tations. The first object of
inquiry should, therefore, have been to lay down the necessary standard
of naval force. The vital question of the navy was not referred to the
royal commission, and the four fortresses were also strangely excluded
from its purview. It followed inevitably that the protection of commerce
was approached at the wrong end, and that the labours of the commission
were to a great extent vitiated by the elimination of the principal
factor. Voluminous and important evidence, which has not been made
public, was, however, accumulated, and the final report was completed in
1881. The commissioners recalled attention to the extreme importance of
the Cape route to the East; they carefully examined the main maritime
communications of the empire, and the distribution of trade upon each;
they selected certain harbours for defence, and they obtained from the
War Office and endorsed projects of fortification in every case; lastly,
they condemned the great dispersion of troops in the West Indies, which
had arisen in days when it was a political object to keep the standing
army out of sight of the British people, and had since been maintained
by pure inadvertence. Although the principal outcome of the careful
inquiries of the commission was to initiate a great system of passive
defence, the able reports were a distinct gain. Some principles were at
last formulated by authority, and the information collected, if it had
been rendered accessible to the public, would have exercised a
beneficial influence upon opinion. Moreover, the commissioners,
overstepping the bounds of their charter, delivered a wise and
statesmanlike warning as to the position of the navy.

Meanwhile, the impulse of the fears of 1878 caused indifferent armaments
to be sent to Cape Town, Singapore and Hong-Kong, there to be mounted
after much delay in roughly designed works. At the same time, the great
colonies of Australasia began to set about the defence of their ports
with commendable earnestness. There is no machinery for giving effect to
the recommendations of a royal commission, and until 1887, when extracts
were laid before the first colonial Conference, the valuable report was
veiled in secrecy. After several years, during which Lord Carnarvon
persistently endeavoured to direct attention to the coaling stations,
the work was begun. In 1885 a fresh panic arose out of the Panjdeh
difficulty, which supplied an impetus to the belated proceeding