fabric of a vision? The streak runs, of course, very much as it has done for ages past; but the security, the peace, the prosperity, where are they? The reality is unfortunately a very different sort of thing. For instead of these alluring fancies we have a state of continuous war, alarm for the safety of our capital, military writers urging the turn-out of our citizens en masse for the protection of our hearths and homes, crushing taxes, failing trade, forced idleness of our working population. One can understand full well why the authors of the silver-streak phantasma should find it convenient to be reticent about it just now; but there is no reason whatever why persons whose hands are clear of the cheat should refrain from calling John Bull's attention to the shameful artifice by which he was lulled into a false security.
The silver-streak trick is entitled to a place among the Curiosities of Politics because it is shrewdly suspected to have been an invention of a notorious dealer in phrases who is largely responsible for the events, diametrically opposed to those guaranteed by the streak, which "Happy England" has had to undergo. It seems a wonderful contradiction that the simple believer in quiet inoffensive home-life, "the world forgetting, by the world forgot," should be found wrangling and striving all over the earth, making light not only of streaks, but of seas and oceans, when they stand between him and his opponent, embroiled in Europe, in Asia, and in Africa, without a friend in the world. Yes; but if we remember that the silver-streak theory was put forward to serve a temporary purpose, and to be put aside when that purpose was served, there will be less to marvel at in the variance between prospectus and outcome.
Happy England, at present, instead of having all her innocent regards concentrated within the limits of her four seas, enjoys the inexpressible felicity of being governed by Mr Gladstone – a very different thing. We pointed out in these papers, a year or two since, that Mr Gladstone, being of the nature not of a necessary of life but of a luxury, would have to be paid for at a luxurious price. There have been some shadows cast before already in the shape of income-tax, but this year we shall probably have such an instalment of the little bill as will show us the terms on which "the first statesman of this or of any age" will condescend to occupy himself with our affairs. Paying away heavy sums of money is never pleasant, even when fair value has been received for them; but in our case, it is to be feared, we are going to pay for positive losses and injuries, and to pay through the nose.
Did not somebody – a seer more worthy of credit than the silver-streak quack – predict that Mr Gladstone would shake the empire to its centre? Well, we are vibrating all over in a most alarming way, and, unhappily, a majority of us appear not to discern what the throes all mean. They will not stop the quakings that are going on at their expense. There has been plenty of time in which to judge of the real course of things, because Mr Gladstone has been in office now five years, and a survey of his achievements not only fails to discover any good that he has done, but leaves us perplexed as to the evil – uncertain when we may know the worst. And he is allowed to flounder on.
