No amendment on the Address was moved in the Lords
; but Lord Salisbury made a speech which Lord Granville said reminded him of Emile 011ivier when he went to war with such a light heart. He satirised the language of the Message which spoke of "painful uncertainties" in the news from the Soudan, just as the Irishman included his debts among his assets, and which honoured the courage and energy of an officer of whose fate nothing was known. He laughed at the " backing " offered to the Egyptian Government, and believed South Africa would require much more than "vigilant attention." He ridiculed Lord Durham for having said that Lord Salisbury's voiceless followers were the lame and the blind and men in akull-caps, and hinted that if Mr. Chamberlain ruled England the caps might be found in the Upper House without heads in them. In truth, Lord Salisbury was acrimoniously sprightly ; but the serious purpose of his speech was to say that his opinion on the Franchise Bill was expressed in
the resolution of July last, and that he had nothing to alter. " Iamais," said M. Rouher in 1869, when asked if France would ever surrender Rome to Italy ; but Rome is the capital of the kingdom all the same.
