Mr. Ashmead-Bartlett could not bear to suppress his great speech
on Foreign Affairs, so he chose the Appro- priation Bill on Tuesday night for his opportunity, and stoically endured the absence of any sympathetic Tory audience, which was represented indeed almost wholly by Mr. Walton. In order to make his speech relevant to the Appropriation Bill, he bad to complain that the want of
any foreign policy on the part of the Government had made the votes for the Army wasteful and unnecessary, and from that point of departure he assailed the Government for alien- ating valuable allies and leaving us quite isolated in Europe, for deserting faithful subjects, and generally dishonouring the British name. We had scuttled out of Afghanistan, given up Candahar, allowed Russia to come 400 miles nearer to our frontier, and permitted France, without resistance, to occupy a fertile and important region of North Africa. We had irritated Germany and Austria, offended France and Italy, encroached on Turkey, disappointed Greece, and surrendered with ignominy to the Boers.
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