Mr. J. G. Dodson addressed his constituents at Lewes on
Friday week, and told them that this Government had failed in carrying out even the policy they had adopted. They had tried to make of Afghanistan and Turkey buffers against Russia, and had broken them both to pieces. They had attained such a position in Egypt as could only be described in the words of Bottom,—" Past the wit of man to say what it is." And then they pleaded that foreign policy should be overlooked, and some .other subject started, as if the criminal in the dock should say, —" Let the past be forgotten we will speak of something 'else." The. Tories taunted the Liberals with the absence of a programme, but they had themselves furnished them with one,
"to retrieve the finances of the country, and restore our foreign policy to its old lines." The importance of Mr. Dodson's view consists not in the view itself, which is held by hundreds of Members, but in its utterance by a man notoriously moderate, trained to political business, and thoroughly acquainted with affairs.
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