Mr. Chamberlain, in his speech at the annual dinner of
the Birmingham Jewellers' and Silversmiths' Association, made a noteworthy statement as to the Ishantee expedition. After declaring that we have relieved a vast population from the most bloody and barbarous tyranny which perhaps has ever existed in Africa, he went on to say that he could take no special credit in the matter for the present Ministry. "We have simply carried out to a successful issue the intentions of our predecessors." Our foreign and Colonial policy proceeds, indeed," in a line of unbroken succession." The present Govern- ment, however, possessed in Lord Salisbury "a man whose cool judgment, whose calm resolution, whose ripened experience, mark him out as in the very first place amongst European statesmen." The excitement caused by the outbreak of German hostility was calming down, but it had left behind it for us a determination to increase our resources for defence, and the assurance of the loyalty of our children beyond the seas. During this period, too, a settlement had been arrived at with France on three questions which threatened the good reletions of France and England. That was a grouping of events vehieh Mr. Chamberlain clearly meant to be significant.
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