A rather unprofitable discussion took place on the Navy Esti-
mates in Committee on Tuesday, Sir James Elphinstone leading the attack on Mr. Goschen in a speech which began with the allegation that, as we have no vessels fit to protect our foreign trade, and get 45 per cent, of our corn from abroad, we must be starved in the event of a war, and which ended with a panegyric on Trotman's anchor and a denunciation of the Devastation. Lord H. Lennox made the one serious motion of the evening (and withdrew),—that the sum necessary for the commencement of the new mastless turret-ship of the Fury type should be struck out of Vote 6, on the score that it would 1,0 better to' build a full rigged cruising ironclad. F Naval affairs, the loss of Mr. Corry to the Cons...rye/rave side becomes more and more manifest. If Le had ever taken the line that fault is- to be found with the Admiralty for not building a ship on the scale of the Peter the Great, he would not have been so absurdly inconsistent as to urge the course of desisting from strengthening the Navy in ships of that particular character, at a moment, too, when the testing experiments concerning the Devastation are pend- ing, and so far proceeding with complete success. She has crossed the Irish Sea with apparently as much ease as the Holyhead boat, and is now waiting to try her fate with the rough weather that is seldom long wanting off the coast of Cork.
Previous page
