The annual Paper presented to Parliament stating the com- parative
strength of national Fleets shows that Great Britain has by far the strongest Fleet upon the sea. She has forty-eight battleships, including four of the second and two of the third class, eighteen armoured cruisers, and twenty-one less pro- fectly protected, besides no fewer than a hundred and twelve torpedo-boat destroyers. France, which comes next, has twenty-eight battleships, eighteen armoured cruisers, and twenty-one of the protected class, with an immense array of torpedo-boats, but only fourteen torpedo-boat destroyers. We are still ahead of any two Powers, and should only be over- matched by a coalition of Europe. The United States has as yet only eleven battleships, two armoured cruisers, and three protected of the first class; and though she is building fourteen battleships and eleven armoured cruisers, till they are afloat they reveal rather her ambition and potential resources than her actual strength. America is not yet quite as strong as Germany, though by 1903 she will have caught her up. Of course quality, especially in the crews, counts as well as numbers, and Germans habitually boast of their superiority in this respect; but they have not been fairly tried yet, and their crews are composed of conscripts, as opposed to the " mercenary " sailors of Great Britain and America, who are all volunteers.
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