In commenting on the great change which our Foreign policy
has undergone, Lord Rosebery remarked that England is now really outside the European system, and that her Foreign policy is not now determined, like that of the other European Powers, by her own urgent needs,—indeed, she cannot compete in the field with the vast armies of the Continent,—but is determined by her relation to the great Dependency which she rules in Asia, and to the great Colonies which she possesses in Australia, Africa, and America. "Our great Empire has pulled us, so to speak, by the coat-tails out of the European system, and though with our great predominance, our great moral influence, and our great Fleet, with our tradi- tions in Europe, and our aspirations to preserve the peace of Europe, we can never remove ourselves altogether from the European system, we must recognise that our Foreign policy has become a Colonial policy, and is in reality at this moment much more dictated from the extremities of the Empire than it is from London itself." It was to this Foreign policy that Lord Granville gradually accommodated himself; but though he could adapt himself to changing circumstances, he never changed his party, and had not what Lord Rosebery ventured to call a "cross-bench mind." We should have said the same of the Duke of Argyll. But the Duke of Argyll has sufficient of a "cross-bench mind" to estimate the importance of the Union above the importance of party ties.
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