MR. GRANT DUFF AT ELGIN.
[To TRH EDITOR OF THE 4,eraorATort.")
Sin,—From the accident, I suppose, of my recent "Appeal from the New to the Old Radicals" not having been printed at anything like full length, so far as I am aware, in any London paper, I have been misunderstood by some with regard to a matter to which I attach much importance.
A very intelligent critic in the Observer, for example, says :— " Mr. Grant Duff takes a sanguine, roseate view of human affairs abroad, There are no war-clouds in,the horizon. The storm has cleared the air. We may rest in peace." Now nothing could be further from my wish than to express this opinion, and if your space permitted, I could quote phrase after phrase from my speech at Elgin quite iucousistent with the presence in my mind of any such idea, What I chiefly wished to make clear, when touching upon our foreign policy, was . that I thought the questions now open in Europe which are likely to involve us Britons in war are, provided we are served by skilful diplomatists, few or none ; and farther, I wished to bring into strong relief the importance of the diplomatic profession, and the expediency of trying to effect ever more and more by diplomatic means.
It formed no part of the scheme of my speech to dwell on the questions which agitate, or are likely to agitate, the Continent. Why should it have done so'? I do not think any other Member of Parliameut, in recent years, has so often explained his views Oil
these matters ; and I have not only explained them in speeches. which are read and thrown aside, but have given hostages tce criticism in three books,—" Studies in European Polities," 1866; "A. Political Survey," 1868; and " Elgin Speeches," 1871,
'While doing my best to set forth and to criticize the position of affairs in many Continental countries during the last ten years for the benefit of my constituents, to whom primarily all ray works, have been addressed, I have rarely been tempted to commit my- self by prophesying things to come. Whether when I have done, so I have usually had much reason to regret my rashness, is a question which I am content to leave to any reader of what I have written to answer for himself.—I am, Sir, &a., [We are very glad to give insertion to any caution which so. accomplished a speaker as Mr. Grant Duff thinks desirable for the English public in reference to his recent review of the political situation at Elgin, but he does not accuse, and will certainly acquit,. us of misunderstanding his meaning in the sense of the Observer- -ED. ,5'peetator.]
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