What is the matter with Mr. Bright, that after making
the first and almost only speech of his life in the slightest degree favourable to war, as he did at Birmingham not so many months ago, on the Eastern Question, he is now so very cross-grained with Mr. Gladstone and his resolutions, so far as they favour our ultimate intervention in the very sense indicated, or half- indicated, by himself at Birmingham ? It is not only well known that he used all his influence to prevent the Liberal party from following Mr. Gladstone on the last two resolutions, but now, when interrogated by a correspondent as to his silence in the recent debate, he sends him a curt letter, containing little but the snubbing remark that he is himself the best judge when to be silent • and when to speak. Perhaps he is. But that is no reason for not explaining to the public the secret of the very illiberal change which seems to have come over his opinions on the Eastern Question.
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