All Europe in Arms.

Southland Times, Issue 4492, 2 December 1882, Page 2

All Europe in Arms.

- — . ~* . — Mr Forbes delivered his fourth and final lecture at Sloan's Theatre last evening 1 to a moderate audience. The subject was perhaps even more instructive than any that preceded it, and, although it lacked 'those graphic portraits which made the others so brilliant, it was not a whit less interesting. A great part of the "lecture was devoted to a detailed sketch of the system of compulsory service, and of that splendid military organisation which was inaugurated by Prussia after the disastrous battle of Jena, which was made perfect by the present Emperor, and which had been imitated since Sedan by Italians and French alike. What all Europe in arms meant might be inferred from the significant statement that 21 per cent of the gross revenue of the five Great Powers waa expended on the maintenance o£ armies. Every state in Europe— even the little republic of Monaco which could boast at least a band of music — maintained a standing army, with the single exception of Switzerland, whose laws forbade it. The most expensive army in the world was the small one of the United States, whose 25,000 men cost £8,000,000 annually, exclusive of the pension list. The next in order of expense was that of England, which spent £14,000,000 annually on only 130,000 regular troops, or just one and a-half millions less than what enabled Germany to maintain a standing army of 430,000 men, and to keep going the requisite machinery for increasing that strength to a million ia a few days' time. The lecture contained a few brilliant descriptions, notably of the battles of Worth and Gravelotte, and the Balaclava-like charge of the Prussian cavalry at Massy-le-Tonrs, when the sacrifice of a brigade saved a whole army corps. The lecturer retired amid a hearty round of applause.