11 AUGUST 1888, Page 2

More serious still, Liverpool has been captured, and her citizens

forced to pay an indemnity of a million pounds. Of course, the details all sound a little silly ; but still, we believe, with Lord George Hamilton at the Mansion House, that it would be extremely useful if the manoeuvres were made annual. The Admirals learn how to handle fleets, and the ships and guns are tested in a way far more effective than any other that can be devised. The voyage of the `Mersey,' for instance, the ship which was sent from our fleet at Bantry Bay to warn the Lough Swilly ships that the enemy had escaped, was an operation in which the conditions were exactly

those of real war. She and round the West Coast of Ireland, three hundred and twenty miles, against strong north-westerly winds, in less than twenty-four hours.