Government to concur, but almost impossible for it to resist the impulse, and thus a movement initiated by the City of London might end in the rapid accomplishment of measures already devised for the general safety of the country.

V.

PROTECTION OF THE EMPIRE.

Speech of Sir Edward Hamley, on Sir Walter B. Barttelot's motion on going into Supply upon the Army EstiHouse of Commons, Monday, March 5, 1888.

mates.

SIR EDWARD HAMLEY (Birkenhead) said :—It so happens that both the present Resolution and the former one have so much in common with the Memorandum and Report which the Secretary of State for War has laid before the House that they all relate to that most urgent question the defence of the Empire. That brings with it the great advantage that the debate on military subjects, instead of being diffused, and one may say lost, over a vast variety of matters, is directed to a practical end. The Secretary of State for War proposes, after reference to the Report of his Committee, to complete the fortifications of Portsmouth, Plymouth, and the Thames, of Gibraltar and Malta, and of the other coaling stations so

essential to the maintenance of the Empire, and will ask for a sum of £2,200,000 to be specially devoted to these purposes. For my own part, I think that both the House and the country may well be congratulated on the fact that a Secretary of State for War has at length brought forward a specific proposal for the national defences of the country, and has done it in earnest, and in a practical way.

We have been but too much accustomed to see it dealt with in a make-believe fashion. We have heard words of promise uttered to the ear but broken to the hope, never intended, perhaps, to be kept, but meant only as a decent shelving of the question. But now the Secretary of State for War tells the House not only that these matters are urgent and must receive attention, but has also indicated the financial mode of putting his proposal into execution; and that mode, I am happy to say, is not by the illusory means of the army estimates. But I confess that I wish the right hon. gentleman could have seen his way to make a larger and bolder demand, for it would appear to be only necessary to convince the House, as I am sure could be done, that certain measures are absolutely indispensable for the safety of the country, and then it would follow,

as the night the day, that the means for giving them effect to the full extent would be forthcoming. If the House was convinced and would admit that certain measures were indispensable to the safety of the country, and was at the same time to refuse the means of giving effect to those measures, that would argue a degree of unreason which it would be disrespectful to attribute to that Assembly. Of course, in coming to a conclusion the House would wish to put itself in accord with the feeling of the country. But the same might be said of the country as of the House-that if it were convinced that its own safety depended on certain measures, it would certainly press for their immediate execution.

Hitherto the public has been very little acquainted with the matter. It has had no means of informing itself. It is not to be supposed that many persons outside of this House ever see or examine the army estitimates; still less is it to be supposed that if they did they would understand them. They know that we have naval fortresses, but they are only now learning that as fortresses they have become ineffective. They know also we have spent a great deal of money on guns, but they are only beginning to understand that

those weapons have become useless, because they are obsolete. They see that in our Volunteers we have a body of very fine and very zealous men, smartly dressed and carrying a rifle; but the public are only just realising the fact, that the national army is unable to keep the field for a couple of days for want of equipment. They know that in our time no enemy has ever appeared on our coasts, and they are not prone to believe that any ever would appear. They see the nations of the Continent groaning beneath their huge armaments, military and naval, but they are not yet accustomed to connect these in their minds with the idea of danger to England; and as they have the natural disinclination of all subjects in all States to give money for public purposes, they have been exactly in the condition of mind to give ear to those trading politicians who, knowing no more of the state of the case than the people themselves do, have been always ready to persuade them that it is a heinous offence to give money for armaments or defences, and who only look on the relations of the great military Powers with each other, where the indiscretion of an outpost might precipitate a general war, to draw from thence the happy conclusion that