The Government have decided, for the present at least, not
to summon an autumn Session of Parliament, and the decision is apparently grounded on the resolve of the Cabinet to maintain the English neutrality. We have discussed this plea elsewhere, and explained our reason for thinking it a very bad one, consider- ing not only the very uncertain sound given out by the Govern- ment on the subject of the solution they would desire to attain, but the difference of opinion which seems to exist, and is so passionately expressed, as to the present wishes of the English people. Perhaps the truth is that whichever of the two parties is living in a fool's paradise,—ours or theirs,—the Government might be equally unwilling to have it disturbed. If Mr. Gladstone has really been already deserted by the English people, and a panic about Russia has taken its place, the Government might be compelled to go to war,—for which they are not ready. If it be, on the contrary, the Conservatives who are living in a fool's para- dise, then the result of a clearing-up of ambiguities might be that Lord Beaconsfield and his Cabinet would be compelled to retire, and for that clearly they are not at all ready.
