THE SPOILED CHILD.
SIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE'S treatment of Lord Randolph Churchill is at best capricious. Like the mothers of some spoiled children, who slap them or humour them without any relation to the blameworthiness or praise- worthiness of what they have done, Sir Stafford Northcote now dubs his unruly follower a "bonnet," and now again hoists him up into the place of honour, when he least deserves it. When the Leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons gave notice on Wednesday that Mr. Bruce was to move a Vote of Censure on the Government which the Conservative Party, of course, will, after that notice from their Leader, support, he took as emphatic a mode of publishing to the world that he is about to humour the spoiled.child of the party as he could well have flevised. Yet Lord Randolph Churchill has never perhaps deserved the name of a " bonnet "better than in his extremely silly and extremely ill-tempered speech of Mon- day. It was a speech at which even sober Conservatives held up their hands in horror and amazement. It was a speech that statesmen should have taken pains to signalise as the best illustration they could give of what statesmen should avoid and despise. It was not even the speech of a rash politician. It was the speech of an inflated and conceited boy, with his head turned by his own previous success. It was a speech calcu- lated to lower the self-respect of Englishmen, and to convince the world that even the worst Chauvinism of France is not worse in tone, and is less silly in expression, than the Chauvin- ism of England. When a politician can say that the policy of the neutralisation of Egypt announced by Mr. Gladstone, —a policy for which we ourselves have never felt any en- thusiasm, not because we do not respect and admire its fundamental idea, but because we believe that the wretched people of Egypt must bear the cost of working out that fundamental idea,—is " more shamefully ludicrous and more ludicrously shameful" than he knows how to express ; when he declares that,—England having extracted from France the declaration that the Dual Control is finally given up, and that under no circumstances will France send another force to Egypt,—the Minister of England "occupies the same position to the French Government that Charles It occupied in rela- tion to Louis XIV. ;" and that Mr. Gladstone is "the political pensioner of France, and is kept in office by the Freneh Government;" when,—England having claimed the lead in the whole Egyptian Question, and having taken that lead, but having admitted that of the other Powers, the one most entitled to take a leading part is France, Lord Randolph asserts that England has formally conceded that France should take pre- cedence in this question ; when he declares his contemptu- ous doubt whether the French Republic will be in existence
at all three years hence; when, finally, in the most insolent terms, he presses on a vote of censure on the Government for a financial negotiation of which the House does not as yet know even the general drift; and when the speech in which he takes this unpatriotic as well as irrational line exhibits not the smallest token of general strength, or firmness, or knowledge, or anything but the most shallow insolence.—it becomes really a mystery of mysteries why Sir Stafford Northcote should gravely follow the lead of this politician, and humbly place, as it were, the Conservative party at his disposal. What Liberals and Con- servatives, Radicals and Tories, all said when they heard or read Lord Randolph Churchill's speech, was that a speech more completely destitute of common political sense,—to say nothing of prudence,—had never been made in the House of Commons. Its only feature was insult,—insult directed, first, against the present Government of this country, and next, against the present Government of France. Beyond insult, bewildering inaccuracy, and complete irrelevancy, there was hardly a marked characteristic in the speech that you could name. It was a speech for one who had any sense of shame, to be ashamed of as long as he lived,—a speech that he ought to remember with burning cheeks, even years after it had been for- gotten by every one but himself. Yet this is the speech which has apparently determined Sir Stafford Northcote to put the phalanx of Conservatives at Lord Randolpb's disposal, and to lend him the weight of his authority for pushing on a premature vote of censure. We confess that when we read Sir Stafford Northeote's notice of motion for Mr. Bruce given on Wednes- day, the feeling of wonder at the little wisdom with which the Conservative Party is governed now-a-days, became really painful. The very leader who called Lord Randolph a " bonnet " for a much less serious escapade, proposes to follow his lead only apparently because he has exhibited a most exceptional combination of inanity and arrogance. What in the world can Sir Stafford Northcote be about ? We remember an instance in which a child who had been spoiled, much as the Conservatives are now spoiling Lord Ran- dolph Churchill, by capricious slaps and sweetmeats, roared to be allowed to have a ride on a ponderous sirloin of beef. All sorts of other rides were suggested to him as proper and desirable attractions in vain, and at last the little brat was humoured. A number of napkins were carefully placed over the sirloin, and the child elevated upon it, before the family could sit down to dinner in peace. It seems to us that Sir Stafford Northcote is pursuing much the same course with his spoiled child,—the one whom be slapped unmercifully the other day for a less offence, but whom he now elevates to the most ridiculous position he could possibly occupy, amidst the wonder and shame of all sober Conservatives, as well as of the whole English people. Quem Deus wilt perdere, prius denzentat. If the Tories really believe that a dissolution is at hand, they are indeed acting like lunatics to let Lord Randolph give them the cue as to their policy ; and to give it, moreover, in the only speech he has ever delivered which does not even con- tain a gleam of that cleverness which he undoubtedly possesses, a speech which is simply and solely a silly and ill-tempered scream. Sir Stafford Northcote's line was clear. He should have waited for the Conference, and taken care to let it be known that the great Conservative party feel it a solemn duty not to prejudge matters of the highest national and international im- portance; moreover, that they entertain the utmost contempt for such ebullitions of temper as Lord Randolph Churchill's. Instead of doing this, he lets it be known far and wide that this is the man whose hints he thinks it well to follow,—that this is the man who, if the Tories win, will be placed in a position to embroil the people of England in international quarrels, and to lower the dignity of the Crown before the whole world. Truly, the counsels of the Conservatives are past finding out.
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