which they have maintained not less than 60,000 men and 20,000 animals for more than two months."

Thus, to come unprepared into the field is, in the end, a bad economy, even if at last we prevail.

To leave the subject of the army, Sir John Burgoyne declares that we must rely upon our fleet. But in what condition is that? Unarmed, unrigged, unmanned. Even if, which we doubt, there exist men to man it, there are no means to get them in anything like fitting speed. We have so ill-treated the sailor, that he has become scarce; and could sailors be found from amongst our merchant ships, they are not gunners, although now the whole thing depends upon the way in which guns are served; whilst the French have later improvements and heavier metal. The Americans first opposed us successfully with a longer range. They riddled us, while we could not touch them with our short carronades. It will be found, now-a-days, that boarding has grown wonderfully out of fashion. Ships will be towed by steamers in and out of range. We gave, in a former number, a sketch of the state of Plymouth. It was before we read the "Defenceless State of Great Britain ;" and we grieve to say that it sadly corresponds with the description given by Sir F. Head. With regard to the style of the next contest between England and France, let us give the following quotation:

"It has been indisputably shown that in the next war naval engagements will not, as formerly, be decided by superior physical strength and courage; but, on the contrary, by superior intellect, that is to say, by superior skill in gunnery, and in the use of muskets, rifles, pistols, and cutlasses; in short, now that steam has rendered a whole fleet independent of wind and sails, and consequently of seamanship, that a shipload of mere brave, old-fashioned rope-hauling sailors will be no more competent to contend against expert naval artillerymen, marksmen

and swordsmen, than a good-humoured heavy Englishman, seated on a platform, would be able to resist, simply by his weight, the force of the lever, pulley, screw, or hydraulic pressure applied beneath him by a diminutive French engineer; and as the next fearful conflict on the ocean between the fleets of France and England must therefore, to a considerable degree, be one of mind against matter, we must now briefly and impartially consider what is the comparative state of preparation of the two countries in this respect."

We wish that we could follow Sir Francis Head further in his inquiry, and also quote some striking passages from Captain Plunkett, R.N., describing raw gunnery and its consequences, as well as many other sad mischances to which we shall be subject. He shows that Englishmen will have to deal with an awful machinery of which they are perfectly ignorant, under the fire of skilled-and practised foes. The French can now, we learn, pour in four broadsides for every one that the crew of Nelson could have fired. "ENGLAND," says Captain Plunkett, EXPECTS EVERY MAN TO DO HIS 'DUTY! Oh! that such a signal should be addressed to men, who never had a chance even of learning it !"

It is notorious, then, that our army is a plaything and our navy a skeleton. It is evident that we must be beaten, if we go to war. We depend therefore upon peace, and peace will not continue. All the wealth of the country three times trebled, cannot put us into a state of defence soon enough to resist, much less prevail; any more than a man, to borrow a figure from Sir Francis, could organize tanks, pipes, hose, engines, and an insurance, in time to save his premises were they in a blaze. No man takes greater pains to insure himself from every possible catastrophe, than John Bull. His care for his wife and children is generous and remarkable. He is a will-making animal and speculative in contingencies. But he cannot see the enormity of this

great neglect. He has a prejudice against a standing army -against expense! Expense! when he is already in the hands of the Jews-when his substance is jobbed on all sides. Expense! when he squanders millions and tens of millions upon every indulgence, folly, and absurdity, and can buy up half the world.

It is an economy, let the Times say what it will, that is a madness without method. It is the act of a man surrounded by wealth and menaced by thieves, who will not purchase even a Birmingham pistol! It is worse than suicide, because it sacrifices posterity!

Let the Ministry RESIGN that dare not propose such measures as are necessary for the bare safety of the nation! Accursed be the popularity sought after at such a price! But the nation does demand safety at their hands. If we have an unconstitutional, demoralized Parliament, whose members are employed in touting for a cheap personal popularity, or for place, at all risks, there are millions who yet demand to be heard.

Should the French land in England, the whole nightmare fabric which weighs on our faculties would dissolve like a vision; and it will be seen how basely the interests of the nation have been tampered with. It is the recklessness of banditti in the palace of the Tuileries, rather than sober legislation. A Debt and an Exhibition! Taxation and Defencelessness! Rapacity, armed with sentiment, rushing upon foreign bayonets! A bastard Free Trade, and the merchant monster of tyrannic growth, begging for peace at the hands of armed millions! Such is the picture that we behold.

All Europe is about to take up arms for Absolutism or Republicanism. Our sympathies are not so hearty in either cause as to interest ourselves in either side, but remain as the

rich prize of the triumphant party, provided we do not previously fall victim to France. In the midst of this the Times (see November 10th) addresses a remonstrance à la Cobden, to the four great powers to lay aside their arms—about as likely to be attended to, as if it appealed to the denizens of the forests in Africa, whose very existence in its late invective against Lieutenant Cumming it was inclined to question.

Once set the great armies of France in motion, and they will never rest until they attack England. Let us ask one question. If war were declared to-morrow, what would not be our amount of panic? Is that a fitting state for England, or for any country, save such a power as the Duchy of Lucca ?

In conclusion, since the winter has set in, and we are thus for a time still in a slight degree protected by the weather, let us seize this last opportunity of putting our-> selves in a state of defence; and, to use a mercantile phrase, let this greatest of all insurances be effected ere it be too late. Let not the broils of the Church, and the twaddle of a design, whose principles are those of folly, ring in our ears and divert us, until the enemy be within our gates. Protect the honour and the women of England! We hope ere long to see such a Public Meeting called together as will sound the alarm from one end of the island to the other. The equipment of a noble Channel Fleet, the exercise of gunners, the encouragement and employment of seamen, a slight increase of our army, the calling out of the militia, and the enrolment and training of volunteer corps, are acts which the present state of the continent and the aspect of our neighbours render neither exaggerated nor unnecessary for the absolute safety of England.

DECEMBER, 1850.

ON FOREIGN LOANS.

Ir is certain that were we at war with another nation, our capitalists would lend money to that nation in preference to their own, did they approve of her security, and could they by so doing obtain the smallest advantage; that is to say, the least fractional superiority of interest in laying out their money. There is indeed, no patriotism, but a great deal of personal sensitiveness in the breeches' pocket! As to fundholders, all good men and true and excellent Britons, they pay for half the iniquities practised over the globe.

"The moral position of a British fundholder," said the Times the other day, "is too delicate a subject for public investigation." The Times is well qualified to afford an opinion upon this subject, and we perfectly subscribe to its dictum.

Now all this is precisely the rotten state of things, which must lead to the destruction of a country. There is no doubt whatever but that the present insolent tone which Russia assumes towards England herself is partly the result of our late loan to that gigantic power; and if at this moment she were to send a fleet of thirty sail of the line to attack us, the sinews of war would have been immediately and directly supplied by this country. Is not this one of the greatest evils of taxation-ay, as great as that which presses upon the poor man, and mingles the sweat of the labourer's brow with the dews of hopeless misery?

A set of men are created, who live here in idleness and gambling, and make national events the results of dirty speculation, without the slightest reference to the honour, peace, and safety of the country they live in. During the last great war, these men encouraged by their voices in and