GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



debt have a value of I'25>!i2.!'55. consisting chiefly 

 of the Suez Canal shares purchased from the Khc- 

 ilive. of wliich the market value in 1^95 ma i'--.- 

 The balances to the credit of the Govern- 

 ini-nt in tlie Banks of England and Ireland 

 amounted, on March 31. 827. The 



- liabilities of the Government on March 31. 



. were stated to be '- '. The funded 



debt was then 589,147,000, the value of the ter- 

 minable annuities tM'.i.Ol^.'i'H). and the unfunded 

 debt '00 had been raised 



under special acts. 



Sir Michael Hicks-Beach made no important 

 changes in Sir William Harcourt's system of pro- 



-ive death duties that old-fashioned Tories had 

 inveighed against and denounced as communistic 

 and confiscatory. He proposed to allow for any 

 portion of a duty that had been already paid under 

 the former law. and to prevent duty being paid 

 when property reverted to the person who had cre- 

 ated a life interest in it or became absolute owner 

 on the decease of his heir to whom he had conveyed 

 a life interest subsequent to his own. He adopted 

 the legacy-duty rule to enable annuitants to pay 

 the estate duty by installments. With regard to 

 the estate duty to Vie paid on works of art. or other 

 objects or collections of national or historical in- 



-". about which a sharp controversy was raised 

 when the duty was first imposed in 1894. he made 

 the rule that duty was not to be charged on such 

 articles until they were sold or came into tlv 



n of a person competent to sell them. The 

 changes involved a loss of revenue amounting to 

 i'2i.in.iX>0. leaving 1.500.000, which the Chancellor 

 of the Exchequer intended to apply mainly to the 

 relief of agriculture. In accordance w'ith the 

 recommendations of the Royal Commission, he 

 proposed to reduce the maximum rate of the land 

 tax from 4*. to Is. in the pound on tL 

 value, and to alter the terms of redemption by re- 

 ducing the number of years' purchase to thirty. 

 The alterations in the land tax were expected to 



. : 00,000 of annual revenue. 



The Army. The regular army, exclusive of the 

 troops drafted into the Indian service, numbered 

 7,501 commissioned officers. 1.044 warrant officers. 

 15.020 sergeair ^miners, trumpeters, etc.. 



and 127.156 privates in 1895 : total 155.403. The 

 general staff consisted of 332 officers. The cavalry, 

 including the Life Guards and Horse Guards, num- 

 bered 553 officers. 1.371 noncommissioned officers, 

 etc.. and 11.396 men: Royal Artillery, 856 officers. 

 2.095 noncommissioned officers, etc.. and 'J 1 

 men: Royal Engineers. 592 officers. 1.235 noncom- 

 missioned officers, etc.. and 5.021 men : infantry, in- 

 cluding Foot Guards. 2.804 officers. 6.642 noncom- 

 missioned officers, etc.. and 79.208 men : colonial 

 corps. 158 officers. 373 noncommissioned officers, 

 etc.. and 4.696 men: departmental corps. 139 offi- 

 cers. 1.291 noncommissioned officers, etc.. and 2.!i:!7 

 men : army service corps. 245 officers. 914 noncom- 

 missioned officers, etc.. and 2.730 men ; military 

 schools of Woolwich and Sandhurst, gunnery and 

 musketry schools, and other establishments. 239 of- 

 ficers. 500 noncommissioned officers, and 159 men : 

 army accountants, chaplains, surgeons, veterinari- 

 ans, etc.. 1.121. The number of horses was 14.650. 

 The total effective of the British army, including 



J troops in India, was 222.151. with 26.916 

 horses and mules, on Jan. 1. 1895. There were 12.- 

 413 cavalry. 17.358 artillery. 5.470 engineers, and 

 : infantry and special corps maintained in the 

 United Kingdom a total of 107.810 officers and 

 men. of whom 78.503 were garrisoned in England 

 and Wales. 3.985 in Scotland, and 25.262 in Ireland. 

 In Egypt 5.066 British troops were serving, and in 

 the colonies 31,783. The effective strength of all 



the various military forces reported for the year 

 ending March 31. is9<i. was . -rular 



- at home and in the colonies. 144.0S1 : army 

 'e. first c -.' : army <-ond 

 . 141: militia. 121.752: yeomanry. 10.014: vol- 

 unteer-, v .rular forces serving in India, 

 77.4'io: total ouVrtive. r,i;!t.55:!. The vohmt.-er 

 corps have grown to their present strength from 

 119.146 in I860. Of the enlisted men in the regu- 

 lar army 162.801 were English. 15.97s Scotch, 

 206 Irish. 7.777 born in India and the colonies, and 

 147 foreigners. 



The Navy. With the addition of the 70 new 

 sels provided for in the naval defense act of 

 and estimated to co>? f21.5nu.iniu. comprising 10 

 first-class battle ships (the " Royal Sovereign." Em- 



- of India," " Ramillies." ' Repulse." - Resolu- 

 tion," ' Revenge." " Royal Oak." " Hood." ' Centu- 

 rion." and Barfleur "). 9 first-class. 29 secoml- 

 and 4 third-class cruisers, and 18 torpedo gunboats, 

 the British navy in the beginning of 1896 numbered 

 19 first-class. 5 second-class, and 8 third-class battle 

 ships. 23 port-defense vessels. 19 first-class cr> 



of over 5.000 tons and having a speed of over 1 7 

 knots. 11 other armored cruisers of the first cla . ">4 

 cruisers of over 2.000 tons and a speed of 14 knots 

 or more, 181 smaller cruisers and gunboats. 62 tor- 

 pedo destroyers, and 32 first-class. 4 second-class, 

 and 20 third-class torpedo craft. There were build- 

 ing 9 first-class battle ships of the type of the " Ma- 

 jestic " and the "Magnificent," having 14.900 tons 

 displacement. 1 of Iv the '' Renown "). 18 



first-class cruisers. 2 second-class, and 2 thin-- 

 cruisers. 20 torpedo-boat destroyers, designed to 

 make 30 knots, and 17 first-class torpedo boats. 

 There were 300 ships in commission at the end of 

 . of which 48 were armor clads. 196 were un- 

 armored fighting ships. 25 were training ships, and 

 31 were receiving and store ships, coast-guard tend- 

 ers, etc. The Government pays subventions to 11 

 merchant steamers (the " Campania " and " Lucania " 

 of the Canard line ; the "Himalaya." "Australia." 

 roria." and "Arcadia." of the Peninsular and 

 Oriental Company: the "Empress of India." " Em- 



- of China." and "Empress of Japan." belong- 

 ing to the Canadian Pacific Railway Company : and 

 the " Majestic " and "Teutonic." of the White Star 

 line), which are held at the service of the navy as 



ed merchant cruisers in case of war and have 

 their armaments prepared. Many others are held 

 at the disposal of the navy, if needed, as troop ships 

 or the like. The vessels of the navy on foreign serv- 

 ice at the end of ls95 were distributed as follow : 

 Mediterranean and Black Sea. 34 : Channel squad- 

 ron. 9 : North America and West Indies. 12: East 

 Indies. 9 : China. 25 : Cape of Good Hope and West 

 Africa. 15: Pacific. 9: Australia, 12: South Amer- 

 ica. 4: surveying. 7: special service, 11: training 

 squadron. 4: total. 151. 



The steel battle ship " Mars," of 14.900 tons and 

 12.000 horse power and built to carry 16 guns in the 

 main battery, was launched at Birkenheadon March 

 30. 1896. The " Majestic " and the ' Magnificent " 

 were already in commission. The "Mars" is one 

 of the 9 sister ships including the "Majestic." 

 ' Prince George." "C;r>ar." "Magnificent." "Illus- 

 trious." "Victorious." "Jupiter." and "Hannibal." 

 The Harveyized armor is 9 inches thick on the sides 

 and 14 inches on the barbettes, and the protective 

 deck is 4 inches thick. The armament consists of 



4 wire-coiled 12-inch and 12 rapid-fire 6-inch guns, 

 with 18 12-pounders. 12 3-poumlers. 8 machine and 



5 field guns. Of the new first-class cruisers the 

 "Talbot." "Eclipse." and "Minerva" were ready 

 for sea before the end of the summer. The " Pe- 

 lorus." the first of the new type of third-class cruiser, 

 was completed in June, and the ' Proserpine " was 



