Earl Grey has written a letter expressing his wish that
the Liberal party may not succeed in carrying the country, which was published in the Times of Wednesday. Like almost all Lord Grey does, it indicated the quarter precisely opposite to that from which the wind was blowing. Lord Grey, as a politician, is like a pointer who should insist on pointing away from the game. Of course, that is impossible to a dog, for it is a feat which takes a re- fined kind of reason to accomplish, there being no instinct which goes by contraries, like Lord Grey's political judgment. The best of his letter was that he disapproved entirely of the foreign policy of the Government, but wished to save it for the sake of its Irish policy, or rather, for the sake of preventing the Liberals from attempting an Irish policy of their own. This is like sending Lord Lytton out to India because he was a fair second- rate poet,—which was, indeed, very likely Lord Beaconsfield's real reason. Lord Grey is apt to believe in the contrary, but he has hardly ever been so successful as this. He wants to keep Lord Beaconsfield, only to prevent making room in Ireland for any influence of Mr. Gladstone's !
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