r the
purpose of our estimate the figure we have taken is a level L2,000,000 a
day. On a peace footing the daily expenditure upon the army and the navy
on the basis of the estimates approved last year was about L220,000 per
day. So that the difference between L2,000,000 and L220,000 represents
what we estimate to be the increased expenditure due to the war during
the 100 days for which we are now providing.

There are other items belonging to the same category as those to which I
have already referred in dealing with the supplementary vote with regard
to advances to our own dominions and other States for which provision
has also had to be made, and the balance of the total of L250,000,000
for which we are now asking, beyond the actual estimated expenditure for
the army and the navy, will be applied to those and kindred or
emergency purposes. Before I pass from the purely monetary aspect of the
matter, it may be interesting to the committee to be reminded of what
has been our expenditure upon the great wars of the past. In the great
war which lasted for over twenty years, from 1793 to 1815, the total
cost as estimated by the best authorities was L831,000,000. The Crimean
war may be put down, taking everything into account, at L70,000,000. The
total cost of the war charges in South Africa from 1899 to March 31,
1903, was estimated in a return presented to Parliament at L211,000,000.
In presenting these two votes of credit the Government are making a
large pecuniary demand on the House, a demand which in itself and beyond
comparison is larger than has ever been made in the House of Commons by
any British Minister in the whole course of our history.

We make it with the full conviction that after seven months of war the
country and the whole empire are every whit as determined as they were
at the outset [cheers] if need be at the cost of all we can command both
in men and in money to bring a righteous cause to a triumphant issue.
[Cheers.] There is much to encourage and to stimulate us in what we see.
Nothing has shaken and nothing can shake our faith in the unbroken
spirit of Belgium, [cheers,] in the undefeated heroism of indomitable
Serbia, in the tenacity and resource with which our two great allies,
one in the west and the other in the east, hold their far-flung lines
and will continue to hold them till the hour comes for an irresistible
advance. [Cheers.] Our own dominions and our great dependency of India
have sent