Lord Carnarvon and Sir Richard Cross addressed on Tuesday a
special meeting of the Vauxhall Ward Conservative Associa- tion, in Seuth Lambeth, making the chief subject of their in- vective the Egyptian policy of the Government. "The same irresolution," said Lord Carnarvon, " that we have witnessed in Ireland, has brought about similar results in Egypt. A bucket of water poured upon the fire a few months ago would have extinguished the flame, which now the whole waters of the Mediterranean can hardly put out,"—not a very luminous metaphor, seeing that Lord Carnarvon's "bucket of water" appears to mean the use of a moderate amount of force, while " all the waters of the Mediterranean " stand, as far as we can judge,—though there are no sufficient means of judging,— for the collective forces of Europe. Lord Carnarvon went on to accuse the Government of having gratuitously alienated Turkey; of having insulted Austria and Germany, England's "natural- born allies ;" of having neglected and offended Italy, and of having entangled themselves much too closely in the French alliance, where there is no real identity of interests. Ho accused the Government of having reversed everything that their predecessors had done, and spoke of this policy as "as ignorant and unstatesmanlike as ever was foisted on ignorant audiences by ignorant Ministers,"—very strong language in- deed, for which it is difficult to find any very courteous epithet. Lord Carnarvon seems to us beside himself with irritation, and hardly attempts to make his meaning intelligible. Does he really suppose that the Naval demonstration at Dulcigno, and
the cession of Thessaly to Greece, were reversals of the Treaty of Berlin, or that Lord Salisbury took pains to keep us clear of joint action with France in Egypt ? If he does, to whom does the accusation of unstatesmanlike ignorance apply best P If he does not, what can he mean by talking of an absolute reversal of the Tory policy P Sir R. Cross was, of course, more moderate, though he spoke on the same lines.
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