The Naval Annual, 1886. By Lord Brassey. (J. Griffin and
Co., Portsmouth.)—It is impossible for any person not technically acquainted with the subject to estimate the value of this book. It must be sufficient to state that its object, as stated in the very modest preface, is to "bring together a large amount of information on naval subjects which has hitherto been attainable only by consulting numerous publications, and chiefly from foreign sources." The first chapter is devoted to "General Policy," and contains a handsome tribute to the beneficial influence of the Press, especially of the Pall Mall Gazette, with its awakening, not to say alarming articles, pub- lished in 1884. The following chapter discusses the comparative strength of the Maritime Powers, a subject which is dealt with again in the next, with a special reference to the Naval Estimates of France and England for the current year. We are now spending nearly double as much as France on shipbuilding. Reforms at the Admiralty and in the dockyards, foreign squadrons, types of ships, torpedoes, defence of coaling-stations, manning of the Navy, &c., are topics of obvious importance and interest. The final chapter of this section gives an account of "Naval Incidents of 1885." Section II. is devoted to "British and Foreign Armoured and Ernarmoured Ships ;" Section III. deals with the complicated problem of armour and ordnance, both being copiously illustrated throughout with diagrams. Out of the vast mass of facts accumulated here, we take one single item,—that both the Nordenfelt and Hotchkiss "quick-firing guns [six-pounders] deliver twelve shots per minute with aim, and seventeen without." We hope that there will be many issues of this most useful "Annual," unless, indeed, the Millennium should intervene.
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