Mr. Balfour went on to show how the risks from
accidents were now much greater than before owing to the necessity for putting, as it were, so many eggs into one basket. He remarked, too, that we are no longer able to build our ships quicker than other Powers. The necessity for shipbuilding was patent to every one, and yet there were slips on which no ships were being built, both in private and national dockyards. Mr. Balfour concluded his speech by declaring that this com- parative equality, this possible inferiority, must be cured completely, immediately, and at all hazards. " No pedantries of finance ought to allow us to stand in the way of carrying out a policy upon which our whole finance depends." It was clear that we could not do it out of the finance of the year ; we must do it out of borrowed money,—"for do it we must." We are in complete agreement with Mr. Balfour, and in a special degree when he points out that we ought to make use of all the powers of production which we possess to strengthen the Navy. To neglect to do this is most unwise. No irre- parable harm is done by being over-prepared; to be under- prepared is utter ruin.
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