One hundred years ago
The rage of the Conservative rank and file, rage as of leopards in a net, which so perplexes and worries their leaders, is not without excuse. Their situation i has become, in truth, well-nigh unbear- able. The great body of the party, those who see only what is directly before . them , think that a great opportunity of resuming power is being, for no adequ- ate reason, suffered to pass away. They imagine that the country is longing for a different foreign policy, especially in Egypt, and would like to see Votes of Censure moved every week until the Liberal majority was gradually whittled away. What they would do then they do not know, as their most trusted agent, Mr Bartley, in his letter to the Times, has just publicly told them; but that responsibility does not rest on them, and they fret .under what they deem their leaders' want of energy. Why is not the Government tormented about Egypt, about Prince Bismarck's Colon- ial policy, about Afghanistan, even though a resignation would but leave all these difficult questions upon their lead- ers' hands, besides intermediately creat- ing almost inextricable confusion?
Spectator, 21 March 1885
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