TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Star, Issue 12762, 15 March 1906, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

[From Orai Special Cobrespojtdent.i LONDON, February 2. ENGLAND THE UNREADY. \ Lord Roberts hardly waited for the excitement of the elections to subside before embarking afresh on his self-imposed task of awakeiung the nation to a proper'sense of the inadequacy of its Imperial defence. At Liverpool last Monday evening: he stated his case anew lo the members of the local Chamber of Commerce. He reminded tnem of the appalling revelations made during the Boer War regarding the weakness of our military power, and of his own statement in the House of Lords some six months ago that our armed forces as a whole were just as unfitted and unprepared for war as in 1899. Lord Roberts repeated that statement with "equal conviction and with the fullest sense of the dangers it implied," substituting, however, the words " the nation" for the phrase " the aimed forces as a body," because those words had been represented as implying that the tactical lessons of the war had not been taken to heart by the regular army—an entirely error/eous idea, and one ho did not wish to convey. After dealing briefly witfc the tremendrus effort England had to make to hold lfc u '^ rn a S ainst a R raall community like the Boers, Lord Roberts pointed out that u -\yar came .upon us in Europe or on our Indian frontier, we should have to deal with fees trained and armed in millions, and ready massed on the field. Our only desire in Europe, should be to maintain the present equipoise of power, as vital not only to our commercial interests, but also to our naval predominance and to the safety of our shores. It could not be maintained without an army of sufficient weight to turn the scales decisively against any disturbing Power. Such an army, or anything approaching such an army, we had not got. He helievod our navy -nas equal to any emergency it might have to face, but we must remember it was absolutely untried, and battleships had not yet become amphibious. The fruits of Trafalgar were cot reaped till Waterloo. Granting all possible power and opportunity to our flcets, without an adequate and efficient citizen army our shores and our homes were not safe. An invasion of- this country, though improbable, was always possible. Political exigencies might compel us to war, and if—as would almost certainly bo the case—the greater part of the regular army were abroad, tho defence of this country would be loft to' tho auxiliaryforces, and any resistance which they could oti'er would be of little avail unless they wem much more efficiently trained and organised than they were at present. Wo noided in army adequate to the following purposes: —To take our share in maintaining the European equipoise; to guarantee the security of all our land frontiers throughout the world- and lastly, to make an invasion of this country too dangerous to be worth tho attempt, and thereby to .secure an absolutely tree hand for the offensive to our fleets. We ought, he thought, to accept for the army a " million men standard"; 500,000 might be necessary for the defence of India, and he fixed upon the same number as the strength of the Army which we ought to be able to maintain in a European struggle, if our military power was* to count for anything in a European struggle, and if we were to secura ourselves against the invasion of our shores. How was the million men standard to be attained? Ho did not advocate compulsory service, abroad under any cireainstancos, or at homo, except in tho case of a great national emergency. Compulsory training, so that every man might bo in a position to give real service if the need should come, was quite another thing. The men of this country ought to submit to training in thoir youth and early manhood, so that Great "Britain might know that in..her hour of need her sons woukl not only be willing but able, to servo in her defence. A foreign service army of regulars at a strength of 200,000 should have the militia car-marked for its immediate reserve. But we must fall back on tho yeomanry and volunteers .for our main reserve, and the " million men standard" could only be attained by a great expansion of these forces, and such expansion could only be attained by making every able-bodied man undergo a period of military training after reaching adult-age. The period of military training need probably be only a few months in ca&ip, if preliminary drill and the use of .the rifle had

beefi taught at school. versal training riot merely as a military necessity, but as a method.of inculcating a sense of national responsibility, of steadying many an ill-balahoed character, strengthening many a nerveless physique., ' ; AMA2INO "Amazing" is really a quite inadequate description of the credulity alleged against certain women at the Sheffield Police Court thisi week, when a man named Peace was arraigned and committed on a charge of bigamy. Tho evidence showed that about twelve years ago Peace went .through a form' of 'marriage with the widow of his uncle. He lived with her seven years, and iD that time the woman's illegitimate daughtei grew up to womanhood. Peace, who was ,by this .time the father of four children .by his uncle's widow, desired her daughter, ro he persuaded -the' mother that his union with her was illegal, but that if he married the daughter it would be " all right.*' Both mother and daughter swallowed this story, and Peace went through a form of .marriage . with the younger woman. He continued to live with his aunt as her husband, the-two'"wives" being installed in tho same house. Then last year Peace, who was a metal polish manufacturer, became enamored of a young woman in his employ and desired to introduce her to his home as wife No. 3. The "wives in being" raised some objections to this, but Peace overcame them by assuring his aunt that five years after marrying her legitimate daughter the latter would. be free, and his marriage with the mother would become legal, as also would his marriave to a third wife. Peace then went through a form of marriage with his latest love, and for a few weeks contrived to keep his aunt-wife find her daughter " sweet." Then, as was only to be expected, difficulties arose, and domestic squabbles led to outsiders into Peace's matrimonial affairs, with the iesuit that he was arrested and put on trial for bigamy. INVENTOR AND MILLIONAIRE. The life of Lord Masham, who died full of years and honor a few days since, is one of the romances of modem industry. Inventor, manufacturer, and multi-million-aire, Lord Masham was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable men of his generation. He created three new industries —the machine wool-combing • industry, power-loom velvet and plush weaving, and the utilisation of waste silk. His inventions cost him something like £600,000 to work out, but he reaped a rich harvest in the end, and benefited not merely his own fortunes but the lives of thousands of workers.. Starting life as a clerk in Liverpool, Mr Samuel Livter (as ho then was) soon gave evidence of business qualities which marked Lim out for special work. At the age of twenty-three ho started a woollen factory in partnership with n brother. In those days the wool-combing was done by hand, but young Samuel Lister and Mr ' Donisthorpe, of Leicester, tackled the task of replacing hand-work by maehine-work, and having successfully accomplished it aftet many fannies, Mr Lister became the worsted king—£l,ooo royalty being paid him for the use of each one of his machines, j Mr Donisthorpe, i:ke Lord Masham, had been working for years at the problem in question, and when, in the end, he finally succeeded in selling the half-share of his invention to Lord Masham for £2,000, he thought he had done very well. Later, Lord Masham gave him £IO,OOO for' the other half, and thereby laid the foundation of his own vast fortune. His next great invention was the velvet loom, on which_he worked for seven years, spending thousands upon thousands of pounds, until his efforts were crowned with success. Here, again, the reward wag wealth abounding. It is said, indeed, that Lord . Masham never worked on any invention which he did not think would yield at least' £50,000 a year. His discovery of the potentialities of "siik waste" is an oft-told tale. Chancing to be in a London warehouse one day, he stumbled into a rubbish heap. It was silk, waste, consiting of rope ends, dirty flock and hemp, mixed with decayed leaves and sticks. He asked what it was, and was told: " Oh! simply rubbish. It is impossible to do anything with it." Lord Masham examined the "rubbisn," and to the amusement Of the owners he bought all he could get at a halfpenny the pound. He experimented on his purchase for eight years, spending probably a quarter of a million of money on the problem, and eventuallyj with the aid of a Mr Reixach, bs evoled the Mannington plush loom, by means;:of which the waste silk "rubbish" was converted into valuable fabrics. The sales were enormous, and for some the profits from the new invention were £200,000 a year. Many other inventions stand to the deceased peer's name. In the course of his business career he took out over a hundred patents. It is in the manufacture of velvets and plushes, however, that Lord has chiefly scored, and the largest silk mill in the world is the special product of his enterprise and ingenuity. The Manningham mills employ .thousands of hands, and they axe now the property of a limited liability company with a capital of £2,000,000, of which Lord Masham retained a half share.. Lord Masham was immensely wealthy. At a meeting of Lister and Co., a few years ago, he incidentally stated that he had a million invested in Manningham mills, a million in coal, and a million in tea in India. Hemade large purchases of land. In 1883 he bought the Swinton Park Estate for £400,000. It is situated in one of the most picturesque parts of the county, anfl consists of over 22,000 acres. Four years later he acquired the adjoining estate, on which Jervaulx Abbey stands, At a cost of £310,000, exclusive of timber. Altogether he expended over a million sterling on landed properties, amounting to some 40,000- acres. His benefactions were large, and he spent a great deal of money on his native town. He was an ardent Protectionist long before Mr Chamberlain started his» crusade. When it was pointed out to him that he had done well under FTeetrade, he would reply, in a jocose spirit, that what could be accomplished by genius was not to be done by all, and that he had succeeded in spite of, rather than on account of, Freetrade. Th© deceased peer was also much intereeted) in art, and possessed some splendid examples of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, and other masters. Yet another of his hobbies was archaeology, and, like nearly all Yorkshircinen, he was devoted to sport of all kinds, especially coursing, and when past his eightieth year he was a-capital shot. He died at the riper age of ninety-one years, having been born in the year of Waterloo.