, 1875-10-27
0 u S
From the SPECTATOR

Lieutenant-C Colonel Alexander Strange,
in d letter to the Times, expresses his
opinion that such an iron ship as the
Vanguard is the naval equivalent 10
force of q whole corps d'armee in the army
lie. of 10000 men-and he very Justly
remarks that no commander would accept
the responsibility Of commanding an army
if he knew that a single accidental shot
of the enemy's might annihiIate a whole
wing at q blow. The truth undoubtedly
is, that our power of properly governing
and administering the immensely costly
and powerful naval weapons which we
have invented, has fallen far behind our
skill in constructing those weapons. We
have made the sort of blunder which
would be best, illustrated by supposlng
the existence of an organism as delicate
as the human body, without the nervous
system which governs, or as the phlloso-
phers say, "co-ordinates," its movements.
Certainly there was no sort OF "co-ordl-
nation" of the ironclad feet in the fog
on the Ist September. And unless such
q coordination in times of peril can be
established, it would be better to subdl-
vide our risk, aud have a mosquito fleet OF
gunboats, in place Of these naval embodl-
mems OF corps d0rm@e'
Mr.. Gladstone has made two -educatlon~
al speeches within a week,-one at Ches-
ter, on laying the corner stone OF
the New Kings School there; and
one at Hawarden, on occasion OF an
effort to place the Hawarden Literary
Institute on o more satisfactory basis.
In the former speech, Mr.. Gladstone.
after referring to the old prediction that
the Railway system would make Chester
a Nero heap of ruins, and asserting that 80
far from it's having been fulfilled, there
was not o town from one end OF the country
to the other in which the spirit of youth
full life beat more freely and vigorously
than it did 10 Chester" went on to point
out that while the wages OF manual labouF
are rising, the wages Of educated labour,
at least of the commoner kinds, are rather
tending to fall, under the influence of the
competition of new host OF candidates.
Hence, he insisted, there could not be a
more important crisis for middle-class
education. Unless each boy tried to hnd
out his own best capacities and to Guilt
vate them well, the middle-class, instead
of keeping its relative position In the race,
would lose ground. Middle-class educa-
ton would have much to do to hold its
own, and it would not be done without
the cooperation of the taught with the
teachers. Yes, but is there not some dan
ger of stimulating boys too much, and
forgetting the value Of a comparatively
faliow-time in boyhoodf No doubt the
majority of boys have a healthy lncapaclty
for over-earnestness but is not the mlnorl-
~, 7vbo are quite capable of it, becoming
larger and larger U'o-y lays
In his Hawarden speech, Mr.. Gladstone.
who had been telling a particularly large
tree lust before he came down to urge
the miners to take care of their minds,
was specially severe on those %tavourlte
modes of amusement among labourers
which consist in "lolling, lettering
whistling, playing Marbles and SO forth
He maintained that with the great increase
Of wages,-an increase which he showed
had not been in any way neutrallseo IoF
the labourer and the miner by any squiVa-
lent increase in the cost of livlng'-there
was room for spending q little more gu
mental culture; and ne exPresseu us
opinion that the people Of France, Germa-