ight have upon our chances in the war, entails
the loss of more than a million pounds. The cruisers, again, I would not
without urgent necessity expose to the steel projectiles of a Krupp's
coast battery. Let us take care not to suffer the smallest disaster at
sea! It would be as dangerous for our prestige and for our position as
a world-power as a steel shot would be for the water-line of one of our
ships of war."

The Colonial Minister was silent. He had nothing to urge against these
objections.

"Our Indian troops are greatly in need of reinforcements," began the
Prime Minister again. "We must put English soldiers into the field, for
we cannot rely longer upon the sepoys."

"Certainly," said the Minister of War, "and drafts are constantly being
despatched to Bombay. Forty thousand men have been embarked; of these
more than twenty thousand have been landed in India; the remainder are
still on the sea. A great fleet is on the road, and eight ironclads
are stationed in Aden to meet any attack upon our transports. But it
is really a question whether we are well advised in still sending more
troops to India. My lords! hard as it is for me to say so, we must be
prudent. I should be rightly accused of having lost my head if I did
more than bare prudence demanded. Great Britain is denuded of troops.
Now, I know full well, and England also knows it full well, that an
enemy will never plant his foot on these shores; for our fleet assures
us the inviolability of our island, but we should not be worthy of our
responsible positions were we to neglect any measure for the security of
our country. Let us, my lords, be cowards before the battle, provided we
are heroes in it! Let us suppose that we had no fleet, but had to defend
England's territory on land. We must have an army on English soil ready
to take the field; failing this, we are guilty of treason against our
country. The mobilisation of our reserve must be further extended. Ten
thousand yeomen, whom we have not yet summoned to the ranks, are to-day
in a position to bear arms and wave the sword. To-day every capable man
must be enlisted. The law provides that every man who does not already
belong to a regular army or to a volunteer corps can, from eighteen to
fifty years of age, be forced to join the army, and thus a militia
can be formed of all men capable of bearing arms. If His Majesty will
sanction it, I am ready to form a militia army of 150,000 men. I reckon
for Ind