A FRENCH VIEW OF BRITAIN'S MILITARY RESOURCES.

Samoa Times and South Sea Gazette, Issue 39, 29 June 1878, Page 3

A FRENCH VIEW OF BRITAIN'S MILITARY RESOURCES.

The following, on the question of England's military power, is from a communication by the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, written on February 27 : —" This morning the most influential of the Republique Francaise.devotes a long article to discussing the forces which could be commanded by England in the event of a. war with Russia. The writer points out that such a struggle might be prolonged indefinitely. What led to the rapid conclusion of the great wars which we have seen in recent day was, in his opinion, the proximity of the belligerent nations. 'lt would be altogether different in a war between England and Russia, and nothing could prevent the former, which has men, money, and the first fleet in the world at her disposal, from striking at many different and widely-separated points at the same time.' After remarking that no comparison can be made between the condition of England at the time of the wars of the Revolution and to-day, the writer quotes the figures representing the present population and revenue of the British Islands : —' The population of England is now nearly equal to that of France, to that of Austria, and to half that of Russia in Europe. Ireland, reconciled, speaks no longer of separation ; Canada and Australia could furnish in case of need a very powerful contingent of aid to England, and India may be considered as an unlimited recruiting field, although we can hardly say with confidence what would be the. atitudo of its population in the event of a war with Russia. But only taking into account the 33,500,000 inhabitants within the British Islands, we may judge of what kind of resistance thev would make by the trouble which 5,500,000 of South Americans gave during a period of three years to the masses of the North. As for the public wealth of England, that is a matter much more difficult to estimate than the population , but it is certain that in respect of riches the country has made still more wonderful strides since the period of the Revolution than in the number of its inhabitants. The national debt of England is estimated at 040 millions sterling, and and its public wealth at 7GSO millions sterling. Thus we see by how much she could increase her present debt before attaining the proportion which existed between the national debt one public and public wealth 60 years ago. She is therefore at the present moment in a position to eater on the'expenses of a struggle as a long as the campaigns from 1792 to 1815, with the prospect of coming out of it in the condition in which she was placed at the fill of Napoleon. In conclusion, the writer submits two reflections as the result of his considerations of the actual state of England, having regard to the possibility of a long war. One of them is, that the commercial world in all countries—and particularly in England—is much more susceptible as to its interests than it was at the time of the wars of Napoleon ; and the other is that perhaps England would rind that she- could obtain men for her money, and unit, even if she did, men are not armies:"