Mr. W. H. Smith, at Newport on Wednesday, repeated in
a grave way, and without any exhibition of party feeling, his caution about the Navy. He believed half our food and half our trade depended upon our free transit across the oceans, and doubted, if that were lost, if the Kingdom could maintain more than a fourth of its population. We were not at present pre- pared fully to maintain it. We had nine squadrons afloat in different parts of the world, and they would in war time all need reinforcements, which it might be difficult to send. More- over, the speed of merchant-steamers could never be more than eight or nine miles an hour, if they were to earn a profit, and they would be snapped up by the fast cruisers of the enemy. It would be necessary to send out fast cruisers of our own, and we did not possess them in sufficient numbers. This, though it looks sensible, is a little vague. The merchant- steam era, if they are threatened, are not required to increase their speed for the whole voyage, but only for a few hours; and the Admiralty, if it can improvise nothing else, can improvise swift cruisers. The Government should be well provided, neverthe- less; but the danger on this side is not sufficient to justify a scare. The real blow to trade in the event of a Naval war would be the sudden rise in the rate of marine insurance, which would become for a time pure gambling.
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