NEWS OF THE WEEK
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THE Tories are in a high state of delight. They all think that what Mr. Lowther calls the disastrous blunder of 1880 is about to be repaired. Even Mr. Gibson, who is a sensible man, speaking on Friday week at Cambridge, quite capered with pleasure. One almost fancied, in reading his speech, that in .certain states of exaltation he might be guilty of a joke. He did not utter one, of course, but he almost lapsed into poetry, talked of "clouds" disappearing, of "happy atmospheres," of the "dictates, the instincts of patriotism," and denounced the Liberals with energetic bathos as men who could find no basis. They had secured "peace without honour" in the Trans- vaal, had demoralised Ireland, had been nobly lavish of un- performed promises, had misrepresented finance, and so on, and so on. One expected to see at the end of the speech that Mr. Glad- stone " had alienated the Sultan" and " degraded his Sovereign into a Suzerain." All this is very unlike Mr. Gibson, who -expects office, and only to be explained by the mental intoxica- tion produced by the Roman Catholic victory on the Affirma- tion Bill, the signal by which the speaker judges that "the tide has turned." As we have argued elsewhere, Mr. Gibson will find that his joy is a little premature, as well as excessive, and would be wise to leave war-whoops of triumph to Mr. Lowther and his like. He is not prepared, we imagine, to pay the price demanded for the permanent alliance of Messrs. O'Brien and Biggar, and without that he is where he was yesterday,—in presence of a majority delayed, but not defeated, in their plans, by systematic Tory obstruction.
