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Waipawa Mail, Volume I, Issue 6, 2 October 1878, Page 2

Of the position in which Lord Beaconsfield has placed England the New York Iribune some weeks since remarked:— “ Englishmen liave boasted that their ancient monarchy was in reality a crowned republic, with its acting President, its Cabinet, and its Congress—the authority of the sovereign being a symbol rather than a fact. But throughout the negotiations of the past six months the weakness of the nation has been manifest. The Premier and the Cabinet, so far as he has taken pains to enlighten it, have kept their own counsel and worked out their own plans. Neither House of Parliament has been taken into their confidence. The nation has had no means of finding out what was going on and what the Government was aiming to do. The fleet was sent to Constantinople, the Sepoys were despatched to the Mediterranean, bargains were made with victor and vanquished, Cyprus was annexed, and 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, which is veiled under the guise of a defensive alliance with the Porte, may be from its political consequences the most momentous act of the century, and yet the Premier j locked the secretin his breast, and only j allowed his associates to mention the mat- i ter in Parliament when the nation had been dragged into a position from which I it cotiid not draw back with self-respect. This is something more than personal go- j

vemment; it is autocratic. Prince Bismarck, who has generally had his own way, never found the German Empire so manageable as England is to-day under the leadership of her erratic Premier. Lord Beaeonsfleld has determined in secret the destiny of his country in Asia. A Czar not do more than that.” The English Cabinet was responsible to the nation and the Parliament for every step which was taken. That is a fundamental principle of the British Constitution. Had the action of the Ministry not been endorsed by the majority of the representatives of the people Lord Beaeonsfleld and his colleagues would have been compelled to leave office. A Ministry no doubt might considerably involve the country, but there is not the slightest danger of it curtailing the powers of Parliament. Lord Beaconsfield’s judgment is greatly distrusted by a large number of thinking Englishmen, and it is this belief, more than a sense of any danger to their liberties, which caused so much unfavorable comment on the removal of the Indian troops to Malta and assuming the protectorate of Asia Minor without first obtaining the sanction of Parliament. The lesson which our American cousins may learn from the negotiations on the Eastern question is, that in times of emergency a free and intelligent people may in the public interest find it necessary to entrust the Government of the day with very large powers.