ing, but choosing to let all go to the devil rather than lift a hand to stop the ruin. When the mischief was done, when America was lost beyond hope of recovery, when our arms had been disgraced and our means squandered, then, and not till then, opinion stood up strongly enough to overthrow this contemptible Government. One vigorous push, made in the early days of the war, might have averted all our calamities. Capable statesmen would have come to terms with the Colonies before all was irremediably embroiled, or, if they had decided to wage war, would have carried it on with vigour. Lord North's ministry understood neither how to make peace nor to make war. They were allowed to continue in their ruinous course because Britain was in a cold fit.
The cold fit is on us again now. We are in as unfortunate a condition as can well be imagined. Unquestionably this condition is due to the incapacity and perversity of her Majesty's Ministers. They have ruined Ireland. They have brought shame and damage on us in South Africa. We are engaged in in unnecessary and meaningless war in Egypt, which has already been attended with immense slaughter, and which bids fair to be more bloody than it has been. Our enterprising general, whom we sent single-handed into the midst of the danger, has been basely deserted, and has died a hero's death. We have been too late with every movement that we have made. No European nation is friendly to us. With Russia we stand on the very brink of a war, the dangerous situation being due altogether to the neglect of their duty by the Government in past years. Our trade is declining. Our revenue is failing. And we are taxed more heavily than we have been for many years.
If any one of the calamities above mentioned be compared with the French Conspiracy Bill, it will be found to outweigh that Bill heavily: how much more, then, must the sum of them outweigh it! Yet that astounding accumulation of injuries does not move the country to action. Are we waiting, as in Lord North's days, until the empire has been actually rent asunder before we displace the authors of these troubles?
More than once we have heard it said that the country cannot be expected just now to interest itself in foreign or colonial affairs, because the whole of the wage-earning class are intent on confiscations and on changes in home legislation designed to improve their condition: when these shall be effected they will be ready again to care a little for our foreign relations. But unfortunately these external matters will not wait. They press for solution; and it does not rest with us to say when they shall be dealt with. We must look to them when they present themselves, or encounter fearful consequences for neglecting them. And our working people should recollect that the loss of our dominions and of our trade is not a subject which can be separated from that of work and wages. Lop off a member from the empire, close a market, and you destroy the source from which a proportion of the wages of the country is derived. Let us lose India, or any part of India; let us have India only hampered and occupied by a severe war, – and it will soon be discovered how intimately connected the affairs of Calcutta and Bombay are with those of Manchester and Birmingham. We are heavily taxed now; we shall be taxed more heavily if
