Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/302

296 It is necessary now to recapitulate the various measures to which reference has been made, and to total their cost.

I. Strengthening of the navy, ..... £4,500,000

II. Strengthening and efficient arming of the works defending our naval arsenals and ports, and a due supply of ammunition,. ....... 3,000,000

III. The protection of the mercantile ports of the United Kingdom, 3,000,000

IV. The protection of the principal ports and coaling depots of our colonial possessions, .... 3,000,000

V. The provision of complete equipment and stores of every description, with proper storehouse accommodation for two army corps on a war footing, and clothing and equipment for the whole of the reserve,. . . . 2,000,000

VI. The provision of such equipment and stores as are necessary to enable the whole of the remaining troops, regulars and auxiliary, which can be called out in the United Kingdom, to take the field, or be employed in garrison duty,. 1,500,000

VII. The construction of an arsenal and camp of instruction in the north of England, ...... 2,000,000

19,000,000

Say £20,000,000

This amount could not be spent at once. With the utmost endeavours, it is doubtful if all the work for which the money would be required could be completed in less than five years. For this time, we should therefore have an extra annual charge of 4 millions to meet. This amount could surely be raised, without any strain on our resources, by the creation of a series of terminable annuities. The National Debt Act will insure the diminution of the National Debt by 173 millions in twenty years. Supposing the 20 millions required for our national insurance were to be provided as here suggested, with the result that at the end of twenty years the National Debt, instead of being diminished by 173 millions, were diminished by 150 or 160 millions only, surely no one in this country will have suffered any hardship in the meantime. Millions are found without difficulty for the main drainage of London, for the purchase of the telegraphs, for opening up certain thoroughfares in the metropolis, and probably will be found as easily for the purchase of the works and business of the London waterworks companies. What is 20 millions compared to the cost that would be entailed on this country if it became engaged in war with any European power? The expenditure of the 20 millions required would have the twofold effect of rendering war more unlikely, and, if it took place, of insuring, as far as it is possible to do, that it shall be successful.

It is further to be noted that the whole of this sum of 20 millions, with the exception of a small amount for local labour in the Colonies, will be expended in the United Kingdom. The State will spend on national work the sum of 4 millions sterling, nearly the whole of which will find its way into the pockets of the working classes in the shape of wages. From this point of view, the proposal now put forward ought to meet with the approval of the Government now in power; and as the Conservatives claim to take a special interest in the maintenance of the integrity of the em-