THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O' CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3008, 5 October 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O' CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1878.

The Government do not seem to occupy the most d^nified or enviable position just now, and the prospect of their extricating themselves from that position with credit is not assuring. , Having talked so much of their policy, and staked their position on the ■ bills embodying that policy, it wai not expected that they would retreaW so ignominiously. It is evident that their majorities have been kept together by a feeljing of loyalty to the party rather than by unanimity of sentiment regarding their measures, and the situation must be all the more embarrassing from the fact that it was' entirely, unexpected. The defeat on the Beer Duty Bill seems to hare been a genuine surprise, and tie gravity.of the situation.must have been admitted by Ministers when they saw nothing for 'it but an adjournment till .Monday. In the meantime the Treasurer will have to concert some scheme to make both ends meet without the beer duty, and we should,not be surprised to find that when the House next meets the Government propose to pass the Estimates and withdraw their other Bills, or face the difficulty^ and, if defeated, ask for a dissolution. . ,■■.'.■ . '