RAID OR INVASION?—A. FRENCH OPINION. [To THE EDITOR or Tut
"SPECTATOR.] Snc,—There is a statement in the Spectator of April 20th (p. 623, col. 1) which must appear quite startling to many of your readers. It is this:- " What is obvious [please let me italicise 'obvious') is that the well-argued opinion of a critic like M. Fontin is of infinitely more importance [again I ask permission to italicise] than the more ipso dirit of a mixed Committee of English officers and gentlemen, however eminent, who carry their belief in their own infallibility so far as positively to forbid the presupposition in an imaginary
• General Idea' at a Staff Ride of the disembarkation of more than five thousand raiders !"
The author of this portentous sentence puts at the end of it a note of admiration, and well he may. Will he or you kindly tell us who M. Fontin is ? Has he any military experience, or what, in the particular case discussed in your columns, is of even more importance, has lie any naval experience ? If he has the latter, it must be of a quite unique character, because be suggests that the frequency of fogs would be favourable to the voyage in narrow waters of a hastily collected fleet of transports which had never navigated in company before. M. Fontin may be—the writer in your columns evidently thinks that he is—a divinely inspired authority on naval and military operations of the most important class. Then do, by all means, give us a sight of his credentials. The persons whose opinions are considered by your contributor as naught by the side of M. Fontin's are, after all, responsible British officers of considerable experience, formulating their con- clusions on matters with which it is the special province of members of the Services to which they belong to deal. To pass over these conclusions lightly, as being valueless in comparison with'those published by a foreign and irresponsible writer of absolutely unknown authority, looks very like a symptom of degeneration. There is very likely something revolting in the silly chatter of our own extremists of the "dinghy school." It would seem, judging from your con- tributor's account of his book, that M. Fontin runs them very
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