This is one of the workshops at Sir W. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co.'s celebrated factory at Elswick. A large naval gun may be seen just beneath the travelling crane.] [Illustration: GIANT LATHES AT THE ELSWICK WORKS. And some of the big guns which have just been turned upon them.] [Sidenote: Former national crises.] [Sidenote: DEC. 16, 1899.] _Meeting of the Committee for National Defence._] Not since the far-off times of Trafalgar had the national danger been so great. In the Crimea it could truthfully be said that the British Army was uniformly successful, and that the horrors of the winter of 1854-5 were due simply and solely to a defective commissariat. Besides, there we had been outnumbered by the enemy; here we outnumbered them. Then we had had the alliance of France, Sardinia, and Turkey, the friendship of Austria, and the not unfriendly neutrality of Prussia; now we were assailed and vilified by the people of every great nation in Europe. The Indian Mutiny as a crisis could not be compared with this, for in India, when once reinforcements had arrived, there was a continuous series of successes. Not since the time of the American War of Independence, more than a hundred years back, had we encountered such frequent reverses. Yet though it was accustomed to easy victories, the English race did not quail under the blow. No voice outside the ranks of the least of the Little Englanders was raised for a surrender. With one accord men called upon the Government to take the fullest measures to restore the fortunes of the war. Everything demanded would be granted; nay, the press, with a wise foresight which deserves the gratitude of the country, urged the Ministry to far greater armaments than those which the Cabinet had in mind. It would have been well in this matter if the press had had its way. [Illustration: WARRIOR-FARMERS: COMMANDANT DE WET AND HIS SONS.] [Illustration: [_Photo by N. P. Edwards._ A PROSPEROUS BOER CATTLE-FARM.] [Sidenote: Measures taken for defence.] [Sidenote: [DEC. 16, 1899.]