It is thus almost impossible, owing to the English superiority, to inflict any serious damage on the blockading fleet on this line, and the only course left is to advance from the Baltic against the north-eastern part of the blockading line.

Here we should have a tolerably secure retreat.

This accentuates once more the supreme importance to us of keeping open, at all costs, the passage through the Sound and the Great Belt.

The command of these straits will not only secure the Baltic basin for us, but also keep open the sally-ports for our offensive operations against the English blockading fleet.
In spite of all the advantages which the extended system of blockade offers to the English, there are two objections against it which are well worth considering from the English point of view.

Firstly, it prejudices the interests of a number of nations whose coasts are washed by the North Sea and the Baltic, since they are included in the blockade; secondly, it compels England to break up her fleet into two or three divisions.
As to the first objection, we have hinted that England will scarcely let herself be hindered in the pursuit of her own advantage by the interests of weaker third parties.