Lord Hartington, after a needless and rather ungenerous reproof to
Mr. .Forster for want of gratitude to Mr. Gladstone —who, of course, chooses his Cabinet in the public interest, not his own—defended the course of the Government upon the usual grounds, but with unusual clearness and force of conviction ; and Mr. Morley made on the same side the first speech in which lie has achieved success. He quizzed Mr. Cowen, who, as usual, preferred the nation to a party, for so often finding that their interests were different; described "Jingoes in drab and crusaders in broad brims" as most formidable persons ; and compared the Government to Mazeppa, tied to the back of that erratic hero, General Gordon. He looked on the Vote of Censure as one more effort in the great cause of compelling England to guarantee the Egyptian Debt. Mr. Goschen strongly deprecated a majority for Government, mainly upon Mr. Forster's grounds, but with a careful avoidance of invective ; and Sir Charles Dilke explained in detail the immense difficulties which impede any expedition to Khartoum. Finally, Sir Stafford Northeote wound up the discussion, which had, on the whole, been worthy of the occasion, in a speech which reads temperately feeble,— his special 'point was that Government quoted or .derided General Gordon's opinion as seemed most convenient—and impressed those who heard it as the utterance of a man weary of his task, and only performing it from a sense of duty. And then, in a House boiling with excitement, and uncertain to the last of the result—poor Lord R. Grosvenor looking limp with doubt—the division was taken.
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