Church of Scotland's Creed 926 'What was the Resurrection ?
927
Mary Queen of Scots 899
Sir Horace Rumbold's Final Re- collections 900 The Great Abbess of Port-Royal 901 The Diversions of a Pedagogue 927 Fieldfares 927 The Preservation of Moorland 927
** The Editors cannot undertake to return Manuscript, in any ease.
' Noncs.—With this week's " SrEcTATou " is issued, gratis, a
LITERARY SUPPLEMENT.
NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WHETHER there is, has been, or will be a Ministerial crisis is an obscure question which we have endeavoured to discuss, though not to decide, elsewhere. Certainly "in this dim light" it looks like a crisis, but the eye may be deceived. According to the Times and Daily Telegraph, which ought to know, the Cabinet is discussing while we write whether there is a crisis "in being," and if so, what should be its outcome ; but here again it is possible that we may have all been deceived by appearances, and that to-day or on Monday some oratorical Cabinet Minister or Whip may laugh at us for our folly in thinking that there had been, or could be, anything in the newspaper talk. In any case, if there is a Snark, it is certain to prove a " Boojum." It will be re- membered that if a Snark is a Boojum, those who are con- fronted with it "slowly and silently vanish away." Nothing can prevent this in the case of the present Cabinet if once the crisis is established. But unless the Opposition leaders are more unwise than it is easy to conceive, they will insist that the Cabinet shall vanish away, not through resigna- tion, but through Dissolution. If Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman and his colleagues know their business, they will reply, as did the Northumbrian wife to the sick but loquacious husband who worried her when she was busy preparing for his funeral : " Gang on with thy deeing and don't hinder me." While the Government are getting on with their dying the Liberals must concentrate all the forces they can in support of Free-trade, and so secure a victory which will banish Pro- tection from our politics for another generation. No doubt Mr. Balfour may still continue to be an unconscionable time Ei-dying, but the Liberals must endure this as best they may.
The news from Russia all points to an increasing anarchy, with which the distracted Government are incapable of dealing adequately,—partly because of their inherent weakness, but still more because those in authority are incapable of making up their minds whether to yield or to resist. The result is that the Government live from hand to mouth. When the pressure• from popular forces looks irresistible, they yield. When they think there is an opportunity for a. little firmness, they arrest and imprison in something of the old style. Meantime their futile and blood-stained opportunism is played to an accompaniment of mutiny and civil rebellion, of peasant revoltsicbittean-burnings, and strikes. It-is true that
Select Historical Documents 902 Gift-Books 903 Current Literature 907
Previous page
