The daily gazette., 1875-04-29
The Cost of Arsnasests.

More than thirty years ago" wrote
an old friend of the late Duke OF Wei.
ington, was driving down through
Hertfordshire with His Grace. It was q
beautiful summer evening. the sun was
shining. and everything looked flourish
ing and joyous. The Duke was very ST.
lent for about quarter Of an hour or
twenty minutes. At the end Of that
time he said, Il will tell you what
have been thinking about. have been
contemplating this beautiful country,
and | have been thinking what curse
war is. Suppose had to take military
possession Of this country, ] should
have to lay low every beautiful thing
but one day Of war, you would prsy AL
mighty God that you might never see
such thing again"
Where is the man who would differ
with him to-day, when almost every
country bristles with men and impls-
ments of WARP
The last note Of preparation comes
from England. On the 9TH Of this month
the very ancient town OF Chatham was
decked in such gala costume as she pro-
badly never assumed before. The mem
orable event was the launching of gu.
perb iron-clad. The ship was named
the Alexandria" and the Princess of
Wales herself attended. The "Alexan-
dra," whose burden is $500 tons, will
carry on her sides at the most vulpera-
BILE points armor- plating IL inches thick,
and on other parts as much as and 10
the recent y built great English IRON
clads, carries nowhere more than Q inch
es OF armor, and in the strength OF her
armor the Hercules has four times
the advantage Of the Warrior" But
Germany is reported to have two sea-
going iron-clads, the Kaiser" and the
Deutschland" in some respects superb
OF even to the Alexandra" England,
however, can reflect with complacency
that she has some rising iron -clads that
will lick creation;" has another iron
clad now building. the "Inhexible," that.
is to be protected in parts with twenty
four inches Of plating. The Kaiser"
and Other German var-ships were built
in England; so that in any case English
shipwrights have made pretty penny
out of it.
But how deplorable it n that some-
thing cannot be done To reduce the
frightful cost OF these arma nents, which
weigh with intolerable hsaviness upon
the great powers. Russia, for instance,
has just put out another loan, having al
ready to pay an average OF foar per
cent. or nearly two thousand millions of
dollars. But for her armaments there
would be no need for this loan. A cor
respondent wrote from st. Petersburg
in 1873 "The new forge at Alexanuroy-
ski Ia few miles up the Neva) is now all
but ready, and it is estimated that when
in full operation it will turn cut a con-
siderable number OF twelye-inch guns a
year. The sinall-bore rifle. a variation
OF the Berdan. which is the new weapon
or the Russian army. is being mahufac-
tured In immense quantities. But all
this must be paid for, and the financial
einbarrassments of the Government are
| now rising to climax. The general
opinion seems to be that the plan of
Of 100000, 900 or $500, 900, 900 is the only
resource left, and it will probably be
tried before long. Many of the initiated
| in st Petersburg must now be calling to
mind the bitter jest of Prince Menshi-
kof when the Emperor Nicholas pro-
posed to make him Minister OF Finance: +:
Your Majesty has already made me
Commander-in-Chief without an army,
Minister of Marine without navy-and
now | am to be Minister of Finance
without funds" France is now pre-em-
inent IN debt; and although Germany
has been flush of money since the war,
| she. too. has an annual charge to meet
Of $45, ,000, 900
/! As to France, with deLB SO enormous
is it possible that there can Tor years be
any grounds for apprehending aggressive
action on her partp Forty. five hundred
million dollars of debt, with $l65. .O0O, 900
interest, are az heavy bonds to keep the
peace as even Bismarck need ask to have
her put under, The French people are
already compelled to practice very strict
economy, and the prices in France would
become intolerably heavy were another
war to break out this summer. As it is,
let one bad harvest come and zee what
murmurs will arise, more especially if
the exports from France to this country
continue to show decrease. World.