defences, and speculations on the chances for and against such an armed invasion.  There was, meanwhile, a strong peace-party which earnestly deprecated all agitation of the subject, maintained that the sentiments of the French Emperor and the French nation were most friendly to England, and contended that to incur largely increased expenses for additional war-preparations was unnecessary, impolitic, and ruinously extravagant.  At the head of this party were Cobden and Bright.

It was to answer these arguments, to convince England that there was a real and positive peril, and to urge upon Her Majesty’s Government the paramount importance of preparing to meet not only a possible, but a probable danger, that Lord Lyndhurst addressed the House of Lords.  He began by impressing upon their lordships the fact that the policy which he advocated was not aggressive, but strictly defensive.  He reviewed the history of previous attempts to invade England.  He pointed out the significant circumstance, that these attempts had hitherto failed mainly by reason of the casualties to which sailing-vessels were always exposed.  He pressed upon their attention the change which steam-navigation had recently wrought in naval warfare.  He quoted the pithy remark of Lord Palmerston, that “steam had converted the Channel into a river, and thrown a bridge across it.”

He demonstrated from recent history the facility with which France could transport large forces by sea to distant points.  Then, in tones tremulous with emotion, he drew upon the resources of his own marvellous memory.  “I have experienced, my lords, something like a sentiment of humiliation in going through these details.  I recollect the day when every part of the opposite coast was blockaded by an English fleet.  I remember the victory of Camperdown, and that of St. Vincent, won by Sir J. Jervis.  I do not forget the great victory of the Nile, nor, last of all, that triumphant fight at Trafalgar, which almost annihilated the navies of France and Spain, I contrast the position which we occupied at that period with that which we now hold.  I recollect the expulsion of the French from Egypt, the achievement of victory after victory in Spain, the British army established in the South of France, and then the great battle by which that war was terminated.  I cannot glance back over that series of events without feeling some degree of humiliation when I am called upon to state in this House the measures which I deem it to be necessary to take in order to provide for the safety of the country.”

Then pausing a moment and overcoming his evident emotion, he continued, with a force of manner and dignity of bearing which no words can fitly describe,—­“But I may be asked, ’Why do you think such measures requisite?  Are we not in alliance with France?  Are we not on terms of friendship with Russia?  What other power can molest us?’ To these questions, my lords, my answer shall be a short and simple one.  I will not consent to live in dependence on the friendship or forbearance of any country.  I rely solely on my own vigor, my own exertion, and my own intelligence.”  It will be readily believed that cheer after cheer rang through the House when this bold and manly announcement was made.