New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-03-12
THE BRITISH WAR FEVER.
LIBERALS AND TORIES EXASPERATED.

SYSTEMATIC EFFORTS MADE TO FoMENr THE WAR
FKELING-INTENsE BITTERNESS PERvADING BRIT
ISL POIITICs-JOuN MORLEY on PRO-TURKIsH
RowDYIsM-MR. GLADSTONE AND LORD DERBY
CORDIALLY HATED.
IRON THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TnrBUNE.l
LONDON, Feb. 2S.-An5ther piece of safe swagger,
say those who know Lord Beaconseld of the freshly
announced appointment of Lord Napier of Magdala
The appointment is made in terms bearing curious
likeness to the famous paragraph of the Queens
speech about contingent precautions i'll view OF an-
expected occurrences. Lord Napier of Magdala
is to be cOmmander-in-chef of any evolutionary
force that may be sent out in case of war. LORD
Beaconsield appears disposed to practice the CHI
nese method of warfare, beating loud drums afar
off and making hideous faces at an invisible
enemy. Certainly, there is plenty of swagger but
how far il may prove safe is another question. For
there is something beside swagger. Very serions
preparations for war are making and have been
making for weeks. No smallpar of the Six Millions
is already spent. And underneath all the talk
there is what there has been from the beginning.
steady purpose on the part OF Lord Beaconsheld
that this crisis shall not pass away till lie has made
an opportunity OF doing shining feat Oh his
own account.
81 have the Queen on my side have Parliament
with me ; | have the people of England behind me.
If were ten years younger / would remnke the
man Of Europe" Such are the words Lord Beacons-
field is reputcd to have used lately. 1t does not
much matter whether he used them or not: what
matters is the general belief that he used them.
People will credit anything of their present Prime
Minister, and the readiness with which the widest
speeches are imputed to him shows what estimate
is put on his character. Aud his character Is an
element of the situation. If you don't take that
toto 10, al ul,tin
astray. There are moments when he deems it conve-
nicnt to put on a kind of solemn hypocrisy. II was
in some such moment that he SAID, only day or two
since washing his hands with invisible soap and
water and drawing out his words for their greater
effect: &c" really begin to fear that this people will
sooner or later drive me into with Russia" i
will make no other comment on that than to repeat
what heard last week from an extremely well-in-
formed Liberal agent.--a man who with You would
he chairman OF National Executive Committee, or
something of that kind. He told me that for
fortnight past reports had been coming in FROM his
correspondents all over England, that paid agents
of the Tory party were ARRIVING i'll great numbers
at the more important towns To organize an agita-
ton in fayorof the policy of the Government. and
to fOment a war feeling.
The question which continually rccurs, which has
to be asked and answered afrcsh every week. OF
have been successful. Until lately there have been
Gibbs and floods but for fortnight past, or more,
il is plainly all flood. Mr.. Gladstone and few en-
thusasIc Liberals, Mr. Auberon Herbert, for cx-
ample may persuade themselves that the country at
large is still Of sound mind and that it is only Lon
don which has given way TO UnreasOning panic and
passion. | wish could believe that but the evil
dence points the other way. There has been, for
one thing a marked change for the worse IN the
tone Of the provincial Liberal press. Among the
people whom meet there are hardly two opinions
about the strength of the war party all
over England Scotland may be an cxcep-
ton. / hear so much violent talk day by
day. from men whom have long been accustomed
10 respect see such anger reused by dissent, or
by mere want Of ardent sympathy. that J, an out
slider hardly like to say how strange the attitude Of
people appears 10 NE. Let me quote, instead, what
an English friend writes mo:
"TLe English people seem to me TO be literally
mad. The Gar has neither done us, nor, as
firmly believe, thought Of doing us. any kind of
wrong Yet he and his people are assailcd with
torrent Of the same clustering and calnmnious in
suit that was poured on your people at the time 81
the Civil War. We shall pay for II in tins case rs
we did in the other"
That is from clear-sightcd, coOl, scientific stu
dent of politics. home and foreign. j have heard a
dozen other men say heard il said last night at
dinner the whole company sorrowfuy asseniing-
that the bitterness Of feeling ct tins moment, be-
tween Englishmen of different sympathcs
in this matter. far exceeds anything within
living memory; is far beyond what il was
during our Rebellion, or. still more, during the
Franco-German war. And there is something more
than that. Again let quote from English lips
:" It will be long" writes Mr. John Morley, IN the
March For'nighHy before quiet observers forget
the exhibition that the dangerous classes in this
country have made Of themselves" Whom do you
suppose Mr.. John Morley means by the dangerous
classesf 1t Is title which Theodore Parker
bestowed on the uncducated masses. and Mr.. iior-
ley might naturally be thought To refer 10 the broad
cloth nobs Of Cannon-st. and the Guldhall, or to
last Sundays unwashcd mob IN Hyde Park. Not at
ALL The dangerous classes arc the upper classes
His next sentences are:
"Wehave had glimpse not soon to be forgotten
of the temper Of the people who haunt courts, and
make up the opinion Of clubs and country houses
IL Is not merely that they take one view of the
Eastern question, and we take another. IL is their
contempt for freedom, their resentment against
PRINCIPLES, their Iancor against justice. their des
pcrate blindness to the great moving forces in
Europe. These are the thing, that astonish one
And again:
"This want of intelligence III the war party Is
lust what has been the most striking thing about
them ever since the Eastern crisis set in. Witness
the pass of ruin to which their friendship has
brought the Turks, and the rdiculc and humiiia-
ton which their shrlll cries and impocnt bustling
havo brought upon the name OF England"
One specimen of the shameful fury Ohich pos
sesscs some OF The people who haunt courts and
make up the opinion of clubs will give. In two
different rooms Of the same club, heard two men
expressing loudly their wish that certain person
might be hanged. The club was Liberal
club and the man they wanted hanged