First, there have been four attempts made in modern times by Great
Powers on the continent of Europe to seize the overlordship of the
World; and each time the Royal Navy has been the central force that
foiled the attack upon the freedom of mankind. These four attempts
have been made about a century apart from one another. The Spanish
attempt was made at the end of the sixteenth century. The first French
attempt was made by Louis XIV at the end of the seventeenth. The
second French attempt was made by Napoleon at the beginning of the
nineteenth. The German attempt was made at the beginning of the
twentieth. Though alike in the ambitions of their makers, these
attempts were most unlike in the way the wars were carried on; for,
while the Spaniards and Germans were monsters of cruelty, the French
were foemen worthy of the noblest steel.
Secondly, as we shall see in Chapter XVI, the middle of this long
French War was marked by the marvellous growth of the British Empire
under the elder Pitt; a man whose like the world had never seen before
and may not see again; orator, statesman, founder of empire, champion
of freedom, and one of the very few civilians who have ever wielded the
united force of fleets and armies without weakening it by meddling with
the things that warriors alone can do.
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