GLADSTONE'S FORESIGHT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2007, 4 June 1885, Page 2

GLADSTONE'S FORESIGHT.

Hero is another oxample of Mr Gladstone's political foresight:—"Tljo yajn : glorious boast which "Ministers, aware that there could be no reply, have inserted in the speech of Her Majesty at the prorogation of Parliament, as to aid which the Colonies would have given in a war that might have been, can only excite ridicule. No man of sense believes that the Colonies are likely to become in a serious manner parties, tq any greajj European war, Handfujs. of men or even of money may be supplied by individual zeal; but it is hardly to be desired for then-own sake or ours, that they should become real parties to contests over the inception, conduct, and conclusion of winch they oan have no effective control. Ostentatious proclamation to the world of the military aid they are to give us is much more likely to check than to develop any disposition of that kind, and savours strongly of an age of imposture." These words are taken from Mr Gladstone's famous article on "England's Mission," which appeared in the Nineteenth Century for September, 1878, and whioh was reprinted as the first of a sot of penny tracta called •< Politics for the people." It was Bold in tens of thousands, and did its full share of mischief in the great Midlothian crusade,-St, James Gazette.