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[5] "Many speakers to the House the other night in the debate on

the reduction of armaments seemed to show a most lamentable

ignorance of the conditions under which the British Empire

maintains its existence. When Mr Balfour replied to the

allegations that the Roman Empire sank under the weight of its

military obligations, he said that this was 'wholly

unhistorical.' He might well have added that the Roman power was

at its zenith when every citizen acknowledged his liability to

fight for the State, but that it began to decline as soon as this

obligation was no longer recognised."-Pall Mall Gazette, 15th May

1906.