(See one of your recent productions),
But we've chosen the other alternative—
We've hauled down our Mis-instructions.
Punch's view, expressed in comments on the debate in the following February, was that the matter should be left in the discretion of captains—as it had been for thirty-six years. He declared, not without reason, that both circulars were virtually dead, and that the country would not stand them. Meanwhile the growth of the German Navy, which in his earlier years Punch had persistently ridiculed and belittled, had begun to excite attention and misgiving; Punch, though a Liberal, was a "big Navy" man, and, early in 1875, was concerned with the dangers of our falling behind in the race of naval armaments:—
RULE, GERMANIA!
The Times informs us that, of "iron-clad cruisers of the strongest type, Germany will, in the present year, have seven built against five of our own navy." The Pall Mall Gazette is of opinion that "the Germans have too many irons in the political fire to give exclusive attention to any one of them."
But very soon, unless we get beforehand with the Germans, will they not have too many irons in the water, too?
NEUTRALITY UNDER DIFFICULTIES
Dizzy: "Bulgarian Atrocities! I can't find them in the Official Reports'!!!"