Mr. Leonard Courtney followed Mr. Morley. He insisted that gold
was at the bottom of the present troubles. Mr. Chamberlain's last despatch was, he declared, "a rebuke to the fire-eaters, and a rebuke most of all to one whom he must designate as a lost mind,—he meant Sir Alfred Milner." He bad not, he added, used the phrase without much hesitation. We do not know exactly what Mr. Courtney means by " a lost mini" Illustrations of what is meant when one says that a man has "lost his head" are, however, to be found in plenty just now among the more strident advocates of the Boers. Mr. Courtney ended his speech by a reference to Oliver Cromwell. It is possible that President Kruger is a latter-day Cromwell, though personally we cannot see the resemblance, but, at any rate, it is not exactly appropriate to recall Cromwell at this juncture. Does Mr. Courtney, we wonder, approve of Crom- well's dealings with the Dutch ? If we remember rightly, the Dutch War in 1653 arose over our demand that Dutch ships must salute the flag of the Commonwealth in the Channel. We must not leave the subject of t;ie Manchester meeting with- oat expressing our indignation and disgust at the tactics of those who tried to break up the meeting. The case against the Transvaal oligarchy is far too strong to need support from such unfair and rowdy means.
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