Sir E. Clarke spoke at Plymouth on Thursday, and began
by deploring the rise of a great military Power in the East, which seemed likely to extend to Asia the overgrown arma- ments which we find so heavy a burden in the West. Sir E. Clarke thought that the resources of European statesman- ship ought to be equal to obtaining by negotiation some fixed limit to the rivalry in expensive armaments which is going on. He thought it as absurd to argue that peace was preserved by the dread which the various States are indulging of the terrible and incalculable consequences of war, as it would be to say that the best way of defending a house from fire would be to surround it with kegs of gunpowder, in order that the servants might be frightened into taking the greatest care of their lucifer match-boxes. He ridiculed the policy of Lord Rosebery's proposed resolution against the House of Lords, which he said would be just as effectual for its purpose as the blowing of a trumpet in Palace Yard. And he andel-
pated that the coming Session would prove to be a sham Session by which neither Parliament nor the people would, benefit in the least.
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