go for a dance. Under the evangelical rule of fifty years ago, the clergy set their faces dead against dancing. Most nonconformists still do so. The magistrates steadfastly refuse dancing licenses. But a change is coming over our views. We have happily learned to distinguish. Not dancing, but the abuse of dancing places, is the vice; dancing itself is the most innocent, as it is also the most delightful of all amusements. We have only to go to Germany to understand that. Until the last century, which was a time when nearly everything was brutal, dancing was the most popular form of recreation. We have therefore taken a step toward the restoration of dancing to the amusement of the people. There have been four balls held at the Palace. The lady members were invited to bring their brothers and friends, and dancing to the band of the Scots Greys was carried on from seven to eleven. It was an experiment attended with some anxiety; but the girls themselves knew that future dances depended on the success of these, and that there were outside bigots and fanatics ready enough to cry out upon the wickedness of the trustees in allowing the dance and the dreadful things it would lead to. The result was that no court ball could have been conducted with greater decorum. Court balls, however, are said to be dull things; no West End ball, however spirited, could have been more delightful to everybody concerned. There was no supper, but there was a refreshment room, where things could be procured at a most reasonable rate. And the question now is not "Shall a dance be held ?" but "When shall we have another? and how shall the lads be taught to dance better?" because, as always happens, it was found that the young men were far behind the girls in dancing.

I have to add that no intoxicants are permitted to be sold in the Palace. At first, some of the trustees were against this rule, because they would have the members themselves insist upon temperance. But their views are now changed. In a great place where thousands of young people congregate every evening it is well that no temptation should be thrown in their way. Outside, there are public houses in plenty; within the Palace one can take any kind of meal, but strong drink one cannot have.

There is growing up in the place among the members a strong and wholesome corporate life. Friendships are made which will be life long; the lads are finding out each other as young men do at Oxford or Cambridge. Already they like better to be boxing

and cudgel playing in the gymnasium, or running with the harriers, than walking up and down the street with a girl; already they are beginning to understand that social life which they have never before had the chance of enjoying. The clubs are doing this, mainly; the Journal tries to help. Already the People's Palace Choir is singing for the people; soon there will be a palace orchestra playing for them. We look for the development of artistic genius and the exhibition of East End painters. Next winter there will be, I hope, many dances. New clubs and associations are continually being formed, and only yesterday I heard that some of them were asking when we are going to start a dramatic school.

Above all and before all, it is endeavored to make the members understand that everything that is done in and for the place must be supported and carried through by the people for the people. Their own choir and band will sing and play at their own concerts; they will organize their own dances; they will carry on their own clubs; they will act their own plays; they will send forth their own artists, trained within the palace walls in every kind of art; they will send out skilled workmen ready to support the good old name of the good old country against all

comers.

WALTER BESANT.

OUR SEA-COAST DEFENSES.

Why do we need coast defenses ?

To protect our wealthy seaport cities from bombardment in times of war, and from forced money contributions levied under threat of bombardment; to protect our military and naval establishments located on the seaboard, our torpedo stations and navy yards; to provide harbors of refuge for our merchantmen, and even for our navy; to prevent the enemy from establishing himself in our waters, by seizing and holding conveniently situated harbors as bases of operations, supply, and, to a certain extent, repair stations; to insure to ourselves strategic points from which our navy can act offensively; to provide a defensive line behind which, in a prolonged war, we shall be enabled to increase our navy or even create a new one; to prevent the enemy from seizing or raiding our commercial centres on the seaboard, thereby paralyzing or seriously interfering with our transportation system, depressing securities and values, and causing distress and suffering to a large portion of our population; and, finally, by placing ourselves in a proper state of defense, to diminish the chances of war and insure ourselves and our posterity against its evils.

Protection of property is perhaps a more tangible need than any of the others mentioned. In the cities bordering the harbors of Portland, Me., Portsmouth, Boston, Newport, New London, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Wilmington, Charleston, Savannah, St. Augustine, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland, Or. (mouth of Columbia River) and the important ports on the Great Lakes; there is approximately six thousand million dollars worth of destructible property; that is, property which might be destroyed by the fire of a hostile fleet.

Should such a fleet occupy New York Bay and bombard the surrounding cities, it would endanger and might destroy by demolition, by bursting bombs and nitro-gelatine shells, and by the

fires resulting therefrom, property valued at one thousand five hundred millions in New York City, one hundred millions in Jersey City and six hundred millions in Brooklyn. Nor would the effects of such bombardment be limited to the destruction of property. The privations, suffering and loss of life to which the populace would be subjected would be appalling, for even should the enemy grant a reasonable time for the removal of non-combatants, neither threats, nor persuasion, nor even force could secure the safety of more than a small per cent. of the population of those great cities.

The comparatively slight results attained in the way of destruction of life and property in the many bombardments recorded in history form no criterion for the future. Such bombardments have generally been directed against the defenses rather than the city itself. The guns formerly used were far less powerful than modern naval ordinance, and nitro-gelatine, dynamite, or some similar high explosive would now be used for bursting charges in place of powder. The bombardment of Alexandria was directed against the fortifications, yet the city suffered severely solely through lack of accuracy on the part of the gunners of the fleet. There would be no missing such a mark as New York City.

The only alternative to such a bombardment would be the payment of a ransom, which, in the case of New York, would probably be not less than one hundred million dollars.

A possible result of the presence of a hostile fleet in the bay, and one rarely contemplated, is the cutting off the food supplies from New York City and Brooklyn. With the bay and the lower Hudson in the possession of the enemy, all communications would be cut with the exception of the Harlem and New Haven railroads, and even these would be within easy range. Under the most favorable circumstances these two roads would not be adequate to the daily demands of two million people, and it is certain that great distress, if not actual starvation, would result from such a condition of affairs if long continued. During the railroad riots of 1877, and at various times during snow blockades in the West, the dependence of our great cities on the railroads for daily food supplies has been made manifest; but at no time have we felt the pressure as we would in case of war.

As an insurance against war, the value of strong defenses is evident. There is no surer way of avoiding war than by such a VOL. CXLVII.-NO. 380.

5

thorough preparation as leaves no weak point exposed to an enemy's attack and no temptation to his cupidity.

Are we properly protected by our present fortifications?

Prior to 1860, we had one of the best systems of coast defense in the world. Our works were model types of masonry fortifications. Emerging from the great struggle of 1861-5 with a national debt of nearly three thousand million dollars, with our merchant marine annihilated, with one per cent. of our total population-the very flower of our manhood-left dead on the battle-fields of the South, with another half million of maimed and battle-scarred veterans, many of whom became pensioners on the government's bounty, with factories closed and business stagnant, with depreciated securities and with the South reduced to poverty and forced to begin life anew with an overturned social system of a century's growth; it is not surprising that our navy was left to decay and our fortifications to crumble away. Filled with pride at the record of those four years, we felt able to defy the world, and every energy was bent towards the revival of our languishing industries.

The period since 1865 has, however, been a momentous one in the development of military art and science. The breech-loading system of heavy ordnance has been definitely adopted by all nations, and guns have grown in strength and power up to the one hundred and twenty ton forged steel rifles of Krupp, which, with nearly half ton powder charges, throw a full ton of metal to distances beyond ten miles and penetrate two and a half feet of iron a thousand yards away. We see ships encased in over twenty inches of steel and armed with guns weighing one hundred tons and over. Improved designs of hulls, boilers and engines have increased the speed to over fifteen knots* per hour; and the mechanical development of the various types of movable torpedoes has led to the construction of immense fleets of fast torpedo boats.

In the Shoeburyness experiments with the Woolwich eightyton muzzle loading gun, firing a one thousand seven hundred pound projectile, a penetration was obtained of twenty-five feet in granite and thirty-two feet in best Portland cement concrete. The one hundred and ten ton breech loader of 1884 has nearly double the muzzle energy of the Woolwich gun, and recent Eng

* At the final trial (April 19, 1886) of the English belted cruiser “Orlando," a mean speed of 191⁄2 knots (221⁄4 miles) was attained.