So they had, also, if they had only lent 24,000,000
to the Khedive for twenty years. The affair must, however, be considered on its political side, and the point for Lord Derby would be to prove that he had, by "legitimate means," and "without any encroach- ment upon the rights of any other country," obtained additional security for our safe and uninterrupted communication with India. The question thus put is scarcely fair to Lord Derby, is indeed. rather like posing a clergyman with a text, which he cannot by professional etiquette reply to as to an argument. Lord Derby may be unable to prove his case without statements which every one knows to be true, but which cannot be formally made. The Government, for example, may have decided that it will not pre- , vent by force, though it will not hasten, a break-up of the Turkish Einpire, and that if such an event should occur, it will occupy Egypt as an indispensable guarantee ;_ and that might be , sound policy, but it could not be formally stated until the time had arrived. Foreign affairs must be left to Governments, under the menace of dismissal if they blunder, and in this instance the instinct of the English people is that the Government has not blundered.
