The foreign division of Mr. Goschen's speech has been little
noticed ; but we are concerned to believe that it was the most important of all. Mr. Goschen is not Foreign Secre- tary, but he has a singularly wide knowledge of foreign opinion, and of the drift of foreign politics; and it saddens us to find our own pessimism fully confirmed by him. Not only, he says, cannot it be said that we are living under a cloudless sky, but it cannot be said that the clouds are no bigger than a man's hand. "There are heavy clouds hanging over many parts of Europe ; nor am I thinking only" of that sad scene in Berlin. "The situation in Europe is an anxious situation ;" and he trusted that if an emergency arose, the people of this country would lay aside party spirit. He felt confident it would be so, and that any foreign nation would be mistaken if they relied upon our domestic difficulties, and thought they could paralyse our arm, if that arm were raised for the defence of our shores and the maintenance of our honour and interests." That is not reassuring from a specially qualified Minister whose interest is a higher price of Consols. Clearly the Government is watching events in France with close attention, and is not so satisfied, as inferior Tories are, that the fall of the Republic will be to English advantage. There is no visible cause for panic ; but "Watch, and keep your ships in the Channel, and your cartridge-stores quite full," would not be an unwise order of the day.
Previous page
