twenty years, three great navies have sprung up in
Europe, which are four times as strong as they were at any former
period. Other navies, it is true, are put down; but we remain much the
same. A great deal has been said, by way of comparison, between the
strength of our navy in 1792, and in the years 1814 and 1815; but when
we talk of strength in this case, we ought not to look at the subject
without adverting to the naval establishments of other powers. Now,
although our marine force should even be on the same footing as before,
our commerce is not only tripled, but extended to a degree ten times
greater than it ever was before; and there is not a part of the earth,
from one pole to the other, in which the protection of our navy is not
required for our commerce. I must say that, if we should at any time
incur the misfortune of being involved in another war--which God
forbid!--the only mode of keeping out of the difficulty would be to
maintain such a navy as would give protection to her majesty's subjects
in all parts of the globe.

_August 14, 1838._

* * * * *

_Neutrality of Belgium._

I hope that it never may be lost sight of in this country, that the
original foundation of the independence of Belgium, as a separate
kingdom, was this condition, namely, its perpetual neutrality. That
condition I consider to have been the foundation of that transaction,
and I hope that this will never be forgotten by this country, or by
Europe.

_February 5, 1839._

* * * * *

_Aggressions on Canada from the United States._

I must say I should very much wish to see suitable measures adopted to
carry into execution the intentions which her majesty declares in her
speech, of maintaining her rights of sovereignty over Canada. The system
of levying private war which prevails on that continent is not wholly
unknown in other parts of the world. I have read of it as existing in
the deserts of Central Asia; I have heard of its being practised, as a
system, by the Asiatics on the frontiers of the Russian monarchy, where
a perpetual warfare is going on between those tribes and the troops sent
to repress their inroads--a warfare that has been waged in those
countries from century to century. We read also of circumstances of the
same kind occurring in Africa--of wars carried on by barbarous tribes
against the possessions of the British government in Africa, the
contests of