The weak points in our naval armaments are declared to
exist also in the French. M. 016menceau and M. Lockroy are publishing statements, according to which the French ironclads lack stability, the torpedo-boats are neglected and rusty, the Northern Coast is undefended, and even Cherbourg is left so insecure that 22,400,000 ought to be expended upon it at once. The Radicals intend to raise serious debates upon the Navy, and hope, with the aid of Chauvinistic feeling, either to place the Government in a minority, or to compel it to large and inconvenient expenditure. There is no doubt that every Navy in the world falls short of perfection through deficiencies and defects of much the same kind, but it is by no means certain that these pessimistic accounts ar not intended to play into the hands of the Gladstone Govern- ment and embolden it to resist the demands for a larger Navy. A general persuasion in England that the French Fleet was rotten would take much of the heart out of those who now demand a more complete armament. The country had much better trust our own responsible experts, who know the con- dition of the French Navy as well as of their own, than any newspaper accounts or any orators on either side. Armies can be fairly well judged by average Members of Parliament, but they know no more of what constitutes an effective Navy than they do of watch-making.
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