

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



311 



are designed to make 18f knots with moderate 

 forced draught and 18 knots with natural draught. 

 Their secondary armament will have superior pro- 

 tection. The " Caesar," " Illustrious," and " Hanni- 

 bal" were completed before March 31, 1898. The 

 ' Kenown," launched in 1895, with a displacement 

 of 12,350 tohs, 10 inches of armor, 10,000 horse 

 engines, making 17 knots, and 4 29-ton guns 

 mounted in two barbettes, with 10 6-inch quick 

 firers and 30 smaller ones, has been improved in 

 the "Canopus" class. This vessel, launched in 

 October, 1897, has a displacement of 12,950 tons, 12 

 inches of side armor, engines of 13,500 horse power, 

 jiving a speed of 18f knots, and an armament 

 ilmost the same as on the "Majestic" class, con- 

 sisting of 4 12-inch breechloaders, 12 6-inch, 12 

 12-pounders, and 14 smaller quick-firing guns, 

 '.'he Spencer programme included 4 others of this 

 type, the " Ocean," " Goliath," " Albion," and 

 "Glory," and another, the " Vengeance," has been 

 idded. Three more that have been since author- 

 zed are improved " Majesties." All the new battle 

 sliips will be armed with 12-inch and 6-inch quick- 

 ring guns. These would have been further ad- 

 ranced if the engineers' strike and lockout had not 

 intervened. Four new armored cruisers are build- 

 ing which will have a displacement of 11,850 tons, 

 pith an armament of 2 9-inch breechloaders and 

 12 6-inch and 14 12-pounder quick-firers. The 

 eat deck - protected cruisers " Powerful " and 

 "Terrible," of 14,200 tons, have been completed, 

 hey have 25,000 power engines, making 22 knots, 

 ind carry 2 9.2-inch breechloaders and 12 6-inch, 

 18 12-pounder, and 12 3-pounder quick-firing guns, 

 he "Diadem" class has a displacement of 11,000 

 jns, engines of 16,500 horse power, giving a speed 

 20^ knots, and an armament consisting exclu- 

 sively of quickfirers, 16 6-inch, 14 12-pounder, 

 and 20 smaller ones. The " Diadem " was launched 

 in 1896, the " Andromeda," " Niobe," and " Europa " 

 in the following year, and the "Argonaut," "Spar- 

 tiate," " Amphitrite," and "Ariadne" are rapidly 

 approaching completion. The next, four to be built, 

 the "Cressy" class, will be of greater dimensions, 

 L1.850tons, and will carry a pair of 9-inch, besides 12 

 5-inch and 14 12-poundcr quick-firing guns. Nine 

 second-class cruisers of the " Talbot " class, 5,600 

 tons, have recently been completed. These are the 

 "Eclipse," "Minerva," "Talbot," "Diana," "Juno," 

 " Venus," " Dido," " Doris," and " Isis." They make 

 19^ knots with engines of 9,600 horse power, and 

 carry a quick-firing armament of 5 6-inch, 6 4.7-incl), 

 and numerous smaller guns. Three more, the 

 " Hermes," " Hyacinth," and "Highflyer," are be- 

 ing added, and four others of larger size, the " Fu- 

 rious," " Gladiator," "Vindictive." and "Arrogant," 

 were launched in 1896. These displace 5,750 tons, 

 have engines of 10,000 horse power or over, giving 

 a speed of 19 or 19^ knots, and carry 4 6-inch, 6 

 4.7-inch. 9 12-pounder, and 8 small quick-firing 

 guns. Eight third-class cruisers of the " Pelorus " 

 type were begun in 1898 and 1897. The newest of 

 the smaller cruisers are of the " Apollo" type, dis- 

 lacing 3,400 tons, or of the type of the " Astraea," 

 of 4,360 tons, with engines of 9,000 horse power, 

 iving a speed of 19i or 20 knots. Of the 90 de- 

 stroyers ordered under the naval-defense act, but 

 few remain to be finished. Of the 42 first ordered, 

 with a contract speed of 26 or 27 knots, 37 were 

 completed before the end of the financial year. 

 Contracts were next made for 45 with a speed of 

 30 knots, and five more were ordered in 1898. Of 

 still newer types three were ordered with a speed 

 of 32 or 33 'knots, and one having a steam turbine 

 instead of the. reciprocating engine. A flotilla of 

 8 light-draught gunboats has been built for service 

 on African rivers. 



The new ship-building programme for 1899 when 

 first announced comprised 3 battle ships, 4 armored 

 cruisers, and 4 sloops. The naval budget for 1899, 

 amounting to 25,000,000, was the heaviest ever 

 voted in peace or war. Still it was insufficient to 

 bring up the arrears in the authorized programme 

 of construction. The number of officers, seam#n, 

 boys, coast guard, and marines voted for 1898 was 

 100,050, an increase of 6,300 for the year. In July 

 Mr. Goschen announced an addition to the original 

 programme, occasioned by the proposed new con- 

 struction in Russia, and necessitating, in order to 

 maintain the superiority of the British navy over 

 those of France and Russia combined, the building 

 of 4 more battle ships, 4 cruisers, and 12 destroyers. 

 The two programmes together involve an outlay on 

 shipbuilding of 15,000,000 spread over four years. 



Commerce and Production. The production 

 of wheat in Great Britain in 1897 was 54,913.000 

 bushels; of barley, 66,804,000 ; of oats,' 11 6,8 12,000; 

 the production in 1896 of wheat in Ireland, 1,194,- 

 000 bushels; of barley, 7,050.000 bushels; of oats, 

 48,844,000 bushels; of potatoes, 2,701.000 tons; of 

 turnips. 4,783,000 tons. There were 1,526,424 horses, 

 6,500,497 cattle, 26,340,440 sheep, and 2,342,302 pigs 

 in Great Britain in 1897, and in Ireland 534,133 

 horses, 4,463,935 cattle, 4,157,581 sheep, and 1,327,- 

 226 pigs. The quantity of fish landed on the coast 

 in 1897 was 688,263 tons, valued at 7,480,060. 

 The imports of fish in 1896 were 113,654 tons, val- 

 ued at 2,636,076. The exports were valued at 

 2,009,147, of which 1,328,656 stand for herring 

 alone. The quantity of iron extracted from British 

 ores in 1896 was 4,759,446 tons, valued at 11,375,- 

 474; of lead, 303,398 tons, valued at 350,940; of 

 tin. 4,838 tons, valued at 307,678; of zinc, 7,110 

 tons, valued at 123,240; of silver, 283,826 ounces, 

 valued at 36.365; of copper, 556 tons, valued at 

 28,180. The value of all the ores raised was 3,814,- 

 536, and of all the metals contained in the ores 

 12,226,912. The total value of non-metallie min- 

 erals raised was 65.273,830. The coal output was 

 195,361,260 tons, valued at 57,190,147. The ex- 

 ports of coal, coke, and patent fuel were 34,262,056 

 tons, valued at 15,156,313. France, Germany, 

 Italy. Spain, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Norway, 

 and Brazil took the bulk of the exports. The quan- 

 tity of iron ore smelted in British furnaces in 1896 

 was 21.204,284 tons ; the quantity of pig iron made, 

 8,659.681 tons; exports of pig iron, 1,060,165 tons; 

 imports. 106,449 tons. The exports of bar and angle 

 iron were 178,123 tons; of railroad iron, 747.662 ; 

 of wire, 56.110 ; of plates for tinning, 48,405 ; of tin 

 plates, 266,963 ; of cast and wrought iron, 366,230 ; 

 of hoops and plates, 365.165 ; of old iron, 127.424 ; 

 of steel, 297,439 ; of steel and iron, 36,712 ; total 

 iron and steel, 3,550,398 tons. The imports of cop- 

 per ore and regulus were 178,134 tons ; of copper, 

 65,359 ; of lead, 167,799 ; of tin, 38.375 ; of zinc, 

 76.635. The quantity of raw cotton imported was 

 1.754,890,256 pounds and the re-exports were 183,- 

 823,808 pounds, leaving 1.571,066,448 pounds for 

 home consumption. The imports of wool were 718,- 

 537,253 pounds, and the exports 334,691,803 pounds, 

 leaving 383,845,450 pounds for home consumption. 

 The consumption of flax is about 240,000,000 pounds. 

 The exports of cotton piece goods in 1897 were 

 4,793,000,000 yards; of cotton yarn. 253,000,000 

 pounds ; of woolen piece goods, 200,000,000 yards ; 

 of woolen yarn, 57,000,000 pounds ; of linen piece 

 goods, 165,000,000 yards ; of linen yarn, 18,000,000 

 pounds; value of "manufactured cotton exported, 

 64,000,000; of woolen manufactures, 20,800,000; 

 of linen manufactures, 5,700,000. The quantity of 

 tea imported in 1896 was 265,394.000 pounds, of 

 which about 48 per cent, came from India. 36 per 

 cent, from Ceylon, 13 per cent, from China, and 3 



