Unquestionably Sir John Fisher's talk about our great strength and.
our unrivalled resources had the evil result, in the first place, of inclining the Government to take an optimistic view, and to think that they might safely relax our shipbuilding efforts in order to give proof of bona fides when they advocated at the Hague Conference a policy of reduction in naval armaments. When their chief expert so loudly advised optimism, self-confidence, and sleep undis- turbed by bogies and Leagues, it was perhaps not unnatural that they yielded to the temptation. Nor can we altogether censure the Opposition for yielding to the same hypnotic influences. At the moment that the Government were endorsing the plea 'Sleep easy in your beds,' the official watchdogs of the Opposition ought no doubt, according to our Constitutional system, to have been barking their loudest. Unfortunately, however, they came to the conclusion that there was no need to worry ; and when the Standard and other newspapers, including the Spectator, called for greater vigilance, they made no sign, but took the pleasant advice that was tendered to them, not merely in the Guildhall speech, but before and after.
