It is hardly possible to believe that the Tories. really
intend to attack the Government upon the ground that they ought not to have gone to war in Egypt, but it looks very like it. Mi. Clarke, at Darlington on Monday, made a speech which, unless he has been hopelessly misreported, really meant that the war was "unjust," "dishonouring," and "unnecessary,"—that it was needless to interfere with Arabi at all, and that in sending a Fleet to Alexandria, Mr. Gladstone had knowingly brought on war. That extreme Radicals should hold these views, we can understand ; but that Tories, in the hope of catching Radical votes, should propound ideas so directly in opposition to their own principles, is almost incomprehensible. There is not a Tory in the country who, before the Expedition started, was not sneering at Liberal want of energy, and carelessness of the honour and interests of the country. Any one, how- ever, who reads Lord Bury's speech, Sir Stafford North- cote's, and Mr. Gibsou's with attention, will see that the Tories, though not usually as frank as Mr. Clarke, are very doubtful whether it would not be wise to despise public opinion, and attack the Government for going to war at all. With the help of the Ultra-Radicals, the Peace men, and the Parnellites, they might even carry a vote. They will shrink at the last moment, because a dissolution to defend the war would not suit them, but the fact that they should dream of such a course is a curious evidence of their bitter chagrin. To over- throw Mr. Gladstone, they are tamest willing to say that the Quakers are right, and that every war is necessarily sinful. And yet they invaded Afghanistan because they were annoyed with Russia.
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