54 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



tageous circumstauces. As to the negro not being erect, the same thing might be 

 said of agricultural labourers in this country. He pointed to Hayti as furnishing 

 an instance of independence of cha)'acter and intellectual power on the part of the 

 negro ; and contended that in America the degraded position which he was forced 

 to occupy gave him no chance of proving what he really was capable of doing. 

 He was sorry that learned and scientific men should waste their time in discussing 

 a subject that could prove of no benefit to mankind. He spoke with great defer 

 ence to their opinions ; but, for his own part, he firmly agreed with Cowper, that 



Fleecy locks and black complexion 



Cannot alter nature's claim ; 



Skins may differ, but affection 



Dwells in white and black the same. 



• Military Budgets of English and French Armies for 1863-i, statistically com- 

 pared,' by Col. Sykes — He showed by a series of elaborate returns that the total 

 eflFective English army was 147,118; that of the French, 355,187. The cost per 

 head of the effective and non-effective English, numbering 147,118 men, was 94^. 

 1«. lid., while that of the French effective and non-effective forces of 400,000 was 

 4SZ. 9s. 4d, per head. The cost of the British manufacturing department was 61. 

 10s, per head, against 2^. 15s. lOd.; military stores (British) per head, 51. 14s, 

 French, Si. Os. 2d. ; purchase of small arms (British), 14s. i^d, against 55. 86?. • 

 British military education, 11. 3s. 5cZ., French, 7s. Id.; administration of the Brit- 

 ish army (Secretary of State and Commander-in-Chief's Department), 11, 8s. lie?., 

 French, 6s. ll|d ; Government staff (British) per individual 304/. 5s., French, 

 390/.; clothing (British), 4?. Os. 2c?., against 1/. 19s. lid. Col. Sykes gave fur- 

 ther details, shoAving the great difference in the amount of estimates required for 

 the support of the British and French armies. He (CoL Sykes) expressed his opin- 

 ion that economy would be secured in a much greater degree if the Government^ 

 instead of manufacturing themselves the materiel required for use in the army and 

 navy, would intrust it to contractors. He had been hoping that the contrast be- 

 tween the expenditure on the French army and that on our own could have been 

 satisfactorily explained, and that the French army was only ont-half of our own. 

 The details could not be gainsaid. Then, again, when a certain total sum was 

 granted, there was the greatest possible vigilance exercised to insure tlrat the sums 

 appropriated to various purposes were actually spent in the department to which 

 tbey were originally intended to be applied, or that they were clearly accounted 

 or if not required. He had received a communication from a friend of his own 

 of high position and fully acquainted with military matters, who, after making in- 

 quiries in the proper quarters, was of opinion that the administration of French 

 military affairs was in a very healthy state indeed, and had exercised a most ben- 

 eficial influence on the political condition of the country. No Englishman would 

 for a moment begrudge the proper means of securing the respectability, the gen- 

 tlemanly bearing, the self-respect of the common soldier even, bnt Englishmen did 

 wish that, whatever public money was given for that purpose, should be devoted 

 in the most economical manner to the purposes for which it was given. It waa 

 what the people of England had a right to expect; and his object in calling atten- 

 tion to those comparisons was that all those things might be looked into, and that, 

 in future, there would be less cause foi' the army and navy to absorb nearly one- 

 half of the taxes of the country. 



