On the other side, the strongest speeches were made by
Sir R. Cross, who avowed openly that he advocated a Protectorate ; by Mr. Gibson, who believed that the instructions of Government to General Gordon were framed to avoid responsibility, and were "instructions to blush for ;" and by Sir Stafford North- cote, who summed up with great vigour, maintaining that if the Liberals really found a Tory policy in Egypt, they should have kept to it ; that the Government had avowed their incon- sistency, by admitting that they advised the civil administra- tion of Egypt, but not the Egyptian Generals ; and that the Ministry had no definite aim and no definite conception of means, while they often differed as to objects. He, however, refrained from hinting at what the Tory policy would have been, and detailed a series of "aims," given textually elsewhere, which are substantially those of her Majesty's Government. He ended by threatening that his party would not be content with the verdict of the night, but would seek another opportunity of challenging the proceedings of Government.
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