Lord Derby, in a letter to the Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire
'(the Earl of Sefton), dated March 12th, has publicly avowed his secession to the Liberal party. He was very unwilling, he amid, to separate himself from the party with which he had so long acted, "but the present situation of parties, and the avowed policy of the Conservative leader in reference to foreign relations, leave me no choice. I cannot support the present Government, and as neutrality, however from personal feelings I might prefer it, is, at a political crisis, an evasion of public -duty, I have no choice except to declare myself, however re- luctantly, ranked among their opponents." This is a crisis in foreign affairs in which sense and moderation gravitate naturally towards the Liberal camp. However considerable the differences may be between Lord Derby's actual foreign policy and that of the Liberal chief, they are small to the differences between him and the weak violence of Lord Salisbury and Lord Beaconsfield. The foreign policy of the Emir Fakredeen, in " Tancred," is, naturally enough, at once ludicrous and con- temptible to such a one as Lord Derby.
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