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Rh contemplates their eventual sale to the governments of China and Japan." The most alarming of the lot was the official authorization signed by the Minister of Marine himself.

This information was staggering. In our security of to-day it is impossible to conceive of the import of the situation, and the responsibility thus thrown in a few words upon the shoulders of the consul. It seemed possible that the fate of a nation was in his hands. It would have been scarcely more urgent if he had discovered a practical and imminent plot to blow up half of Grant's army in the moment of attack.

A revolution had just taken place in the art of building ships of war. The discovery of the ironclad ram had rendered the navy of the United States as obsolete as the triremes of Greece. These two monsters nearing completion in the ways at Bordeaux were more than a match for all the squadrons of Farragut. They were expected with justifiable confidence to blast the Stars and Stripes from