The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-09-30 00:00:00

Vorset Conntg (Expreso.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1879.

BLUNDERING BLUSTER.

The incapacity of the present Government is dealt
with moat conclusively by the Scossinist. Our contem-
porary has had the reputation of a tendeniess for the
Government ; but their failure at Cabul has destroyed
the last remnant of forbearance, and it is shown that
whether their " spiritesl policy" WS. Indeed brilliant
and masterly as Conservative optimists would argue,
or tinsel and showy as any hater of imperiousness in
the leaden. of • free people could believe, —at least Her
Majesty's Ministers, as they delight to (All themselves,
are infirm of purpose such am no Englishman should
be. _ .

" Turkey to have the line of the Balkan..."
of the triumphant results they claimed; yet by their
agreement with Russia they left Turkey powerless. for
teltoinan army could not hold it in case of war,
without the danger, almost the certainty, of being cut
off in the rear, and compelled to surrender. Next they
agreed to defend Turkey's Asiatic provinces inexchangs
for certain reforms in favour of the peoples governed
by Turkey. But no specific reforms have been agreed
upon, end the defence of Asiatic Turkey seems limited
to the acquirement by Britain of some power over
Cyprus, which can be better defended by England's
fleet than her army, seeing it is an island, and is yet
unhealthy for troops. NO army can be kept on Cyprus
sufficient to threaten the flank of any Russian advance,
even if it should take the direction nearest to the island
and g.. southwards through Syria to Palestine.
The next weakness charged is the entire surrender,
at the instance of Rival& against wh I was to have
been established, of the Balkan line, whereby Turkey
was left entirely at the mercy of Russia and her allies,
as far as Enghind was concerned.
Next, after sinking the greatest net of Mr.
Gladstone•s savings in the Suez (loud, the I lovernment
have left us in the position of having an immense
property with no special means of defence, in a distant
country, over whose rulers we exercise no more
influence than other Powers. One ruler of Egypt has
been upset, and his successor is no more likely to do
justice by us and .sw propel than the first.
Among the blusher,, paws over lithe llsivernment's
weakness towards their own servant, Sir Bartle Frere,
censoring him for war, which if not justified is
murder, and yet carrying on that war blamed by
themselves, and so becoming partners in the guilt they
affected to blame; but in spite of the bearing down of
the Zulu battalions, the austure f Ketchwayo, and
the settlement, which Natal people may think good
for them it must not be fonaitun that the Zulus have
been acting on the defenAve throughout, while the
Ministry have shown no capacity for escaping from
their servant•s crime, but have drifted into committing
more of their own, not justified by their apparent
anthem _ .
' •

Yet, if nothing succeeds like success, o the contrary
will condemn Ministers, especially as they have courted
and merited failure. They forced an Envoy and suite into
a hostile country by dint of war and bribery, and
allowed that Envoy and suite, in the face .4 • warning
preoedent, to remain among enemies with an in-
euflicient force, and once more, England has been
flouted and net at nought, and the Ministry have
Wed.
. . . . .

his nothing in their favour that all these blunders
were followed or accompanied by an unfavourable season.
Bitterly may the Government plead for mercy because
of the constant rains and the had harvest ; but the fact
Is that where a prudent, munier-hating, bombast-des-
pising Government,—a set of Ministers who would
have made friends abroad and secured confidence at
home—would have saved a handsome sum to tide us
over the 'rainy day," we stand before a had harvest,
an Inclement mason, with a purse whose strings have
been loosened, whose gold has been scattered, like that
of the Prodigal Son, who wasted his substance with
riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose
a mighty famine in that land, and he began to he in
want. Mappy will it be for the country if, repenting,
like the I Son, it leaves the service of those
who would make it do worse than "feed swine," who
would set it by constant quarrels feeding wolves, vul-
tures, and hyenas, and becoming in turn eaten up by
the vermin and weakness bred .f war.