at present we can do nothing which might shake the prestige of a Government upon whose stability and strength the integrity of the empire depends." Such a reply would be worthy of practical politicians who looked at the real and the possible, and not at the ideal, in the government of a country; but it is founded upon the supposition that a proposal to increase largely, and with all despatch, the war navy of the country, so as to make it equal to our increased responsibilities, would necessarily render the Government unpopular, and deprive it of some considerable sections of its supporters. Such a supposition we believe to be absolutely erroneous, and to be based upon a misleading estimate of the feelings and aspirations of the country. Increase of taxation is certainly not as a rule popular; but there may be, and we believe there still is, enough national spirit and patriotism left in the country to render it a less unpopular act for a Government to raise the necessary funds, than to deliberately expose the country to the national degradation, and the misery and horrors of starvation, which must inevitably ensue should the British navy be found wanting in the day of trial.
Slowly and steadily, and thanks largely to the untiring efforts of the press, and to a few public meetings, a sound and healthy feeling upon this subject is growing amongst the great rank and file in the country. The mercantile classes are waking up to a sense of the insecurity of their commerce; and having been told by those whose duty it is to provide for the protection of that commerce, that it is extremely doubtful whether we should be able to protect it (in case of a war with a maritime Power), they naturally turn with some anxiety to a study of the political situation on the Continent, in order to see what chance there is of such a war; and they must indeed be of a cheerful and optimistic disposition if that study reassures them. On all sides they see gigantic armaments – not only armaments on land upon a scale which the world has never seen before, but armaments which affect Great Britain far more deeply – armaments by sea: great war navies supplied with all the latest inventions and improvements of science, springing into existence on all sides. They see our two jealous rivals, France and Russia, straining every nerve (regardless of their debts) to build war navies which can certainly not be intended for defence, for nobody threatens them. They see them also building numbers of the swiftest armed cruisers, which can certainly not be intended for the protection of commerce, as their ocean trade is insignificant, and nobody threatens it, – vessels, in short, which can only have one meaning and that is the destruction of the commerce of Great Britain: a commerce which is known to be vital to the existence of the empire.
Naturally they ask, with some concern, what their own rulers are doing to meet these ominous threats; for threats they are, whether we choose to look upon them as such, or only as friendly rivalries. And they are met by the extraordinary assertion, that it is impossible to say beforehand what steps are necessary for the protection of a commerce which covers every sea, and embraces half the carrying trade of the whole world. They are told, also, that extreme caution is necessary in dealing with such a subject (why, does not appear evi-
