the art of war under Wellington himself; and he, having great talents for organization, placed the force from its infancy on a sound footing.  How thoroughly the movement harmonized with the martial spirit of the nation—­to which, indeed, it owed its birth—­is shown by the history of the force, which now, above twenty years after its original formation, maintains its full numbers and yearly improves its efficiency.  Though there has not for many years been any apprehension of war, above one hundred and twenty thousand men still annually devote no small portion of their time to the acquisition of military discipline and science, and that so successfully, that, by the testimony of the most experienced judges, they have attained a degree of efficiency which, if the necessity for their services should ever arise, would render them valuable and worthy comrades to the more regularly trained army.  Lord Derby retired from office while the force was still in its infancy; but Lord Palmerston was equally sensible of its value, and gave a farther proof of his appreciation of the vast importance of measures of national defence by the vigor with which he carried out the recommendations of a royal commission which had been appointed by the preceding ministry to investigate the condition of our national defences.  Its report had pointed out the absolute necessity of an improved system of protection for our great dockyards and arsenals, which, from their position on the coast, were more liable to attack than inland fortresses would have been, had we had such.  And, in accordance with that warning, in the summer of 1860, Lord Palmerston proposed the grant of a large sum of money for the fortification of our chief dockyards.  It was opposed on a strange variety of grounds; some arguing that the proposed fortifications were superfluous, because our navy was the defence to which the nation was wont deservedly to trust; some that they were needless, because no other nation was in a condition to attack us; others that they were disgraceful, because it was un-English and mean to skulk behind stone walls, and because Lycurgus had refused to trust to stone walls for the safety of Sparta; and one member, the chief spokesman of a new and small party, commonly known as the “peace-at-any-price party,” boldly denounced the members of the commission as a set of “lunatics” for framing such a report, and the ministers as guilty of “contemptible cowardice” for suggesting to the nation that there was any danger in being undefended.  But the ministry prevailed by a large majority;[310] the money was voted, and the nation in general warmly approved of the measure.  As Lord Palmerston subsequently expressed it, “the government, the Parliament, and the nation acted in harmonious concert"[311] on the subject.