancers--as you see by
their stripes non-commissioned officers. Then follows a Bombay
Artilleryman, with a whole row of medals on his breast, a man who has
seen repeated service in the defence of his country. And then again
we have a Goorkha. These four representatives of the Indian Army,
from the east, the south, the west and the north, must suffice to
remind us of the part we play in the great defensive scheme of the
Empire.

[Sidenote: 25. Hong Kong Regiment.]

[Sidenote: 26. Malay States Guides.]

[Sidenote: 27. West India Regiment.]

There are many other local forces in our various lands. Here for
instance are some Sikhs of the Hong Kong Regiment, and then we have
a private of the Malay States Guides. Then, crossing half the world,
from the east to the west, we come to a soldier of the West Indian
Regiment, who serve both in the West Indies and in West Africa.
This man we may note is a sergeant, and he wears the Victoria Cross
for conspicuous courage. The Victoria Cross may be won either by an
officer or a private, a soldier or a sailor, of any race throughout
the world which serves in the Armies or the Navy of our Emperor.

[Sidenote: 28. West African Frontier Force.]

[Sidenote: 29. Soldier of West African Frontier Force.]

[Sidenote: 30. Mounted Infantry in the Kano-Sokoto Expedition, 1903.]

There are other forces in West Africa besides the West Indian
Regiment. Here, for instance, is the Lagos Battalion of the West
African Frontier Force drawn up on the Parade Ground at Lagos. And
here is a soldier of the Gambia Company of the same force. There are
frequent small wars in the wilder parts of the West African Colonies
and Protectorates, one of which, Nigeria, is half as large as India,
though of course not so populous.

Here is a scene typical of the varied difficulties which have to be
met by the very varied army of our King. Mounted Infantry of West
African soldiers, commanded by white officers, have arrived at some
wells, one of which is to be seen at the foot of the officer on the
right. Unfortunately on this occasion a caravan with cattle had
passed and drawn all the water, so that the column had to move on
another 10 or 12 miles. Such are the difficulties to be encountered
on the frontiers of the Empire. It is evident that local men will
meet these difficulties most easily. Each race knows its own land
best. Therefore, while the King has one Navy to defend the whole
Empire, he has many Armies in its different parts. Both the Navy and
the Armies are essential to one another. As long as the Navy keeps
the sea, no great force can invade the British Empire, except on its
two land frontiers. On the other hand, the Navy can only be free to
command the sea if the King’s subjects in each land are prepared to
defend the Naval Bases should it be necessary.

[Sidenote: 31. Map of World showing position of important campaigns
on land since 1660.]

There is one thing more, however, to be added. Battleships and
cruisers can sail over all the ocean, except where covered with
the northern and the southern ice. Three-quarters of the world,
therefore, lies open to them. But battleships and cruisers cannot
sail over the plains and the mountains. It is, hence often necessary,
when the enemy has been defeated at sea, to land a British Army in
order to achieve a given end. In this map each red dot, and you see
how many there are, marks the position of a land campaign fought by
Britain in the last two centuries and a-half. The most striking fact
is that no dot is placed in the British Isles. There were a few small
battles fought in Britain during the first hundred years of this
time, but no great campaigns in the sense that there were British
campaigns on the mainlands of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Had
all the small wars been inserted, some parts of the continents would
have been coloured red all over, for the dots would have joined. Now
I think we may draw this conclusion from the map--that the British
Navy has saved the British Isles from war on land, but that the
British Army has often carried war into the country of its opponents.
The Army is now stationed chiefly in India, because of the Indian
Land Frontier in the north-west, and in the British Isles, but
portions of it are also in Gibraltar, in Malta, in Egypt, in South
Africa, and in other parts.

You will remember, of course, that when we visited London in the
second of these Lectures, we came repeatedly to the names Trafalgar
and Waterloo. Trafalgar was Britain’s culminating victory on the
ocean. It was fought by a fleet of battleships in order to free the
ocean from Britain’s enemies, and to allow her commerce to grow and
her Colonies to have peace, although there was war on the continent
of Europe. The battle of Waterloo was Britain’s great victory on the
land, fought in Europe by her Army and that of her allies ten years
after Trafalgar. The Colonies had peace by reason of Trafalgar, but
Waterloo brought the war to an end.

[Sidenote: 32. Battle of Trafalgar, showing types of ships.]

[Sidenote: 33. Death of Nelson, showing types of sailors.]

[Sidenote: 34. Wellington at Waterloo.]

[Sidenote: 35. Battle of Waterloo, British squares prepared to resist
cavalry.]

[Sidenote: 36. South African Battlefield--soldiers taking cover on
the Veldt.]

[Sidenote: 37. South African Light Horse crossing a River.]

[Sidenote: 38. A Field Battery fording a River.]

[Sidenote: 39. Royal Engineers building a Bridge.]

[Sidenote: 40. Night-Signalling from an Armoured Train.]

[Sidenote: 41. Armoured Train under Fire.]

Let us look for a moment at the kind of Navy and Army which won
these victories. Here is an old print of the Battle of Trafalgar,
showing the sailing ships, and the many guns in their sides. Here
is the copy of a picture of the death of the great Admiral Nelson,
who fell in the moment of victory at Trafalgar, giving his life
for his King. Here next is a picture of Wellington at the battle of
Waterloo. The battles of those days were strangely different from
the battles of our time, for rifles and guns had not then a precise
aim. Here, for instance, are the close ranks of the British infantry,
formed in square at Waterloo. That is Wellington, on horseback,
speaking to them. Now look at the next picture. It is a battle-field
in South Africa. The men do not even stand up; they lie apart from
one another, each taking shelter behind some convenient obstacle. In
this particular case the obstacles are ant-hills, which are frequent
in the veldt of South Africa. Here are other scenes in the South
African War. First we have South African Light Horse crossing a
river; then a field battery fording a river. The uniforms of the men
are not red, as we saw them at Waterloo, but “khaki,” that they may
be indistinguishable from the ground, and may not present a target
for the hostile marksmen. Here are Royal Engineers building a bridge,
with floating pontoons, in the case of a river which is too deep to
be forded. And so we come to scenes in which greater and greater
skill and science are needed and not courage alone. It is for this
reason that preparation is needful, and that the Army must be trained
and maintained during peace. We have, for instance, here an armoured
train on the railway, bearing an electric light, wherewith in the
night-time it searches the ground for opponents, and by throwing the
beam of light on to the clouds, signals to friends in the distance.
Here is the same train under attack.

[Sidenote: 42. Firing big Gun on Land.]

[Sidenote: 43. Cavalry charging at Laing’s Nek.]

In the South African War more powerful guns were employed than ever
before on land. Here is one borrowed from a great cruiser for the
defence of Ladysmith. Here, in contrast, is a charge of cavalry. The
chief function of cavalry is to obtain information, and to screen
the movements of infantry by repelling hostile cavalry. In fact, the
action of cavalry is not very unlike that of cruisers at sea.

There is a splendid side to war. There are occasionally magnificent
scenes in it. There is always room for skill and courage. But it is
none the less horrible. Some people have thought that it might be
possible to carry on government without wars and to maintain no Navy
or Army. Heavy taxation would be avoided and much suffering escaped.
As yet, however, no one has shown how this can be accomplished. The
map of the world which you had before you just now, sprinkled with
red dots, each marking a long campaign and many battles, is evidence
of what Britain has gone through in the defence of her Empire during
the last 250 years. The world changes slowly, and there is at present
no likelihood of wars ceasing. If that be so, the wisest and the most
humane course is to be strong so that enemies may shrink from attack,
and peace may be preserved. It is for this reason that membership of
the British Empire is a high privilege.

[Sidenote: 44. Ambulance at Magersfontein.]

Something, however, may be done to alleviate sufferings in war, and
by agreement among the nations a red cross on a white flag raised on
the battlefield secures the immediate neighbourhood from being aimed
at intentionally, for it indicates that the wounded are collected
there and that the surgeons are at work.

[Sidenote: 45. Troops embarking to go Abroad.]

[Sidenote: 46. Shropshire Light Infantry on Parade.]

[Sidenote: 47. Northumberland Fusiliers on Parade.]

[Sidenote: 48. Black Watch--Types of Men.]

[Sidenote: 49. Royal Artillery--Gun Drill.]

Lastly, let us look for a few moments, as we did in the case of the
Navy, at the daily life of the soldier in peace time. We have him
here leaving England in a trooping steamer for foreign service.
Here is an infantry battalion on parade at home, and here another
battalion with its camp in the background. Next we have some men
of the regiment called the Black Watch. They wear a Scottish
uniform--once the garb of the Highlanders who dwell in those far
northern regions of Britain where, as we saw in the third Lecture,
are still to be found the great red stag and the golden eagle. This
is a group of Artillery at gun drill.

One fact more. The British Army is small among the armies of the
world. The aim of Britain is not to attack any other power, but
merely to defend her Empire. Moreover, Britain can perhaps afford
to have a small army because she has a great fleet. Under ordinary
circumstances she may count on preventing an enemy from invading
most of her territories, in force at any rate, by the help of her
fleet alone. This is the basis of the British Peace. The use to which
Britain puts her strength is to carry the idea of justice, which her
children learn at home, through all the lands whose happiness has, in
the course of history, been entrusted to her.

[Sidenote: 50. Holyrood Palace, with Troops on Parade.]

[Sidenote: 51. Trooping of the Colour.]

[Sidenote: 52. Sailors Marching Past.--Birthday Review.]

[Sidenote: 53. The Emperor-King in Naval Uniform.]

The Army and the Navy, as everything else in the Empire, are
headed by our Emperor-King. For one last moment let us return from
the Empire to Britain itself. Here is one of the King’s Highland
Regiments before his Scottish palace at Holyrood on his birthday.
Here on the same occasion are his Guards in London, and here his
sailors at Portsmouth. For the sake of order, of justice, and of
peace the subjects of the King are loyal, and recognize the duty of
obedience. Here, finally, is our Emperor-King Edward, as Admiral of
the British Fleet.

[Sidenote: 54. The Flag of the British Empire.]

What is the chief lesson we should carry away from these Lectures? Is
it not that the Empire can only be defended as a whole, and with the
full co-operation of all its citizens? Surely then it is the duty of
each of us to uphold the flag and to learn something of the defences
of the Empire, and of the way it should be guarded and its rights and
honour maintained before the world.

      _Waterlow & Sons Limited, Printers, London Wall, London._

                         Transcriber’s Notes

  Inconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling such as
  “battle-field/battlefield” and “hay-stack/hay stack” have been
  maintained.

  Multiple punctuation errors, such as missing periods, have silently
  been corrected.

  Contents: Changed page “22” to page “32”.

  Page 2: Changed “moutains” to “mountains”.

  Page 27: Changed “Pekin” to “Peking”.

  Page 32: Added “a” to “take train”.

  Page 41: Changed “Phillipines” to “Philippines”.

  Page 70: Changed “V irginia” to “Virginia”.

  Page 90: Changed “closelv” to “closely”.

  Page 93: Changed “snores” to “shores”.