The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-02-16 00:00:00

tontbribQe Obserint

FJktU.ktY 16t,12. 1884.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
tiateeneinent piece taken by foreign affairs
thus rsriy in the history of the et ssion amply
juetilies the predictions of those who foresaw the
impossibility of Parliament devo:ing the whole
et its time to domestic policy. It must be re-
membered thet hitherto the present Parliament
has been occupied mainly with subjects of
inter' s' at home, and that this is its fifth session.
No doubt Ireland has had the cbief share of
leeielative attention. In the brief seseion of
1880 the House of Commons passed a Compen-
sation for Distnrbence Bill, which the Lords
cted : in 1881 first came the Coercion Bill,
and then the Land Bill, both of which, after
one of the longest seesions of modern times,
were pegged Lao law. In 1882 came the
Pticee'x park as•aseivatione, and at once the
Government in:roduced the stringent Crimes
Bill, follow-d by the Arrears Bill, the f ruler
being vigeromey opposed by the Irish members,
and the latter adversely criticised by the Con-
servative peers. Here were three fessione run-
ning in which Ireland was the principal subject
of anxi ty, and foreign topics bad in largo pro-
portion to stand aside. Last year was devoted
insiuly to the arrears of legislation for England
and Scotland which had been run up during the
three Irish years, and no considerable part of it
could be applied to foreign aff tire. Now that
we bays arrived at the fifth session of the Par-
liament the widespread responsibilities of
England have once more forced themselves to
the frotzi, eend have for the time pushed aside
Parliamentary reform, the remodelling of Lon-
don local government, the amendment of the
Merclteot Shipeing Act, the continuation of the
baPee, 'he ex eaeiert of the hours of polling, the
prevention of floods, the administration of the
shires, and the other subjects of domestic interest
(el which the Cabinet proposes to legislate this
session. .

_
there are few Parliamenta that escape one or
two sessions in which foreign (regions have the
chief place. An experience of only a quarter of a
century illustrates this position. Lord Derby's
Government in 1859 bren4ht forward a measure
of Parliam.ntary ItA)rm, which was debated
truly; but a matter of absorbing interest abroad
was the war between France and Austria, under-
taken by the late Emperoc of the French for an
idea, namely, the liberation of Italy from the
Alps to the Adriatic. A new Pariament was
elected in the summer of tout year, and while its
earlier hiitory was varied by the incidents which
led to the consolialation of the Italian Kingdom,
the latter years ot its career were enlivened
by stirring events in the north of Europe,
whereby Austria and Prussia fell upon Denmark.
The foreign policy pursued by Lord Palmerston's
Administration in that quarrel led to a vote of
censure being proposed by the Conservative
opposition in bo•h houses of Parliament. In as
Lords it was carried by a majorityof nine with
the aid of prexies the last on which these were
ever used in that august assembly. In the
Commons it was rejected by a majority of eight-
een regarded at the time as being a substantial
charactez, for thcse were not the days of House.
hod Suffrage, and the fortunes of Ministers
were made or marred by far smaller majorities
than those to which for many years we have now
been accustomA. That Parliament was soon
afterwards dissolved: and no sooner had its
successor set to work upon a Reform Bill than a
war broke oat between Prussia and Austria,
which speedily ended in the former becoming
the controliog power in Germany.
The early years of Mr. Gladstone's first Ad-
ministration were maked by debates of great
importance as regarded foreign policy. The
desperate straggle between France and Germany
naturally created much excitement in this
country, which had its reflex in the attention
which Parliament felt bound to pay to such a
great political convulsion. Lord Beaconsfield's
Gove-nment had not long been in power before
the outbreak in the Herzegovina indicated the
existence of a cloud in the Eastern sky, which,
although at first only as big as a man's hand,
soon gat her- d and burst into a storm. The war
between Turkly and Semis was followed by a
far tuoris sanguinary one between Russia and
Turk •,:•, ebich led to the complications over the
Treasy of Nan atepbano and to the assembling
of the Congress at Berlin. That was six years
ago; so that, judging by experience during the
.mort period over which we have cast a retro-
spective glance, the time has now arrived when
we may expect a more than ordinary amount of
notice to be given to foreign policy. At all
events, the session has begun well in this direc-
tion, and is not likely to be content with one
Egyptian debate.