Show WHAT WILL THEY SAY When the troubled sea of European politics was becoming partially calmed after the RussoTurkish war of 1877 and the Congress of Berlin had settled the matter between Russia and Turkey and I set aside the Treaty of Stefano Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury came back from Berlin and were received with great enthusiasm They assured their party and the country that they had I brought to England peacp and peace I with honor On this Mr Gladstone on August 25th 1878 wrote as follows H Gentlemen we bring you peace rnd peace with honour Such are the reputed words with which Lord Beaconsfield and Lord Salisbury the two British Plenipotentiaries Plenipoten-tiaries at Berlin rewarded the admiring crowds who on their return to London in July formed part of the wellorganized machinery of an obsequious reception unexampled un-exampled I i suppose in the history of our civilians and meant perhaps to recall the pomp of the triumphs which Rome accorded to her most successful generals There is in this that tone of keen cutting sarcasm for which Mr Gladstone is so famous Had he lived a century ago some of his writings especially his political writings in which he arraigned the Conservative Ministry which preceded pre-ceded his own that has just fallen would well entitle him to rank as a claimant for the honor and distinction of the authorship author-ship of the Junius letters In asking what was the kind of peace that the noble Lords had brought Mr Gladstone further fur-ther remarks Peace and honor are most musical most attractive words But as to the first of this blest pair of Sirens two questions at once occur what was it they brought and in what sense were they the bringers It is I almost to be regretted that Lord Beacons field did not continue in office and Mr Gladstone in opposition that the world might have had more of such fine writing In the article from which the above extracts are made namely Englands Mission in the Nineteenth Century for September 1878 there are enumerated I some twenty of the important measures I that needed immediate attention and L which remained as unredeemed pledges Every measure named was a home meas measure and when the Liberals came into power to carry them out was a part of their programme The Conservative Government had neglected them and I had paid its attention to foreign aggrandizement aggran-dizement and the obtaining honor and I glory In their search they lost the support of the voters and were replaced by the Liberals Soon they too became entangled in the meshes of f the foreign net that the Conservatives had spread and many of the home measures meas-ures to which they were pledged have not been carried through Ireland is scarcely better off now than when the Beaconsfield Ministry fell In 1879 and 1880 the cry of Ireland was for the three Fs which were given her but she has also had the Coercion and the Crimes Acts and trial by jury has been suspended sus-pended The Soudanese expedition compensates com-pensates for the Afghan war and the dismal dis-mal expedition against the Boers What will the Conservatives say to these things and what answers will the Liberals make The Liberals the party of peace and home improvements has been forced into war and compelled to neglect internal affairs In these matters half their troubles was inherited and the other half was a cousin german to them The policy and care of the Liberal party are well defined in the article above referred to With the one party her first care is held to be the care of her own children within her own shores the redress of wrongs tho supply of needs the improvement of laws and institutions The article likewise defines the posi i tion of the Conservatives These are the men whose minds alternate between visions of unbounded influence and bad dreams of a foe behind bush be every tween high pretentions and panic fears and who have no other key to the duties and sympathies of England than their artificial and inflated conception of British inter I ne > l neThis is the party which deems that any I tract of country which may in any way be a road to India no mat ter how difficult or dangerous or circuitous that way may be becomes a British interest and therewith a legitimate legiti-mate subject of military care It was this same solicitude for the safety of Herat which led the Conserva tives to begin their heaviest assault as-sault on the late Ministry as though Herat was Godgiven for the special pro tection of British interests in India When Russia makes any move that does not meet with the approval of the clubs in Pall Mall the cry of British interests is raise < f Still the Beaconsfield Ministry took to themselves and for the interests of England and humanity the Fiji Islands the Transvaal Republic notwithstanding not-withstanding the protestations of the Dutch Boers the island of Cyprus and some othen places It was a terrible thing for llussia to take Merv There have been some things in the administration of the Liberals which are justly open to criticism and no doubt Lord Salisbury and his colleagues will show what those things were but they must remember that Mr Gladstone still sits in the House and that he is probably the ablest general gen-eral debater who ever sat in Parliament Their arraignment of the late Ministry will not be so strong as it otherwise would if Lord Salisbury had been asked by the Queen to form a Ministry after the general election and the country had declared in favor of the Conservatives But the world will watch with interest the game of politics now being played in London and what the new Ministry will say about the conduct of the Government during the past six years will not be of so much importance as what the new Ministry Min-istry will do |