Parliament has been prorogued to Tuesday, December 12. That would
not prevent its being summoned earlier, if it were necessary, but it at least shows the present intention of the Govern- ment not to recommend the Queen to ' recur ' to its advice. The journals which appear to approve this course most, puzzle us by ferocious assertions that the meeting of Parliament would have for its inevitable result the political suicide of Mr. Gladstone as a statesman, and of all the journals which have recently supported him. Lord Beaconsfield's "virtue" must be great indeed if that be the serious belief of his supporters, and if nevertheless he declines to avail himself of this great opportunity for a political triumph. How can they honestly countenance his Quixotic self-abnegation in his declining to prove to all Europe that he has once more England at his back ? It is inexplicable, except perhaps as a sort of political penance,—an ascetic discipline, intended to atone for superfluity of naughtiness, and reiterated atrocities of political spite against Mr. Gladstone.
