mercantile, unsurpassed in mechanic skill and productiveness, and full of sailors of the best stamp.  What tremendous elements of naval power are these!  One does not wonder that the remark often made is so nearly true,—­that, if there is any trouble in the farthest port on the globe, in a few hours you will see a British bull-dog quietly steaming up the harbor, to ask what it is all about, and whether England can make anything out of the transaction.

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There is another consideration which perhaps many would put foremost.  Has the nation kept pace with the progress of science and mechanic arts?  Once her superior seamanship almost alone enabled England to keep the sea against all comers.  But it is not quite so now.  Naval warfare has undergone a complete revolution.  The increasing weight of artillery, and the precision with which it can be used, make it imperative that the means of defence should approximate at least in effectiveness to the means of offence.  The question now is not, How many ships has England? but, How many mail-clad ships? how many that would be likely to resist a hundred-pound ball hurled from an Armstrong or Parrott gun?  And if it should turn out that in this race France had outrun England, and had twenty or thirty of these gladiators of the sea, most would begin to doubt whether the old dynasty could maintain its power.  The interest and curiosity felt on this subject have almost created a new order of periodical literature.  You open your “Atlantic,” and the chances are ten to one that you skip over the stories and the dainty bits of poetry and criticism to see what Mr. Derby has to say about iron-clads.  You receive your “Harper” and you feel aggrieved, if you do not find a picture of the Passaic, or of Timby’s revolving turret, or of something similar which will give you a little more light concerning these monsters which are threatening to turn the world upside down.  Now all this intense curiosity shows how general and instinctive is the conviction of the importance of this new element in naval force.

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The considerations to which we have alluded have already received a large share of the public attention.  They have been examined and discussed from almost every possible point of view.  Probably every one has some ideas, more or less correct, concerning them.  But there is a consideration which is equally important, which has received very little attention in this country, which indeed seems to have been entirely overlooked.  It is this:  The degree to which naval efficiency is dependent upon a wise colonial system.