Mr. Bourke, who addressed. the Lee Conservative Club at Blackheath
on Thursday, seems to have endeavoured to mske -up for being very dull by being excessively spiteful to the present Government. "I have said over and over again," he declared, "both in the House and out of it, that the policy which led up to the late war in Egypt was a fatal and erroneous one; that the negotiations prior to it were foolish and infatuated, and therefore that the war was unnecessary, and we hold the Government responsible for the results." Mr. Bourke is, no doubt, never tired of repeating that assertion ; but something besides Mr. Bourke's repeating it is necessary to prove it, and be -does not succeed in doing that. Now, it seems, he is laboriously raking together all the complaints against the British Govern- ment from private persons in the Soudan, for Parliamentary Con- sumption. "I have been for some time in communication with persons in the Soudan, and I receive from them all information corroborating the views taken by Sir Samuel Baker, and pub- lished in the Times." No doubt he does, and very disinterested informatlim it doubtless is. Mr. Bourke will hardly advance his own reputation by taking it all for gospel. A little more moderation and a'good deal more vivacity (which is not incon- siatent with moderation), would greatly improve Mr. Bourke's speeches.
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