We have great respect for Abdiels, and on the Egyptian
question Sir W. Lawson is the Abdiel of his party ; but Abdiel !shwa not talk nonsense. Speaking at Aspatria, in Cumber- land, on Tuesday, the Member for Carlisle, after. denouncing perfectly just terms the Egyptian Bondholders, declared, without a shadow of evidence, that this country was at war with Egypt on their behalf, and maintained that the duty of the Fleet off Alexandria, when it found itself menaced, was to run away- "The defence of the bombardment offered by Govern- ment " was, he said, that " we could not bear to see Arabi pointing his guns at us. If a man were pointing a gun at him, he, for his part, should get out of his way, and this country had the whole seas open to her Fleet." If that means anything, it means a man with his children to defend who sees a bur-
glar holding rather morea pistol at him, should skulk downstairs. That e more than non-resistance, for the Quaker, though he would not strike, would at least stop, and leave to the criminal the responsibility of firing. Is Sir Wilfrid Lawson really ignorant that British subjects had been massacred in Alexandria, that if Government had acted as he proposes, all Asia would in a month have been massacring Europeans, and that the Liberal Ministry would have given way to one whose very raison crdtre would have been a war of vengeance ? Folly like this destroys all the use and all the effect of the courage with which Sir Wilfrid pleads for lost causes,—a courage so exactly opposed to the conduct he recommends. Why is it his duty always to charge, and that of everybody else to run away P
Previous page
