Mr. Lindsay's speech, on Wednesday, was of course specially directed
to his favourite topic—the Admiralty; but it shadowed out the line practical reformers must eventually take. They must, one day, demand economy on the old and best definition of the word— full value for every penny spent. Mr. Lindsay urges that the trans- port line has cost the country sixteen millions, and might have been completed for twelve ; but though a committee had advised a reform, and suggested a plan, no reform had been tried, and the plan was shelved. So in the dockyards some vessels cost 121. a ton, and others of the same class 331., and the committee who stated the facts were still unattended to. These charges only accord with a public opinion which must one day make itself felt in a distinct movement, not against expenditure but against waste. Mr. Lindsay is no leader for such a movement, but the first statesman of ability and moderation who moots this question in sincerity, with a clear determination to have a great fleet at its just price, and to dismiss all peculators, even though they have votes, will be carried to power in the teeth of the departthAnts. His arrival, however, will be long retarded if friends of economy like Mr. Lindsay will continue to destroy the effect of their experience by riaipulous assertions about " the expenditure of France upon her army and navy in all its branches not exceeding 5,000,0001." France spends more in bare wages, low as her rates of pay are. The statement, even if it were true, has nothing on earth to do with the cost of services not maintained by conscription ; but erroneous as it is, it will serve to discredit Mr. Lindsay when talking on subjects he knows something about.
