At the Colston anniversary, on Wednesday, the Tories had the
best of it, so far at least as the amu.singness of the chief speaker went. Lord Carlingford, who was the Liberal spokesman of the -day, was sensible, but not very exciting. He remarked rather well that with a Tory Government we seemed to have no home affairs ; that, on the contrary, the Home Secretary was trans- formed by the emergency of the case into an extra Foreign Minister, " and is probably travelling the world over, forgetful of his artisans' dwellings and his prisons at home." He regretted profoundly that England had not made a determined effort to -enforce, in conjunction with the other Powers, such changes in Turkey as would have put an end to abuses, and yet shut the mouth of Russia. He spoke of the Afghan quarrel with great alarm, and hoped that after the mysterious oracle of the Prime Minister as to our unscientific frontier, some modicum of real information might be vouchsafed to us. But Lord Carling- ford is too sanguine. The present Government is highly Romanticist in action, but purely Agnostic in relation to the motives and the antecedents of action.
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