As for the War Office, Mr. Bonar Law admitted the
industry and lucidity of Lord Haldane, but his merits could not conceal the extent of his failure—his reduction of our Army without reducing its cost or maintaining the efficiency of its weapons. Mr. Bonar Law disclaimed the intention of joining in the senseless attacks on Sir Edward Grey in his own Press, but we had nearly drifted into war owing to the speeches of members of the Government, who had caused foreign nations to believe that this Government would never assert our rights by force ; and the Morocco incident bad ended in this, that our French friends had got all the advantages, while we had got all the In finance the Government had enormously increased expenditure, created a swarm of new officials-3,000 of whom were appointed without any system of competition— and created a political spoils system already rivalling that of the United States.
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