The annual meeting of the Cobden Club was held last
Satur- day, at the Ship Hotel, Greenwich, under the presidency of Mr. W. E. Forster, who delivered a very weighty speech, chiefly con- cerned with the question of the day. When he observed that no opposition discouraged Cobden, no Parliamentary majority, alarmed him, there were loud cheers ; and he was cheered still more when he intimated that the Liberal front bench might have been thought too careless about party-divisions during the last few, months, and too reluctant to seep to hamper the Government. Perhaps, he said, if he had foreseen what was to happen, he might have thought so too ; but now, at any rate, peace having been concluded, and any danger of Russian misinterpretation being out of the question, there is no longer any reason for reti- cence, and a strong protest against " the most unwise and most reckless act which any Government has ever committed "becomes essential. Mr. Forster insisted powerfully on the madness of turning England into a great Continental Power,—Continental, as regards the real effect of what has been done, not merely in relation to Asia, but to Europe ; of giving England a long land frontier, conterminous with Russia, across which Russia could move troops at any time, and compel us to go to war ; of obliging us to choose between a guarantee of its possessions to the worst Government of the world, or annexation on a vast scale ; and last, not least, of the complete contempt evinced by Govern- ment for Parliamentary privilege. He believed that if we did our duty under the Protectorate, we must come to an army of con- scripts, and he would even prefer that, to relying on Asiatic armies of other and dependent races. And Mr. Forster is right. Reli- ance on mercenary troops really means emancipation from the influence of British opinion.
