Lord Salisbury made two political speeches at Bradford on Thursday.
In the first he shattered the hopes of those who had built on Sir Stafford Northoote's wistful vision of a patch of ' blue eky ' in the East, by declaring that "no indication of exhaus- tion" on either side had as yet been seen by any one, and indicating his own impression that the war would pro- bably be protracted. "You must always remember that this is a war, not of Sovereigns, but of peoples. There is an intense feeling on both sides, it may be of fanatical, it may be of national hostility ; and it is not one of those wars which Sovereigns can begin, continue, and end, according to the views of policy which they form in the Cabinet." Further, he said that "he did not himself believe in the probability of a drawn battle,"—which implied, we suppose, a faith in the superior resources of Russia. The Government, however, would be most eager to press peace on the belligerents, when it saw any chance of their accepting such advice. We believe that the Government might almost as profitably be most anxious to press rain upon the sky of Hindostan, as to press peace at the present moment on Russia and Turkey ; but if it amuses them, it is, after all, an occu- pation not likely to be productive of active mischief.
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