fxr] DISCUSSION WITH THE EMPEROR. 747

‘greement. He joined in the expression of this wish. 1 em
‘hen cohgerved that I could see but one possible cause of Zr. 56.
War between the two countries; that the mercaniile and
Manufacturing and mining interests have the power and
determination to keep the peace so long as it is their interest
b do so; but the danger, and in my own opinion the only
danger, was that the expenditure for our warlike armaments
ight be so increased that it would some day be possible
t present to the people the argument that war might be
less costly than the perpetual burden of a war expenditure in
% time of peace ; that I had heard very sedate and grave per-“ons
 argue in this way ; and that, leaving out of the question
the sacrifice of life and limb, it was difficult to answer their
"éasoning on economical grounds. I mentioned the enor-Tous
 gums we were voting this year for our armaments.
“ He said he did not know what he could do to prevent it,
or how he was responsible for such a state of things; that,
38 regarded the navy, he was not spending so much on it as
be ought to do, or as was laid down as necessary in Louis
Philippe’s time; and he referred to the dialogue between an
Englishman and a Frenchman, which he had composed and
Sent for publication to the Times newspaper; it contained
ome exact details respecting the strength of the French
tavy, I reminded him that his experiments on iron-cased
Ships had led us into some expenses of the same kind. I
Dentioned that I had seen one of his frégates blindées at
Toulon, with an iron casing about four inches in thickness ;
that no sooner were they ordered to be built, than we began
to construct line-of-battle ships with iron sides six inches
thick, and that Mr. Whitworth had subsequently invented a
Sun which had projected a bullet through this thickness of
ron, jn addition to a couple of feet of solid timber ; that I
thonght all this a very deplorable waste, and unworthy of
the age in which we lived,