The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-27 00:00:00

THE ABY&SINIAN VOTE.

The Times is bound to admit that Lord Stanley
last evening fairly met the charge that the government had
kept back their secret designs from the House of Commons
until it was too late for the house to do other than ap-
prove them. In July, Lord Stanley. while admitting
there was a clear obligation on the part of the nation
to rescue the prisoners, were it practicable,
thought himself that the physical difficulties were
almost insuperable, but at that time he did not
know the extent of the information about Abyssinia which
bad been obtained by the war department. That informa-
tion, the greater part of which would, he added, be laid
upon the table of the house in the course of the evening,
had led him to believe that enough was known to justify
an expedition, if not to make it necessary. As the in-
formation upon which this opinion was formed has
been hitherto withheld from the public, the govern-
ment have themselves to thank if they have had
to meet accusations which were inevitable in its
absence. Independent members of parliament did
no more than their 'duty when they acted upon
the information before them, and with that limited know.
ledge asked how the Ministry reconciled their declarations
with their acts. In the meanwhile it would be satisfac-
tory if the country were better assured of the propriety of
the methods adopted, for there are authorities at least as
well acquainted with the nature of the work to be done
who offer very plausible reasons for dissenting entirely
from the plans of action the Commander-in-Chief has
prepared; and the nation have a right to expect some
other justification for a particular policy than that it has
been recommended by a single general.
The Deity News observes that, with the exception of a
phrase or two from Mr. Disraeli and a rhetorical common-
place from Lord Stanley, there was a laudable absence in
last night's debate of the " tall talk " which has been
usual on similar occasions, and the general feeling of the
house was evidently one of shame at the position, at once
grave and ludicrous, in which, by a succession of blunders,
the country has become entangled. The price which
it must pay —estimated by the Chancellor at 4,000,0001.,
in extricating itself by the present expedition, will not
diminish its aversion from enterprises of the kind, which
are aptly described by Mr. Osborne as a Palmerston legacy.
Though no ingenuity can reconcile the self-contradictions
of the ministers, the inconsistency may be accounted for
without imputing to them a desire to impose on parliament
and the country. Ministers evidently did not know their
own minds. They thought war more or less likely, and
prepared for it, to use their own phrase, provisionally.
To their agents, in giving their instructions, they spoke of
it as certain ; to the House of Commons they spoke of it,
until the very last day of the late session, as barely possible.
One thing to be noted with satisfaction is the distinct and
positive temis in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
and the Foreign Secretary restricted the scope of the expe-
dition to the single purpose of liberating the European
prisoners. Mr. Labouchere's inquiry what prisoners are
included in this enterprise is a perfectly legitimate one.
Happily we may hope that to rescue Mr. Raw= will be
to rescue the rest also.

The Post thinks we may reasonably expect that the
government have underrated and not exaggerated the
probable outlay. The only thing certain i that it it now
too late to retract. If the cost were twice as great we
must go on. Still, the inquiry suggests itself whether
under a government such as ours the nation should not
have had a voice in deciding on the expediency of such an
outlay.

In the opinion of the Standard, no one, analysing in a
candid spirit the ministerial statements, will fail to per-
ceive how patient have been the endeavours to bring Great
Fithian out of this painful dilemma by negotiation. The
government could not, in July, announce • policy which
had not yet been decided upon, and they would not fulmi-
nate a menace upon which they were unprepared to act.
Lord Stanley's account, says the Telegraph, of the
course pursued by the government, although it does not
absolutely shield them from criticism, was so frank and
reasonable that it may be regarded as an effective vindica-
tion ; and therefore, while the Telegraph is unwilling to
accept the proceedings of the summer as • precedent, we
must pronounce ministers, on the whole, to have acted in
a manner worthy of the empire.

The Star declares that all attempts to make out a great
case of duty and necessity have utterly failed. Negotia-
tions which had been carried so far should have been
carried farther, and the more Lord Stanley proves Theo-
dore to be savage or lunatic, the more obviously it was the
duty of the government not to break away from their bar-
gain with him on the question of form.