Mr. Goschen made a good speech at Lewes on Wednesday
evening, in which he remarked on the singular disappearance- of party spirit from Parliament. This he attributed partly to the great victory gained by the Unionist party at the General Election, indicating the decisive increase of national feeling; and still more to the curious succession of events at the close of the last year and the opening of this, which seemed to show that foreign Powers deemed England virtually asleep, and disinclined to make any effort either to assert her own rights, or to control her own subordinates. At that crisis England suddenly showed that the torpidity of age had not crept upon her, and that, much as she might be disinclined to go to war with her own kindred, she has no intention whatever of letting the world in general threaten and take advantage of her, without showing her displeasure and her strength. A great German statesman,—not Prince Bismarck, and we suppose that Mr. Goschen referred to a greater than Prince Bismarck,—had formed this depre- ciating estimate of England, and had been undeceived, and since then the Government had been doing all in its power to prove most emphatically the vigilance of the Ministers, and England's determination to make it known that she does not shrink from using her great physical force in defence of her interests and rights. Mr. Goschen declared that our relations with Germany are perfectly friendly, and he approved heartily the negotiations with France in relation to Siam, and expected from them the best results. On the situation in the Transvaal Mr. Goschen did not touch.
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