Englishmen are always buying, and, by their own account, never
have anything. We spend 15,000,000/. a year on the Army and cannot find troops for the smallest expedition ; 17,000,0001. a year on the Navy, and have no ironclads ; Heaven knows what on ordnance, and have no guns. At least, Major Anson said so on Tuesday. He showed that the "Woolwich gun," a very good one, was turned out so slowly that our ships were left defenceless, and demanded that the old 61-pounders, of which we have thousands, should be rifled on Major Palliser's plan, which has proved effective. Sir John Pakington said the Palliser gun was so little cheaper than the new one, that he preferred the latter for the 64-pounder, but he would rifle the 32-pounders. By his OW11 showing, he would save 1201. per gun ; but expense is only part of the question, which is mainly one of speed. The Palliser guns could be rifled now. We shall get guns, we suppose, if a war breaks out, as the Americans did, but they will cost their weight in gold—as, indeed, most of our guns have already. We have spent in twenty years just three hundred millions on the Army, and a hundred and fifty millions on the Navy, exclusive of wars, and are a second-class power as to mat4riel, after all. It was time for a new suffrage.
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