The mantle of Mr. Urquhart appears to have fallen on
the shoulders of Sir Hardinge Giffard. He apparently believes not only that Russia intends to conquer the whole world, but that she can do it. At least he told his constituents at Launceston on Saturday that "unless men and countries were found to with- stand her career of mad ambition, all nations would soon be sub- ject to Russia." Considering that Russia cannot move one step in Europe without the consent of Germany, that is rather a large statement for a politician to make, and one which Sir Hardinge would hardly have made in the House of Commons. If he really believes it, he ought at once to abandon a Government which did not resist Russia, but only agreed with Turkey that in the impossible contingency of her governing Western Asia well, Great Britain would resist Russia. The Solicitor-General, however, was in one respect consistent. He did not describe Russia 1113a Power able to conquer the world, and at the same time as a Power bankrupt in purse, honeycombed with revolution, and governed despoti- cally by a timid hypochondriac. That is the regular line of the Russophobe, but Sir Hardinge has a trained, if not a sympathetic mind, and dislikes to entertain mutually destructive beliefs.
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