Sir Stafford Northcote on Friday week made a most ungener-
ous and injudicious speech at Newton Abbott. He accused the Government of plunging Great Britain into a war without the previous consent and support of Parliament. Sir Stafford North- cote need not, of course, be reminded that the right of making peace and war is not a prerogative of Parliament at all, but of the Queen and her Ministers, subject to Parliamentary censure, and that the right has been exercised a hundred times in India ; but he has surely forgotten that Government has made no war at all, but is with great reluctance, though ill the only effectual way, resisting an invasion. In a party sense we should be most happy to see his colleagues pursue that line of argument, as they would at once be deserted by their own followers, who of the two parties are the more anxious that the Flag should be vigorously sustained ; but in an English sense we should have expected from Sir S. Northcote the support which his enemies gave him in the Abyssinian war, certainly a more needless enter- prise, and indefinitely more dangerous. If we are to call Parliament together whenever savages are to be chastised, we may as well give up our Empire, for no danger would ever be prevented in good time. It is not for Parliament to order war, except in the extremest cases, but to select Ministers whom they can trust not to rush into wars which bring them neither thanks nor profit, and impede much more important tasks. The idea of Sir S. Northcote charging Mr. Gladstone with wanting a little war !
