The Naval Estimates, already laid before Parliament, present little subject
for remark. The total is big-12,802,2001., or 1,026,4821. in excess of the estimates of last year. But then the return is big. A strong navy, a channel fleet, naval coast volunteers,' a naval reserve ; 66,100 seamen and 18,000 marines ; on the whole, 84,100 men afloat or in the coastguard service. There are 244 steam-ships in commission ; of these twenty-seven are ships of the line and forty-three steam frigates and corvettes. In other words, we have increased our floating strength of line- of-battle ships, by sixteen, and our strength of frigates and cor- vettes, by seventeen. The number of sailing-ships in commission is 110. We do not, like some of our contemporaries, look with contempt on this element of our force, and we would not dispense with it until the whole of our navy is under steam.
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