The Secretary for War on Wednesday made a sanguine little
speech to the Haberdashers' Company. He had that day seen a great deal of the armament of the country, and it had filled him with astonishment and admiration. We had instruments of de- struction such as had never been known before. He had seen a muzzle-loader of eighteen tons, which fired five rounds in seven minutes, three of which went through the target, and which was moved with the greatest facility. He did not say the system of recruiting was perfect except in the Cavalry, but he deprecated exaggerated statements which discouraged intending recruits. He held that England, being attached on all sides to States, civilised or savage, must be ready to take her part whenever trouble arose, and that a policy of isolation was impossible. All that is quite true, but all the same we spend £15,000,000 a year without getting two corps d'armee strong enough to land upon the Continent. What is the use of artillery without infantry ?
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