The annual banquet at Guildhall to the Ministry of the
day came off on Tuesday, and the company were addressed by Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Ward Hunt, and Lord Cairns. Lord Derby was not present, and not a word was said about the Slave Circular. We have commented on what seem to us some very grave utterances in Mr. Disraeli's speech elsewhere, and need only mention here that he acknowledged the imminence of war with China a month ago, and spoke with unusual warmth in acknowledgment of -Mr. Wade's efforts to avert it ; adverted to the Prince's reception in India, as proof of the tranquillity and prosperity prevailing there ; and declared that the successful confederation of our Colonies in North America, and the projected confederation in South Africa, showed that the Government regarded the Colonies not as a cause of exhaustion, but as a source of wealth, of power, and of glory. He maintained that at home the Governmeat had entered on the path of social improvement, and defended permissive legis- lation as the result of confidence in the co-operation of the people. Their policy had been charged with want of dramatic effect, but it had diminished the death-rate of a - great nation. All this was, of course, subordinate to the main purpose of the speech, which was, in our judgment, to warn the English people that events were at hand in the East which might call for most serious exertions.
