Lord Carnarvon on Thursday brought the whole question of the
defences before the House of Lords, in one of the most annoying speeches we remember to have read. We say annoying, because a full knowledge of the subject, and a curious felicity in putting points, were wasted by reason of the extraordinary range of matter travelled over. Every point in a vast subject was dis- cussed, generally in a sentence well worth studying, till the whole effect was that of a pamphlet of which one retains no impression except that the writer is profoundly dissatisfied, and could pro- bably organize an army if he had the chance. That kind of pamphlet interests men, but does not alter State policy. The one point on which the Earl was constructive instead of cri- tical, was in his outspoken advocacy of a system of defence based on the moral duty of every citizen to undertake some portion of the country's physical as well as pecuniary burdens, and on the economic truth that no disturbance of industry can possibly be equal to the disturbance caused by constantly recurring panic. The speech brought up Lord Northbrook, who answered it by a mass of official details, and the Duke of Cambridge, who took the opportunity of saying he would do as he is bid. All that is not satisfactory.
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