He reviewed also the remarkable change which had taken place
in the popular view of foreign affairs, under the influence of what Mr. Disraeli used to sneer at as the " cosmopolitan" ideas of the Liberal party,—in other words, the idea that we should take into account the interests of other nations as affected by wars, treaties, and international disputes, before deciding too positively on the policy which is demanded by the interests of the United Kingdom. Mr. Lefevre concluded by a striking passage, in which he admitted that, as Commissioner of Public Works, he had destroyed more than he had constructed, but justified this by saying that if he, like Liberal legislators, had cleared away much, and had founded comparatively little, it was only because there was so much that was ugly and noxious which needed clearing away before the higher constructive work could goon successfully, and because construction was so slow as compared with destruc- tion, that you hardly saw the good fruits which you were to reap from the seed you had sown. Undoubtedly, of the Liberal work above enumerated, much more than half is constructive, and not destructive, and though much of the fruit is still unripe, much has been actually gathered in.
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