Mr. Trevelyan also spoke very explicitly on the War. Though.
one of those who did his best to draw the teeth of Mr. Glad- stone's Resolutions last Session, he does not disguise his own sympathy with Russia in the cause she is representing, and his.
utter detestation of the Turkish system of rule. But the- most striking part of what he said had relation to the contro- verted question as to the condition of English public opinion :— "The desire to fight (I do not say that it does not exist else- where) is almost universal amongst idlers and,gossips, fashionable- aspirants, and the habitual frequenters of the London burlesques and music-halls. The determination to keep at peace is almost universal among the great mass of the population which produces the wealth of this country, and which makes us respected and powerful among nations. My experience is that the division is not, as is generally described, one of class, but of-personal habits- and character. If you meet a man who does an honest stroke of work on every week-day, whether he be manufacturer, or artisan, or tradesman, or barrister, it is ten to one that he wishes his country to leave this quarrel to be fought out by those whom, it concerns. If you meet a man who amuses himself for fifteen hours in the twenty-four, and sleeps the rest, it is ninety-nine to- one but he thinks that we should send an ultimatum to Russia as soon as she crosses the Balkans, and that he regards Lord Beaconsfield as a second Chatham, who is robbed of his oppor- tunities by his more timid colleagues." That may be true, but it hardly indicates a pettedly healthy state of English opinion on
foreign affairs. The dislike to all national sacrifice which appears to threaten men's individual prosperity, is better than positive sympathy with a cruel system of misgovernment ; but it is not the sort of political temper on which the Government of a great empire can safely rely to establish or maintain its power.
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