On Tuesday Lord Randolph Churchill took up the running in
an attempt to review the Session a la Lyndhurst, and made even a worse figure than Sir Robert Peel,—which is saying a good deal. He made Mr. Childers the special subject of attack, spoke of the shout of laughter with which his proposal to debase the gold currency had been received, and spoke of it as an absolute Ministerial indecency that Mr. Childers had never given Parliament any account of his reasons for that suggestion. He described Lord Nortbbrook's mission as mixing up politics with the commercial and financial enterprises of the City of London, on account of his family connection with the house of Baring. What would have been said, he asked, if it had been possible to send out a member of the house of Rothschild to investigate Egyptian finance, and if such a measure had been proposed by the Govern- ment? The Government had for the first time ventured to mix general politics with commercial transactions. Further, the vote proposed for General Gordon's rescue was manifestly insincere ; and both in the mission of Lord Northbrook and in this vote, the Government had descended to "low and unworthy manoeuvres" to divert attention from its failure. The whole character of the Government was so bad, that he felt compelled to direct atten- tion to its sins at the close of the session.
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