BRITAIN’S FOREIGN POLICY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 235, 17 February 1880, Page 2

BRITAIN’S FOREIGN POLICY.

In one of his great speeches hi/Mid othian, Mr Gladstone thus sunned up his charges on his head against flu? Ministry :—R-ly upon it, genti-Wm, the strength of Great B.itain and .1 eland is wlthm the United Kingdom: N r rrlu'icss, th.e Tories have undertuk‘it t" s-'U'.e tiie affairs of a fourth, or nearly a fourth of the entire human race scattered over the world ; and is that ;ot enough tor the ambition of Lord i>.-a •onsfieh! ?■ It satisfied Mr Pitt, Mr Canning ; it satisfied Sir RobertPeel ; it satisfied Lord Palmerston, Lord Russell and the late Lord Derby, and why cannot it satisfy L«rd Beaconsfield and Ida colleagues ? Strive and labour as/'U will in Parliament and office, human strength and human thought are u»t equal to the discharge of the whole duties appertaining tq Government in this great and wond-wido . empire Therefore 1 say it is indeed strange when, in addition to these cafla, of which we have evidence in a thousand forms, and ot eur insufficiency to meet tliera, gratuitous, dangerous, and impracticable and impossible engagciueitls should be contracted for us in all parts' of the world. Yes, to the stupendous and air- imi* caies of ruling this great, wonderful, and world-wide empire, Lord Beaconsfield has added a number of gratuitous, dangerous, impossible, and imr r action Me engagements contracted i all parts of the world.- He h- s annexed the Transvaal, made war with the Zulus, appropriated Cyprus, assumed jointly with France the virtual control of Egypt, made Britain responsible for the the good. Government of Turkey in Asia, undertaken to defend her Armenian frontier against Russia, and, after breaking Afghanistan into piecei, destroying whatever of peace and order there wrts in that countrv, h»s added its anarchies to our cares and become responsible for its population. Therefore, gentlemen, I say that the present erabarassments arc of Tory creation. It would be cruel to hold the present Government responsible for tbe existence of the eastern question that from time to time troubles Europe. Ido not say that ; hut I hold ‘the Government responsible for having enterrupted thatconcerted action which it is evident could not have failed to accomplish that wide.i is now to be done with diminished resources, and after the penalties of almost illimitable bloodshed have been paid.”