purpose which its advocates declare that it will effect. We do not save our pockets. We do not pursue industry and commerce without detriment. For all our operations are in a degree paralysed by the heavy public burdens to which we are subjected. Be it remembered, too, that the dispute with Russia is not settled: it may reopen again at any moment, and then the money we have spent will be seen to have been utterly wasted.
Britain has rarely been so friendless as she is at present. A stout ally might have made our position with regard to Russia far more favourable than it is, notwithstanding our unreadiness to fight. But no nation stands by us. And this desolation is clearly owing to the incapacity of our Government, which has managed to alienate all Europe.
We have no hesitation in saying, and few persons, as we believe, will be found ready to deny, that, if we had had a Conservative Government, the complication with Russia would never have arisen. The question, whose shadow was cast long before, would have been provided against and disposed of before collision was imminent; a firm tone would have been maintained by our Cabinet from the first; there would have been no threat of war, for the enemy would have understood that we were not to be trifled with; and there would have been nothing to pay. What, then, is the advantage of having at the head of affairs Mr Gladstone and his diversely minded Cabinet? We should like very much to understand what the people have gained by setting up this Ministry. The question has been asked before in this Magazine, but not amid the same circumstances. For we have at length to pay eleven millions for wars and rumours of wars, and the shadow of a bloody war is still upon us. Thus is put the last touch of ridicule to the picture of peace and light burdens which it was the mission of this evangelical Administration to bestow on us! It is impossible but that in time the money drain must cause a change in the public sentiment; but we would like the change to come before the drain has advanced further. It is far more satisfactory to save the money than to avenge the loss of it.
Flattering tales are pleasant to listen to. Conservatives will not tell flattering tales, the truth of which they cannot certainly warrant. Therefore they are put aside for men who will recklessly prophesy smooth things. But this is a time for judging sensibly of such matters. Are flattering tales, such as Mr Gladstone invented by the volume at Mid-Lothian, worth the price which we now find that we have to pay for them? That is for the country to decide; but we should say that the tales are dear at the money.
Neither are we the only persons who so think. It is plain that the friends of the Administration see how little claim it has left upon the confidence of the country, for they have altered the tone of their platform oratory. They have ceased to trumpet the merits of the trebly convicted Cabinet – ceased, indeed, to say much of the Cabinet at all; but, instead of the old boasts and promises, they tell us that a Liberal Government is the only possible one – meaning, we opine, that the Conservative party is too much divided to be able to govern at all. Now this is mere nonsense. There is, properly speaking, no difference of opinion among Conservatives as to how the country should be gov-
