Sir Wilfrid Lawson made one of his amusing speeches at
Longtown, near Carlisle, on Thursday, on the Foreign policy of the Government. He said Lord Salisbury and Lord Beaconsfield both went to the Congress, because neither of them durst let the other out of his sight ; and that as they did not succeed at Berlin in propping up Turkey, or winning a great triumph for England, they were compelled to do something else to give an effect of glory to the negotiation. So "they plucked the turkey, and got Cyprus as the tail-feather, to tickle the ears of the 'Jingoes.'" Our troops
in Cyprus were being "butchered to make a Jingo holiday." He saw Lord Beaconsfield drive down Parliament Street on his return from Berlin, and "he fancied he saw his lips moving. Perhaps it was a mistake, but still he thought he knew the lines he was repeating to himself ; they were from the pious editor's creed :- 'I have a most sincere belief in humbug generally,
For it's the thing which I perceive to have a special vally.
This, my faithful shepherd, through pastures rich has led me, And this shall keep the people green, to feed as they have fed me.'"
On the Afghan war he remarked that if Ameer Ali had refused to receive the Russian Mission, and Russia had gone to chastise him as England was about to do, we should have had the Afghans spoken of everywhere as "gallant mountaineers defending their mountain fastnesses," instead of run down, as they are now, for dealing in like manner with England. And no doubt Sir Wilfrid Lawson is right, that there is a deep Pecksniffism in the way in which English politicians praise independence which is useful to England, but run it down as treachery when it is injurious to our power.
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