On Thursday week, Mr. Barnaby read an interesting paper before
the Institute of Naval Architects, on the fighting-power of iron Merchant-ships, mentioning the conditions under which their machinery might be defended from ordinary Shots, explaining hoW the vessels might be armed, and insisting that if thus de- fended and armed; they might become very efficient, not only as transport ships to supply our colonial stations with food and material of war in time of war, but even as a positive addition to the power of the Navy, so far as regards attaoks on other merchant ships. He would arm these ships with 64- pounders, with a ram, with the star torpedo, and put a six- inch armoured screen between-decks, if needful. No doubt any such ships would be very efficient against anything but ships-of-war and torpedoes, and no doubt it is quite true that convoys of anything like large fleets of transports under modern conditions are quite impossible ;—against torpedoes, for instance, in the darkness, no convoys could defend such fleets of trans- ports. At the same time, it is hardly likely that, except in the immediate prospect of war, shipowners will sacrifice any tangible profit or convenience, for the sake of such transformations in case of war. Neutral capitalists will always be willing to buy the mercantile marine of a great country of ships like England in case we go to war, for they would succeed to much of our busi- ness ; and our shipowners, knowing this, will hardly make any very substantial sacrifices for a very doubtful and hypothetical good.
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