READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 15 



ing that was destined a century later to fill the 

 oceans and the scrap-heaps of all the world 

 with gigantic masses of steel, operated to keep 

 at full tension the workers on the puny wooden 

 structures that embodied the hope of triumphant 

 sea-power in the earlier day. Only when the 

 actual strain on the finances of the govern 

 ments overcame the care for a contingent future 

 of naval glory, was a halt called in the extrava 

 gant proceedings on the Lakes. 



The proposition of Adams for disarmament 

 met with no satisfactory response at first from 

 Lord Castlereagh. His Lordship freely ad 

 mitted the ruinous consequences that were 

 threatened by the competition in fleet-building, 

 but urged that, because Great Britain was at 

 a great disadvantage as compared with the 

 United States in respect to facilities for defen 

 sive equipment in that remote region, any re 

 striction of force should apply to the Americans 

 only. The truth was that the British cabinet 

 were seriously divided on the policy to be pur 

 sued in this matter. A party headed by Lord 

 Bathurst, the colonial secretary, insisted that 

 an overwhelming naval force should be created 

 on the Lakes, so as to render forever out of the 

 question any American aggression upon Upper 



