10 MARCH 1888, Page 2

The House of Commons has had two debates this week

upon the Army Estimates, one on Monday and one on Thursday, in the second of which Lord Randolph Churchill compared the results obtained in England and Germany for the same money, —a most misleading illustration. We have said perhaps enough of these debates elsewhere, but may mention here that the form of what was virtually a vote of censure was a motion for a Commission of Inquiry into Armaments. The Government refused this as fatal to the responsibility of the Cabinet, and, indeed, impracticable, as the secret information of those who organise defence could na be revealed, and it was defeated by 268 to 63.