The rivalry of cannon and armor plates is going on, the development of torpedoes and shells is reaching its maximum, and the power of taking a nation to the edge of starvation, for the building of monster ships, costing each millions of dollars, is the study of CHRISTIAN (!!) governments. Thirty years ago, the largest British cannon was a sixty-eight pounder, costing $561, which might be fired for $275. Now they have a 110-ton gun costing $97,500 to manufacture, and $935 to fire once. The British government has gone into such matters deeply, paying Mr. Brennan over half a million dollars for his torpedo invention. The British ship "Victoria" uses 900 pounds of powder to one of its 110-ton guns which send a missile of 1,800 pounds. Nelson's flag ship "Victory" used no larger powder charge than eight pounds, and its heaviest shot was only sixty-eight pounds. A broadside upon the "Victoria" consumes 3,000 pounds of powder. Its 110-ton gun is moved by hydraulic machinery. Such a metallic monster would seem almost incredible, but Krupp has constructed a still larger gun for Italy, 46 feet long and weighing over 118 tons. It could not be sent overland by railway, but was sent to Antwerp for shipping on a specially constructed carriage 105 feet long, running on 32 wheels. The American steel cruiser "Atlanta" has two guns of eight-inch bore, 24 feet long, sending out a projectile of 300 pounds which explodes on striking,--firing correctly five miles. It costs $150 to to fire once. Lieut. Zalinski is using a light steel tube, sixty feet long and one foot in diameter, to fire explosive shells by air pressure. Great results are expected from it, and it would save us from the enormous cost of modern cannon. Fortunately, America, being out of the great maelstrom of war, can cultivate humane sentiments and abolish the barbarism of dueling, which still holds its ground in France and Germany in the highest ranks of society. We have had one terrible war to demoralize our nation, but now peace is secure and the old Federal and Confederate soldiers are active in exchanging visits and generous hospitalities North and South in a permanent and peaceful Union. "No vision of the morrow's strife The warrior's dream alarms, No braying horn, nor screaming fife, At dawn shall call to arms." A re-established Union saves us from the wars and the military despotism in which other republics have perished, and all can unite now in the following beautiful tribute to the dead heroes: "By the flow of the inland river, Whence the fleets of iron have fled, Where blades of the green grass quiver, Asleep are the ranks of the dead; Under the sod and the dew, Waiting the judgment day; Under the one, the blue, Under the other, the gray. "These, in the robings of glory, Those in the gloom of defeat; All with the battle-blood gory, In the dusk of eternity meet.