Forces of the Nations of the World and their Cost.

Let us add the war forces of other nations outside Europe. China has an army of about 1,200,000, with a navy comprising 3 ironclads, 7 cruisers, 35 ironclad gunboats, 9 torpedo vessels (British built), and 100 other minor war vessels. Japan has 245,000 soldiers. Persia, 150,000. The United States of America has an army of only 27,000 (including 2,140 officers.) Canada possesses 38,000 militia, and a reserve of 1,030,000. These, with the forces of other Powers, Persia, Morocco, Brazil, Argentina, &c" sum up roundly to 3,260,000 more, making a grand total of the war forces of the world possible for equipment of no fewer than twenty-two-and-a-half millions of men—22,500,000.

Of that vast array it is said that one-fourth to one-fifth of the number form the permanent regular forces, the maintenance whereof reaches an annual cost of about 250 millions of pounds sterling. This is not the place to discuss the ethics of these armaments. But in view of the new demands of the masses of all nations, the momentous social conclusions to which these facts and figures point, (especially in their bearing on the burdens of the peoples) form to-day very prominent factors in the current thought and history of our common humanity.