Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill TRAFALGAR SftUAHE AND THE S T E A N D TRAFALGAR SQUARE is the most unmistakably English thing in London. You could not imagine it in any other country, though it is worthy of any country on earth. Exalted upon a column a hundred and forty-five feet in height stands the counterfeit presentment (about three times his normal dimensions) of the man who saved England from invasion by Napoleon and indubitable conquest. The uniformly successful careers of a Marlborough or a Wellington seem tame compared with his, and yet he died " plain " Lord Nelson. There is a kind of pathos in his heroism which, combined with his greatness, sets his monument apart from all other monuments. He seems to be gazing out upon the England he has saved, and upon Westminster in particular, saying, " Build your Dreadnoughts, but don't forget to build your men! " Looking upon the hurrying throngs at this vast cross-roads which is Trafalgar Square, you cannot help feeling that the days of the Drakes and theNelsons are ended for England and, if you are a lover of England, that fact seems mournful to you. It may be an optical illusion to which foreigners are subject, and certainly, when you think of the vast empire now held by English arms you are inclined to doubt your judgment. But Nelson seems to dwarf the entire nation at present. All appear to be bent upon petty pursuits oblivious alike of Nelson or Trafalgar, of Havelock or Lucknow, of Napier and Gordon, of all in this square. Yet the sailors of old were often taken by press-gangs, whereas to-day there are voluntary Territorials (though not enough). Of course there are still Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. But if you look upon England with fresh eyes you cannot help feeling that she has forgotten her greatness. She needs all manner of artifi...