Parliament is convoked for Thursday, the 8th February, when (if
not sooner) it will, of course, meet for the despatch of business ; nor is there any sign as yet of its being summoned earlier. Yet from the 8th February to " Maunday Thursday" (the Thursday before Easter), as Mr. Disraeli dated one of his political letters at a time when it suited him to be known as a champion of the Church, is only seven weeks, a period hardly too long to get the different phases of the Eastern Question discussed, even if by that time it had assumed a comparatively pas-
sive and chronic condition. Certainly, if it be true, as the pro-Turkish papers assert, that the nation at large resents 'the assumption of the Liberals to speak in its name against the attitude of Lord Beaconsfield, the Government are uncom- monly careless of their own interest in postponing the day of their triumphant vindication by the House of Commons. If Lord Salisbury represents a Government which has virtually all England at his back, we wonder much at the modesty or ascetic self-denial which prevents the Government from taking the full advantage of that very fortifying popularity. Probably, however, the
Government regard the hasty affirmations of their supporters in the Press with wise and well-founded incredulity.
