Such an island may be so far self-supporting as to defy any attack but one in great force and numbers, and that would rightly draw to it the whole English force from the windward stations at Barbadoes and Sta.

Lucia.
With the defence thus concentrated, England's great weapon, the navy, should have been vigorously used on the offensive.

Experience has taught that free nations, popular governments, will seldom dare wholly to remove the force that lies between an invader and its shores or capital.

Whatever the military wisdom, therefore, of sending the Channel fleet to seek the enemy before it united, the step may not have been possible.

But at points less vital the attack of the English should have anticipated that of the allies.