increased expenditure upon our national armaments. One wonders what Mr. Cobden or Mr. Gladstone would have had to say about these Estimates. But one wonders still more at the fact that hardly a voice is heard in protest from politicians or publicists of any party. The country is certainly not so much richer than it was seven years ago that it can regard with equanimity the vast additions to the national burdens which have been made since then. The increase in the Army Estimates is, however, accepted almost without a murmur as the natural consequence of the exposure of our defective military system which has been brought home to us by the war. As to the Navy Estimates, the country is practically unanimous in its determination that, come what come may, the fleet shall be strong enough to hold its own against any probable combination of adverse Powers. Nothing has been more remarkable in the history of the past month than the extraordinary calmness, one might almost call it apathy, with which these unparalleled Estimates have been received. Is it indeed the case that, having put our hands to the plough, we are resolved on no account to look back? or are we merely moving under the pressure of a blind impulse which will not survive the coming Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ?

Upon one point the House of Commons seems happily to be inspired by a wholesome spirit. It is anxious that the nation should receive full value for its immense expenditure. The brief debates upon the Navy Estimates proved that no one was inclined to take upon himself the responsibility of refusing the supplies asked for, but that on both sides of the House men were anxious to satisfy themselves that the money was to be well spent. It is still a puzzle to most of us how the work of increasing the fleet has been allowed to fall behind during the last four years. Mr. ArnoldForster (whose appearance as an actual administrator instead of a critic has been hailed on all sides with satisfaction) attributes the failure to carry out the programme of successive years to the great struggle in the engineering trade. It may be so; but it is difficult to understand how a disturbance of industrial conditions which only lasted for a few weeks can have affected the progress of our manufactures for a term of several years. Fortunately, the cause, whatever it may be, now seems to have been removed, and we may at least hope that the great shipbuilding programme of the current year will be duly accomplished. On two points connected with the past policy of the Admiralty somewhat disquieting announcements have been made. The first of these

points is the condition of the naval works at Gibraltar. Certain amateurs, among whom Mr. Gibson Bowles occupies a prominent place, have come to the conclusion that a fatal mistake has been made in placing the new docks on the west side of the Rock, where they may be exposed to the fire of batteries on the Spanish mainland.

impossible task. He was called upon by the Cabinet, in obedience to a public demand, to frame a scheme which should furnish a great army that might take the field against the huge forces of the Continent on not unequal terms; and he was at the same time forbidden to look beyond voluntary enlistment for the means of augmenting and recruiting our troops. Cynics declare that the new scheme is one designed to establish one fact, and one only-that is, the impossibility of obtaining a great army by means of voluntary enlistment. The advocates of compulsory military service in one form or another are already crying exultantly, 'Here is the best thing you can get without conscription or the ballot! You see what a poor thing it is; and the chances are that you cannot even get this by voluntary enlistment. Will you not learn the moral?' I leave the discussion of this scheme to experts; but this is, unquestionably, the temper in which it has been received in Parliament and the country. It has still to be discussed in the House of Commons, but the mere fact that it should have been produced is an omen of grave significance.

In the meantime, the Estimates for the two services, which have been duly laid before the House of Commons, illustrate both the gravity of the times in which we live and the prevailing tendency of opinion among the governing classes. The Estimates have attained proportions which all must admit to be colossal, and which some describe as appalling. Putting aside the question of war expenditure, which figures for a sum, speaking roundly, of 60 millions, the regular charge for the Army, in the new Estimates, amounts to more than 27 millions. The Navy Estimates attain the still higher net total of 31 millions. Additions for permanent works raise the Estimates for the Army to 31 millions, and for the Navy to 33 millions. We are thus committed to an expenditure upon the two services for the current year of 64 millions, not a penny of this enormous sum being directly due to the war. It is easy to understand the feeling with which economists of the old school regard such figures as these. The outcry against bloated armaments' was at its loudest when the expenditure upon the Army and Navy was barely one-half of the present amount. To-day we have to face Estimates the like of which have never been seen, never even dreamed of, before. And in what temper do the people of Great Britain contemplate this enormous expenditure, for which they will have to provide from their own pockets? It is a temper, as Mr. Robertson remarked in the House of Commons, of absolute indifference.Bedlam ought to be enlarged' was the commentary of a great statesman of the past, when he heard that the House of Commons and the Liberal party had agreed to Naval Estimates which were smaller by some 14 millions than those of to-day. That was an explosion of the old feeling of passionate resentment against

One wonders

increased expenditure upon our national armaments. what Mr. Cobden or Mr. Gladstone would have had to say about these Estimates. But one wonders still more at the fact that hardly a voice is heard in protest from politicians or publicists of any party. The country is certainly not so much richer than it was seven years ago that it can regard with equanimity the vast additions to the national burdens which have been made since then. The increase in the Army Estimates is, however, accepted almost without a murmur as the natural consequence of the exposure of our defective military system which has been brought home to us by the war. As to the Navy Estimates, the country is practically unanimous in its determination that, come what come may, the fleet shall be strong enough to hold its own against any probable combination of adverse Powers. Nothing has been more remarkable in the history of the past month than the extraordinary calmness, one might almost call it apathy, with which these unparalleled Estimates have been received. Is it indeed the case that, having put our hands to the plough, we are resolved on no account to look back? or are we merely moving under the pressure of a blind impulse which will not survive the coming Budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer ?

0;

Upon one point the House of Commons seems happily to be inspired by a wholesome spirit. It is anxious that the nation should receive full value for its immense expenditure. The brief debates upon the Navy Estimates proved that no one was inclined to take upon himself the responsibility of refusing the supplies asked for, but that on both sides of the House men were anxious to satisfy themselves that the money was to be well spent. It is still a puzzle to most of us how the work of increasing the fleet has been allowed to fall behind during the last four years. Mr. ArnoldForster (whose appearance as an actual administrator instead of a critic has been hailed on all sides with satisfaction) attributes the failure to carry out the programme of successive years to the great struggle in the engineering trade. It may be So but it is difficult to understand how a disturbance of industrial conditions which only lasted for a few weeks can have affected the progress of our manufactures for a term of several years. Fortunately, the cause, whatever it may be, now seems to have been removed, and we may at least hope that the great shipbuilding programme of the current year will be duly accomplished. On two points connected with the past policy of the Admiralty somewhat disquieting announcements have been made. The first of these points is the condition of the naval works at Gibraltar. Certain amateurs, among whom Mr. Gibson Bowles occupies a prominent place, have come to the conclusion that a fatal mistake has been made in placing the new docks on the west side of the Rock, where they may be exposed to the fire of batteries on the Spanish mainland.

Their contention is that the east side should have been chosen, and they have induced the Government to consent to the appointment of a small committee to report upon the subject. It seems rather late in the day to re-open the question of the site of works which are now approaching completion, and upon which a very large sum of money has already been expended. The present site was chosen after long deliberation and the most exhaustive investigations on the spot by officers of authority and eminence. It is more than probable that the new inquiry will simply confirm the decision arrived at by the Board of 1894. But the British public have a sentimental affection for the wonderfully picturesque fortress which seems to guard the entrance to the Mediterranean that makes them extremely sensitive to any question affecting its security, and we shall probably see a battle raged over the Gibraltar docks akin to that which has been carried on over the Belleville boilers. It is the efficiency of these boilers which furnishes the second point in regard to naval policy about which some uneasiness has been shown. The Secretary to the Admiralty has announced that in consequence of a report from a committee of experts the adoption of the Belleville boilers in new ships is to be abandoned; they are, however, to be retained in the ships already afloat or under construction. The intimation is undoubtedly disquieting, but there appears to be no reason for the panic into which some critics of naval matters seem to have fallen. The fact that the Belleville boilers are employed in the French Navy and that they were unquestionably the best type of water-tube boilers existing at the time of their adoption by our own Admiralty, should satisfy us that, even though they may now be superseded by improved types, no mistake was made when they were originally selected. One other matter connected with the Naval Estimates must not be allowed to pass without mention. After long deliberation the Admiralty have at last resolved to add to our fleet a certain number of those submarine vessels regarding the possible usefulness of which so wide a diversity of opinion prevails. In taking this step the Government have unquestionably yielded to the pressure of public opinion. The submarine boat may only be in the experimental stage; but the experiment is one which the British Navy cannot afford to leave untried.

With the exception of certain rather remarkable attempts at temperance legislation which have been made in both Houses of Parliament during the month, there is little in the other proceedings of the Legislature to call for notice, except those which have reference to the grave subject I have already mentioned-the decline in the popularity and influence of the House of Commons. The action of certain of the Irish members on the 5th of March in refusing to leave the House when a division had been called, led to one of the most lamentable scenes ever witnessed in Parliament. The members in

question, although repeatedly ordered by the Speaker to retire to the division lobbies, refused to do so. As a consequence, a body of police was brought into the House and the disobedient members expelled by force. The spectacle of policemer invading the sacred floor of Parliament and ejecting the representatives of the people in the fashion in which drunken men are expelled from public-houses is one that might well cause a shudder of horror and indignation to any Parliamentarian of the old school. But even this deplorable incident does not seem to have caused any deep emotion in the public mind. This, no doubt, may be attributed in part to the offensive folly of the members who provoked the scene. New, for the most part, to the House of Commons, and eager to prove that they looked upon themselves as aliens in a hostile Parliament, they had no regard for those traditions to which very few even of Irish agitators have in the past been wholly indifferent. They were reckless in provoking the fate which overtook them, and, so far as they themselves were concerned, the verdict of the public was one of 'served them right.' But it is impossible to recall this shameful episode in the history of the House of Commons without a feeling of deep disquietude. That 'the mighty mother of free Parliaments' should have been placed, under any circumstances, at the mercy of a posse of constables, is indeed one of the most painful incidents in its story. That both members themselves and the country at large should have accepted the incident almost as a matter of course, shows how great is, for the moment, the decline in popularity and influence of a Representative Chamber which was once regarded by the whole civilised world with unfeigned reverence. Nor is it to the action of the Irish members only that this decline is to be attributed. Parliament is always

strong enough to guard its dignity and its authority against the encroachments of an isolated band of agitators, and though fresh repressive measures against mere obstruction are always to be regretted, when they are clearly called for, as in the present case, the House does not hesitate to adopt them.

But the steady and swift decline in the influence of the Representative Chamber is due to more insidious and deadly causes than the turbulent obstructiveness of a few members from Ireland. Many men on both sides of the House openly attribute this decline to errors in its leadership. Mr. Balfour has many admirable qualities, and no one will dispute his right to be considered one of the foremost personalities in our public life. But from causes which are not so clearly apparent to outside observers as they must be to his fellowmembers in the House of Commons, he is certainly not so fortunate as many men of greatly inferior talent have been in his attempts to lead that House. Slight lapses of memory, a momentary neglect of some old usage, temporary absence from the Treasury bench at a time when the leader ought to have been there, a neglect of ordinary