Lord Stanley answered to his own name in a short
but vigorous speech, in which he stated that he believed the Government had in the Reform matter done the very best it could for the country, otherwise he would have resigned ; that in Europe England had nothing approaching to a quarrel with any power whatever ; that in America, though we at have not succeeded in finally closing " the Alabama matter, time was softening irritation ; but that, in regard to other nations, the sky was not free from clouds. He considered the Abyssinian war " most unlucky," though the expense was exaggerated, but held that " we had no option." The only alternatives were to release Her Majesty's envoys now chained and imprisoned by force, or at to let them die in captivity." The Government had made its choice, and the country would support it. Altogether, a manly, straightforward, and °Tear speech; such as Foreign Secretaries seldom make.
