why, even if I were still
a fellow-citizen (or should I say subject?) of Major-general Dashwood,
and were as much bound as he is to place the interests of the British
crown above every other interest of my life, I should for that very
reason differ with him in opinion, first of all, from a strategic
point of view. We must not, because my distinguished fellow-citizen,
Captain Mahan, has so brilliantly painted the sea-power of England,
forget also her _man-power_. Most certainly, Viscount Wolseley would
not do so; and I think Major-general Dashwood, from whose interesting
little book, "Chipplequorgan," I have learned that he came with his
regiment to Halifax after the "Trent" affair, will agree with me that
it would then, in case of a war with the United States of America,
have been very convenient if Newfoundland had been peopled by half a
million hardy farmers, woodmen, and miners, in addition to its few
fisher-folk. England has to take undergrown and underfed boys into her
army now; but, if the sturdy Irishmen who have been driven to the
United States by famine and eviction had been provided each with the
"three acres and a cow" of Joseph Chamberlain's speeches in the
valleys of the Humber or Codroy Rivers, surely the experience of
Louisbourg and a hundred well-fought battles since then may tell us
how much more they would have contributed to Britain's honor and
interest than they do now as American voters. The south-western part
of Newfoundland reminds one very much of old Ireland in its climate
and its physical features, and certainly is quite as well fitted to
sustain a sturdy peasantry of small land-owners.

The best answer to the distinguished officer's objections may be found
in the official reports of the geological survey of Newfoundland,
published by Edward Stanford, Charing Cross, London. The present
director of that survey, Mr. James P. Howley, F.R.G.S., has replied in
part to Major-general Dashwood's remarks in a letter written a
fortnight ago, from which I extract a few passages. The Major-general
said at the Royal Geographical Society that the timber of Newfoundland
is all scrub, and fit only for firing. Mr. Howley writes: "Our
lumbering industry is in a most flourishing condition. Ten large
saw-mills are in full swing, besides several smaller ones, around our
northern and western bays. Large shipments of lumber were made last
summer to the English markets. Messrs. Watson & Todd, of Liverpool,
England,