Mr. Stansfeld made a remarkable speech on naval expendi- ture
at Halifax last Monday night. He pointed out that when Sir John Pakington came into office, he immediately, as has been his wont, made a great flourish of trumpets about the neglected state of the Navy, and proceeded to restore the Navy, not by concentrating expenditure on the most scientific and highly- elaborated machines of modern warfare ; but by spending an additional half-million of money beyond the previous Liberal estimates on wooden unarmoured ships, for protecting, as he said, the China and Japan trade,—which ships would be of little or no real use in actual war. The sharp fire of Liberal criticism directed against this policy of increasing so largely the fleet of wooden unarmoured ships had induced Mr. Corry to reduce this parti- cular item of expenditure by nearly 300,000/. in 1868, still leaving it, however, more than 200,000/. beyond the last Liberal estimate. Even as to the armour-plated vessels, far too much had been spent on multiplying old and comparatively passe' types of ship. Mr. Stansfeld dwelt with great force on the necessity, in the case of all businesses involving elaborate machinery, modified each year by new inventions, of keeping as much capital as possible free for the latest improvements, and locking as little as might be up in antiquated forms. It was a most instructive and lucid speech.
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