At the Guildhall Banquet on Saturday last the Prime ginister
made the usual, set speech. Judged by its public reception, the-speech cannot be described as a success. Indeed, if we are to describe its effect on the country, we cannot but record that it was a source of considerable irritation and disappoint- ment. Yet an impartial perusal of the speech cannot be said to justify the tone of the Press and the public in general. For Lord Salisbury the speech was distinctly optimistic in tone. After describing the nature of guerilla warfare, Lard Salishmy proceeded with an air of great mystery to assure his hearers that things were .not nearly so bid as they looked. He chdinot :think .that.there was any cause for awry apprehenSion Or. for any disOetiragement with to- the length of this war. It would be a .diScauragement if we had laiy grain& for belifivin thit we were making no progress; —no sufficient progress. But there lay the difficulty. " We cannot lay before you the whole circumstances of the case; we cannot tell you publicly all that is going on. We should be grossly neglecting our duty if we did so, and yet it is only by some revelation of that kind that we can give you full and entire satisfaction." All that could be said—but this was on the highest authority—was that we were making, " month by month and week by week, sure and substantial progress."
