cost, or any other limitation, except as to class or size.
At the same time orders were issued for the building of thirteen
frigates of a medium class by thirteen of the most skillful
shipbuilders in the kingdom, in order to ascertain the best models,
the best running lines, and the best of every other quality
desirable in a war vessel. This is the mode in which Great Britain
prepares for any contingencies which may arise. She cannot tell
when they may occur, yet she knows that she has no immunity from
those chances which, at some time or other, are seen to happen to
all nations. In my opinion, the construction of this road from the
Mississippi to the Pacific is essential to the protection and safety
of this country, in the event of a war with any great maritime
Power. It may take ten years to complete it; but every hundred
miles of it, which may be finished before the occurrence of war,
will be just so much gained--so much added to our ability to
maintain our honor in that war. In every view of this question I
can take, I am persuaded that we ought at least prepare to commence
the work, and do it immediately.

JUDAH PHILIP BENJAMIN (1811-1884)

Judah P. Benjamin, the "Beaconsfield of the Confederacy," was born
at St. Croix in the West Indies, where his parents, a family of
English-Jews, on their way to settle in New Orleans, were delayed by
the American measures against intercourse with England. In 1816 his
parents brought him to Wilmington, North Carolina, where, and at
Yale College, he was educated. Not until after he was ready to
begin life at the bar, did he reach New Orleans, the destination for
which his parents had set out before he was born. In New Orleans,
after a severe struggle, he rose to eminence as a lawyer, and his
firm, of which Mr. Slidell was a partner, was the leading law firm
of the State. He was elected to the United States Senate as a Whig
in 1852 and re-elected as a Democrat in 1859. With Mr. Slidell, who
was serving with him in the Senate, he withdrew in 1861 and became
Attorney-General in the Confederate cabinet. He was afterwards made
Secretary of War, but as the Confederate congress censured him in
that position he resigned it and Mr. Davis immediately appointed him
Secretary of State. After the close of the war, when pursuit after
members of the Confederate cabinet was active, he left the coast of
Florida in an open boat and landed at the Bahamas, taking passage
thence to L