To say that Mr. Cross has during the week been
starring it in Lancashire would be unjust to Mr. Cross, for he does not star it anywhere; but he has been plodding it in Lancashire,—playin g, not ineffectively, the plain, homely politician, who is grieved by exaggerated statements, which, however, as a man of the world, he expects, and does not resent. On Saturday he made two speeches at Leigh, and on Tuesday one at Clitheroe. One of his Leigh speeches was made impromptu in the Mather Lane Mill, to between 8,000 and 10,000 persons, and was not very well listened to, the Liberals present being numerous and somewhat noisy. He spoke of the distress, and predicted that the pro- sperity 'now returning in America would soon spread to this country. He said that Government's only object in Afghani- stan had been the modest and laudable one to "rule and dominate" the Afghan foreign policy, while in the evening he explained, without any apparent consciousness of inconsistency, that what he desired was "a strong, friendly, and independent Afghanistan." About Turkey he was very plain-spoken. "No one abhors the bad Government of Turkey more than I do," "and no one would ever stir a finger—I know I never would, nor any member of the Government—to support either Turkey or its Government in such abuses as have been brought before us." In the evening, however, he declared that, in spite of this feeling, we were bound by Treaty not to go to war with Turkey for the faults of its internal administration,—which is not true, by the way,—and that, therefore, all that was left to us was to act as we had done. In short, Mr. Cross painted the Govern- ment's foreign policy as one entirely destitute of either showi- ness or finesse,—as a plain, sober, almost inevitable foreign policy, marked by nothing so much as its straightforwardness, simplicity, and obviousness.
