THE ARMY IN EGYPT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 841, 13 January 1883, Page 2

THE ARMY IN EGYPT.

Sir Wilfrid Lawson had the doubtful honor of opposing the vote of thanks to the Army and Navy for services dered in Egypt, says the European Mail The House of course, laughed at him, but he had his say, and “the satisfaction of asserting a principle,” whatever that might have been. He moved the previous question, with the object of explaining that as, in his opinion, our forces did no more than their

duty, they were not entitled to the thanks of Parliament. This ridicnlpus motion the facetious but eccentric advocate of temperance pressed to a division, when he was beaten by to 17. With the exception of the mjlver and seconder, and Mr Richard‘(ipne who objects to all war on principle), the minority were made up entirely of jthe Irish faction led by Mr Parnell. This is the more remarkable, seeing that of all the troops engaged in the war-the Royal Irish Brigade was singled out by Sir Garnet Wolseley as deserving of special praise and recognition! 'Mr Gladstone’s speech was, perhaps, one of the most elaborate oraortical efforts which the Prime Minister has made of recent years, and well deserved r the high compliment which Sir Stafford Northcote, with good taste and;, in earnest words, so liberally applied to it. Mr Gladstone crushed into his address a whole history, a picture in little ojfthe Egyptian campaign. Some passages in the speech were in the truest sense picturesque. That passage, for example, in which he described the march through the desert between midnight and daybreak towards the lines of Tel-el-Kebir, the course of the moving army guided to its aim by the stars, brought the whole scene viyylly before the mind, and almost before the eyes of everyone who listened to the orator. In the end the vote was passed with as near an approach to unanimity as could possibly be expected in a House where some men object to all wars of intervention, and other men object to wars, of whatever kind, conducted by an English Government, while in the of course the utmost unanimity prevailed. Lord Granville pronounced a high.and merited eulogium on “ officers- and men, who did their best for Queen- and country.” Nor did he fail to pay a tribute to the memory of those soldiers . and sailors who “ have passed away.” Lord Salisbury joined his. liberal praise to that of the Government, and showed that in appreciation of the martial valor of Englishmen political differences have no place.