7 DECEMBER 1878, Page 15

THE POINTS.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."(

SIR,—By keeping steadily in view and pressing home three issues .during the short Session just beginning, Liberal Members might, I believe, secure, at the very least, a speedy dissolution, and a majority in the next Parliament.

The first is that the Government is an unveracious Govern- snent,—the Government, that is, consisting not of common-place respectables, of the Smith-Northcote-Cross type, nor of empty blusterers like Lord Cranbrook, but of double-minded men like Lord Salisbury, whom nature intended for a Jesuit doctor ; and .single-minded men like Lord Beaconsfield, who has never thought of any one except Lord Beaconsfield, since his thoughts ceased to be concentrated solely on Mr. Disraeli. The second is, that we are playing-the part of a bully towards Afghanistan. The third and most important of the three is that, thanks to an alien, who -despises Englishmen, though not as much as some Englishmen -despise him, Parliament is becoming the mere registry of a Mayor of the Palace. In face of a war with Russia, the tricks of senile buffoonery are more alarming than amusing. As some- times occurs in private life, we have discovered that the man usually considered to be only too clever by half is a bore and a nuisance. And perhaps if side-issues were eschewed, a Liberal minority might be converted into a coalition majority, even in the present House of Commons.—I am, Sir, &c.,