The popular speech to the great audience in the afternoon
was much feebler. With regard to the Afghan war, Sir Staf- ford maintained that the proof recently given of the formidable and deadly hostility of the Afghan people to our troops, has made no difference at all except one of "small details" in our policy,—the only possible comment on which is, "So much the worse for the Government, which regards the main features of the case as small details." In relation to the Eastern Question, Sir Stafford Northcote took credit to England for keeping Russia out of Constantinople, and did not deign to notice either the fact that by the Treaty of San Stefano, Russia was given no right to enter Constantinople, or the evidence that Germany had more to say on that subject, and more power behind her to give weight to what she did say, than England. Finally, Sir Stafford concluded with a sneer at those who had been trying how near they could go, "without burning their fingers," to fostering hopes in the minds of the Home-rulers, when they know that no such hopes could be gratified ; but he was wise enough not to explain explicitly to whom he referred. We venture to say that no one of the Liberal leaders has been less explicit than himself in repudiating, in the most explicit manner, any con- cession whatever to the demand for a separate Irish Parliament, or anything that is in any degree equivalent to a separate Irish Parliament. Sir Stafford, however, tried how near he could go, "without burning his fingers," to accusing the Liberals of playing false to the United Kingdom, for the sake of getting. the Irish vote.
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