Mr. Goschen is a very clear and very earnest speaker,
but what with his candour and what with his habit of speaking as if his audience knew something, he sometimes gives to outsiders an impression of admitting that which he is really denying. A short speech of ten minutes of bold and contemptuous denial, followed by the speech actually uttered, would have saved England from a ridiculous scare, and a good many of our contemporaries from singing dirges over the departed greatness of the Empire. We have endeavoured to give the facts else- where, and they show that apart altogether from our force all over the world, Great Britain, at forty-eight hours' notice, could destroy in the Channel any fleet or combination of fleets ever likely to get there. There are eighteen vessels in order, of a class which nothing can beat, and ten more requiring only repairs, which money could reduce to a very moderate time. England is safer at sea than she ever was, absolutely beyond attack, except from the tongue of Sir John Hay. Indeed, this is admitted by the Tory Cabinet, which describes, through Sir S. Northcote, the whole scare as a mere bhinder.
