Our own Government is not idle. Although the Ministry has
anticipated public opinion, in declaring the policy of neutrality,— which the leading leaders of the Opposition confirm, and the public, without waiting for the meeting at Leeds, shows strong signs of enforcing,—it is equally clear that the Ministry will only anticipate public opinion in the active steps which it is taking, and is about to take for strengthening our national defences. It is generally understood, on one of the very highest authorities in the Navy, that the fleet which we are about to have at sea will be the finest the world ever saw. The Crown has issued a pro- clamation offering facilities and inducements for the enlistment of sailors : the Local Marine Boards are urged to exert them- selves ; and the replies are said to be very satisfactory. If the Government will only assure the enterprising young men of this island, that those who enter the Navy, whether before the mast or on the quarter-deck, may have some hopes of winning their way to commission, by devotion and courage, they may have many a spirited youth, of gentle as well as plebeian birth, who may now be found profitably working his way in the service of our own great companies or amidst the harder fare of the American Marine.
Nor are precautions neglected ashore. We have it on official authority, that the Government will speedily endeavour to effect a comprehensive embodiment of Volunteers ; and from what we hear we are inclined to believe that steps are taken which are active enough, though possibly too much restricted to certain classes connected with the Government. The admirable letters in the Times show that the country is in a mood for partici- pating in a very general and strenuous action.
-In purely domestic affairs every other subject yields in public interest to the war and the elections ; not that we sit idle. The mission of Prince Albert to the banks of the Tamar, for the special purpose of opening the Albert Bridge, which annexes Cornwall to the iron network of the United Kingdom, and car- ries the train into what a brilliant writer has called " the land beyond the rail," shows that our industrial works are not stand- ing still. If trade pauses before the disasters of the Stock Ex- change and the uncertainties of the future,—if the depression of the past year is too powerfully shown in such facts as the im- mense increase of allowances made by great societies like the Amalgamated Engineers in the shape of help, the substantial character of our commerce is proving itself even under trial.
Meanwhile the elections continue without material change in their character. We might almost re-write what we wrote last week, altered and corrected, with fresher details and stronger outlines. The probability of a more intense conflict between " the two great parties in the state " is more evident in the lan- guage of men like Mr. Disraeli and Lord Stanley, who assure their electors that they are likely to muster more than 300 in the House of Commons and to front a divided Opposition with recruited forces. Lord Palmerston has strengthened his position by declaring, at the Tiverton banquet, that the time has come when a Reform Bill must be passed, and that the best
bill is not that which is abstractedly best, but, as we have before said, that which the House of Commons can agree to pass. On the subject of the war, all these speakers repeat what they have already mid, but more emphatically. Neutrality is their prin- ciple; bat, while Mr. Disraeli regards Austria ail the injured party,—while Mr. Sidney Herbert cries " a plague on both their Houses !"—Lord Palmerston shows that he remembers the whole course of engagements and events in Italy moVe accurately. The speeches, therefore, indicate a decided conflicA in the re- assembled House of Commons on the subject of our foreign relations and the conduct of our neutrality, as well as that question which was referred to the constituencies.
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