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

LONDON, TVEDNESDAY, NO V. 27, 1867

The debate on the Abyssinian Expedition has
proved fully as interesting as was expected, and its
result has done credit to the judgment of the House
of Commons. Of course it was not to be supposed
that there would be no dissentients in the matter,
and hence the speeches of Mr. LOWE and others
may be taken as matters of course. We may fairly
state that the Ministers have acquitted them-
selves creditably in this arduous affair, and
deserve the support of the House and the
confidence of the country in the prosecution
of their scheme. It is, indeed, one of
those cases which do not admit of doubt to all who
are not prejudiced, and how any Minister of the
Crown could reconcile himself to a contrary course
seems quite unaccountable. It is all very well for
those who merely undertake the part of critics to
be vehement in their strictures on the policy which
dictated the whole course of the proceedings, but if
these were suddenly vested with authority, and
found themselves responsible to the Parlia-
ment and the public for the maintenance of the
honour of the country, we suspect that they would
be sorely puzzled to improve the plan just sub-
mitted to the House by the occupants of the Trea-
sury benches and opposed by Mr. GLADSTONE. One
of the chief details which threatened to impede the
progress of affairs in this autumnal session in the
opinion of some has then disappeared, and the
House of Lords is certain to follow the example of
the other branch of the Legislature, and pass a
unanimous vote on the subject. Those who wish
to inform themselves on this topic more particularly
than they have yet done would do well to consult
the speeches of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
and Lord STANLEY, which contain excellent infor-
mation on all the most important points connected
with the interesting question. Lord STANLEY'S was
the speech of the evening, and met with the general
approval of the House. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer moved that a sum not exceeding £2000,000
be granted to her MAJESTY for defraying the
expenses of the Abyssinian Expedition beyond the
ordinary expenses of the year 1867. The
right honourable gentleman wisely avoided touch-
ing upon points of controversy as much as
possible, and confined his remarks to the principal
points. He said very justly that we might enter-
tain hopes for the settlement of the matter without

the necessity of having recourse to the " further
horrors" of war, when once Abyssinia had been in-
vaded by disciplined troops, and such extensive pre-
parations had been made. Although Mr. DISRAELI
called the estimates " rough," he assured the
committee that they were not careless ones, for they
had been submitted to all possible criticism, and to
the jue:grnent of experienced men. Hence they offered
them to the House with no slight confidence in their
accuracy. There was great truth in the observa-
tions of the Chancellor of the Exchequer concerning

the manner in which different passages of certain
speeches can be taken and made to appear very
different from the impression the speaker originally
intended to convey. A great deal of "ingenious
criticism" has been, as he says, expended upon Lord
STANLEY'S speech of last July about this question ;
but in reality the noble lord merely expressed him-
self with that reserve which becomes a Minister
speaking on a critical matter, and at the same time
he announced the possibility of things turning out
very much as they have done.
Mr. LOWE, as usual, had some crotchet, and the
one last night was that the Government should not
have commenced this war without giving notice to
Parliament. Although, he confessed, that now it
was impossible to refuse the money asked for, he
demanded explanations and endeavoured to cast
discredit on the whole affair. It is really a relief
to peruse the speech of Lord STANLEY after dwell-
ing upon the inflated remarks of Mr. LOWE.
The noble lord said that he had a difficult task
before him in putting before the House a plain un-
varnished statement of facts, in place of the " re-
markable display of ingenuity just exhibited to
them." "I rely, however," emphatically remarked
he, " with confidence upon the strength of the case,
and the often-proved justice of the House and an
impartial public opinion out of doors." We feel
convinced that these will not disappoint the expec-
tations of the noble lord, and he can well
afford to disregard the factious replies of
prejudiced critics. Nothing can possibly be more
plain and straightforward than the concluding re-
marks of the noble lord ; they completely indicate
the course pursued by the Government, and show
that it was the right one to take consistent with
their public duty, and with their reputation as

statesmen desirous to serve the interests of the
country ; and although the policy announced
in the Speech from the Throne was determined
upon four or five days from the end of the Ses-
sion, of what avail would it have been to
have announced it then to the House ? As
Lord STANLEY said, there were only about
sixty or seventy members left in town then, and
those who had gone had gone upon the distinct
understanding that nothing was to be done but to
wind up the formal business of the session. Three
courses were open to the Ministers to take—they
must have put off all action for fifteen months,
they must have pledged the House in form by the
vote of one-tenth of its members, or commit them-
selves, intending to obtain a ratification of their
proceeding's so soon as practicable. "He thought
the first weak, the second unfair, and the
last the only one open to our adoption.
What have we done? We have incurred expenses;
but no more, we believe, than were necessary. We
have done this because we knew that to postpone
these expenses was to delay the rescue of the pri-
soners for a year, and because we believed that
hat was a feeling which England would not tole-
We have called the House together, in order

rate.

that its judgment might be formally taken on what
we have done, and on what we are doing. From
that judgment we shall not shrink, and even
if it be adverse, which we cannot contemplate,
I for one should not feel less convinced that, so far
as the weakness of human judgment allows, we
have in this painful and difficult matter done neither
more nor less than our duty." We have quoted
this passage because it is an important one, and it
is desirable that due attention should be paid to the
position ha -which the Government were placed.