LORD BEACONSFIELD AND ENGLAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 203, 25 September 1878, Page 4

LORD BEACONSFIELD AND ENGLAND.

Of the position iv which Lord Bea-eonefiel-J has placed England the New York Tribune some days since said :— Englishmen have boasted that their ancient monarchy was in reality a crowded republic, with its acting President, its Cabinet, nud its Congress the authority of the sovereign beinjr a. symbol rather than a far.t. But throughout the negotiations of the past six months the weakness of the uation has been manifested. The Premier and the Cabinet, so far os he has token pains (o enlighten if, have kept their own counsel nn.J worked out their own plans. Neither House of Parliament has been taken into their confidence. The nation has bad' no means of finding out what was going on and what the Government was aiming to do. The fleet was cent to Consfanfinople, the Sepoye were despatched to the Mediterranean, bargains were made with victor and vanquished, Cyprus was annexed, und the enormous responsibility of a protectorate of Asiatic Turkey was incurred; and in each instance Parliament has learned the purpose of the Cabinet when it was too late to interfere or even to discuss the measures with dignity. This protectorate scheme, Vfhieh is veiled under the £:uiße of a defensive alliance with the Porte, may be from its political consequences the most momentous act of ihe century, and yet the Premier locked the secret in his breasf, and only allowed his associates to mention the matter io Parliament when the nation had been dragged into a position from which it could'not draw back with self-respect. This is something more than personal Government; it is autocratic. Prince Bismarck, who has generally had his own way on the Continent, has never found Germany so manageable as England is to-dey under the leadership of her erratic Premier. Lord Beaconsfield has determined in secret the destiny of his country in Asia. A Czar caunot do more than that.