The Warwickshire Herald. — 1886-04-15 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

RETROSPECT.  BY SIB SAMUEL WILSON.  THE policy to which we have lately become accustomed, of concession, of surrender, of giving way when firmness is required, of spasmodic efforts, and great expenditure for no worthier or more important object than the safety or maintenance in power of a party, the sacrifice of thousands of human lives, and of the bravest and most heroic of our race for this same unworthy object, brings to our mind how differently England was governed when the helm of state was tuided by the great leader Lord Beaconsfield, a statesman whose loss the nation mourns no less keenly to-day than it did when, five yeais ago at his tomb WM assembled in the peaceful churchyard at Hughenden, in that pleasant valley of the Chiltern Hills, a group of mourners, from the heir to the throne and representatives of the old nobility, and of that nobility of intellect which rnles the world down through all grades and classes, to the toiler, who in the ranks of labour earns the, too scanty bread for his family by his daily work. All were for the time united in one common sentiment of grief that death had claimed a life so valuable to the country, of sorrow for a friend departed, and of bitter anguish that a life so important should have been taken away when its value to the nation was most appreciated. And, yet how much greater would have been the feelings of grief, sorrow, and anguish of those mourners standing round the tomb, could they have foreseen what five short years would reveal of tht incompetence of his successors in the managemene of the affairs of the country, of the concessions to treason, of the murders and atrocities brought on by unwise utterances and guilty compacts with traitors; of the truckling to enemies after defeat of our soldiers, and thereby inviting fresh contumely; of bullying the weak, and of apologies for insults to the strong; of lowering the name and fame of England by feebleness of purpose and vacillation, when firmness and decision were of vital importance; of wretched incompetence in the management of colonial affairs, leading to estrangement of our best friends; of feeble inaction, and the drifting into war when, by a timely exhibition of a decided purpose, war would have been avoided; of a deliberate choice of war /via di.thonzntr, instead of Peace with Honour. But the nation now sees the fruits of this policy of drifting, and, when the opportunity comes for expressing its opinion, will not fail to show, in a decided manner, its disgust at the way in which national interests have been neglected and mismanaged by the men now in power. The many pilgrims to the shrine of England's greatest statesman show that his efforts for his country's welfare have not been forgotten. Two years the heir to the throne and his charming consort visited Hughenden, and another royal party also made a pilgrimage to that interesting and hallowed spot, and reverentially trod the paths once so familiar to the great departed statesman. Many thousands followed the example, and that humble flower connected with his name has attained a new and unforeseen dignity on being associated with the embodiment of a great, a noble, and a sound policy: I the permanent maintenance of the unity, the great I ness, the honour, and Prosperity of the nation, and of the throne, which is the symbol and embodiment of its power,  "He loved England as a Roman loved Rome; as an Athenian loved the City of the Violet Crown."—