TRAFALGAR. The Day We Celebrate.

Free Lance, Volume VI, Issue 277, 21 October 1905, Page 6

TRAFALGAR. The Day We Celebrate.

THE Battle of Trafalgar was fought a hundred years ago, on the 21st of October, 1805. It stopped the conquering Napoleon issuing those medals of his which were struck to commemorate his "march to London" ! It was the victory of a British fleet of thirtythree sail over a Franco-Spanish fleet of forty sail. There have been bigger naval engagements. Britain lost only 1587 men in the battle, but there has been no naval victory that has meant so much to Britain. * • • No fighting man has ever lived so long in the love of his countrymen as Nelson. Even the subsequent great feat of finally crushing the "little corporal" did not raise the Duke of Wellington into so high a plane of esteem as the genius of the sea occupied. Do Britons of the Empire rejoice to-day at the defeat of a brave enemy? We think noit. France is no longer our enemy. The forefathers of the French and British sailors who m England only last month fraternised and rejoiced together m cordial good-fellowship were the tough old sea-dogs who fought hand-to-hand at Trafalgar. • • * Proud as we are of the genius of Nelson, and of the fighting qualities of the ancient, blasphemous, pig-tail-ed tar, our chief matter for congratulation is the ultimate effect the great victory had on the stability of the Empire and the prestige of Britain. Nothing m British history was better calculated to show Britain the necessity for an invincible navy than the battle of Trafalgar, and nothing has demonstrated so well the British ability to blunder through with hard hitting to victory. • • » There isn't any necessity to gloat over those sunken French and Spanish vessels or the number of the slain. It is just as well to remember that France and Spain and Britain are friends to-day, and for Britons to show by no boastfulness of word or deed that she is still mistress of the seas, and it is to be sincerely hoped, for the benefit of

world-strewn Britons, that she may remain so. Every warship sent out of the great docks of Britain is but a link to bind us to peace and not an incitement to war. . # * It behoves us to be so strong that we can assure the peace of the world. It behoves us to be strong in ourselves, and steadfast and antijingo and anti-humbug. The oneeyed, one-armed, delicate little man who saved Britain when Britain most needed it may still be a national hero, for of a surety he it was who gave us the right to call Britain "mistress of the seas." Long- may it be before Britain again grapples with a foe as she did on that distant Trafalgar Day, and may all Britons' celebration of the great event be ever carried out with becoming modesty.