The Minister at War attended the Cutlers' Feast at Sheffield
on Thursday, and made a long speech upon the Eastern Question. It was a most dreary affair, a common-place account of all that has happened in the past two years, without a single new fact as to the past or a single ray of light as to the future. Colonel Stanley declared, as every Minister declares, that the Govern- ment desires in Asia Minor more justice, better taxation, and im- proved military arrangements, but he did not suggest any method by which any of these excellent ends would be attained. All he could say was that if the responsibilities had to be taken up again, he would take them up, and those who objected wanted a "little England," while he wanted "a large and imperial England." He spoke in a tone of studied moderation, and begged his hearers to have patience, and allow the hatreds of creed and race to cool down ; but he said nothing of the prospect he expected to see when they bad cooled down. His coldness appears to have stimulated Mr. Roebuck, who was more egotistic than ever, declared that he had deserved well of his country, and denounced all persons who spoke well of Russia, and especially all able persons, as men moved "by some private interest." He described Lord Beaconsfield as "a great mau,—a man well worthy to support the interests of this country ;" and himself as a man whose "guide, whose chart, whose compass was England," "the head of civilisation," the "head of every- thing that conduces to the happiness of mankind," so that "the interests of England are the interests of the world." General B. Butler does that sort of thing quite as well, and Victor Hugo, when talking of Paris, a great deal better.
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