* * * * Parliament the other day agreed in
about five minutes to a vote of a further Er,000,000,000, to carry on the war for another four months or so, at the present rate of £9,000,000 a day. A comparison with the cost of one of Britain's other great campaigns is not without a certain sobering interest. " William III's war," writes Professor Trevelyan, " had lasted nine years and had cost England an average of £3,500,000 a year. The War of the Spanish Succession was destined to last a dozen years and cost her an average of £4,000,000 a year or more. . . . William's war had run up a National debt of £14,500,000. To this was added another £21,500,000 for Anne's war. So for £4,000,000 a year we got Blenheim, Ramillies and Malplaquet, to say nothing of Gibraltar. It seems reasonably cheap—even if £4,000,000 in Anne's reign represents £10,000,000 or more in George VI's.
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