H.M.S. “BOXER,” TORPEDO BOAT DESTROYER.
The Boxer, a twin-screw vessel, built by Messrs. Thornycroft, of Chiswick, is one of the fastest ships in the world. Her length is 200 feet; speed, 29·17 knots. Her sister-ship, the Desperate, has steamed 30 knots.
H.M.S. “VICTORIA” FIRING HER 110-TON GUN.
The Victoria was built in 1887 by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell. & Co., and was one of three “first-class armourclads” which were armed with 110-ton guns—the heaviest ordnance ever made. She was of steel, 10,500 tons displacement. The loss of this magnificent ship, with the Admiral, 30 officers, and 320 men out of a crew of 600, on the 22nd June 1893, through colliding with H.M.S. Camperdown while executing manœuvres off the Syrian coast, is one of the most tragic events in recent history.
But it was necessary to put a check on the Foreign Secretary’s recklessness. It was intimated to him that his conduct was calculated to place the Sovereign in a most painful position towards her allies, and this rebuke, Russell wrote to the Queen, it was hoped would “have its effect on Lord Palmerston.” This incident closed on December 4, only two days after the French coup d’état, and when it became apparent that the Foreign Secretary had perpetrated a further indiscretion, strong measures had to be taken. The dismissal of a Minister is an extreme exertion of the Royal Prerogative, though it is one that was not uncommon in former reigns. Nevertheless, it is the only expedient when a Minister refuses to carry out the policy of the Queen’s Government or enters upon an independent one of his own.
After some correspondence between Russell and Palmerston, the former wrote, on December 17, informing Palmerston “that the conduct of Foreign Affairs could no longer be left in his hands with advantage to the country,” and offering him the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. |Dismissal of Palmerston.|Of course Lord Palmerston resigned, and the Queen accepted the resignation. “The distinction,” wrote Her Majesty to the Prime Minister, “which Lord Palmerston tries to establish between his personal and his official acts is perfectly untenable.”
H.M.S. “TERRIBLE,” 1897.
This is the latest of the “first class cruisers”; displacement, 14,200 tons; horse-power, 25,000; speed, 22 knots. Built by the Clydebank Shipbuilding Company.