Lord Randolph Churchill having, in his Walsall speech, kept to
harmless though unpractical suggestions in relation to the sale and purchase of land, and the building of cheap and wholesome houses for the poor, dashed into his more natural sphere of action,—mischief-making,—in his speech at Birmingham on Tuesday. He began by promising to divide the Unionist Party at the next election in Birmingham if the Birmingham Conservatives wished it, and telling the Liberal Unionists that they ought to merge themselves utterly in the Tory Party. Then he went on to impress on his audience Lord Beaconsfield's principle that the British Empire is an Asiatic Empire, and that nevertheless,—here he certainly diverged sharply from Lord Beaconsfield,—we have no in- terests that need be in conflict with those of Russia in the East of Europe. He wished, indeed, to see our statesmen acting in friendly co-operation with those of France and Russia, but not, apparently, in friendly co-operation with Germany, of whose interests in Africa and Australasia he spoke as opposed to ours. Then he seized the very moment when our duty and explicit engagements especially compel us to assist Egypt in resisting the attack of the Dervishes, to insist on. the need for the evacuation of Egypt in compliance with the demands of France, and enlarged on the power that this would give us to resist German demands in South Africa, and to consolidate our power there. Evidently Lord Randolph thinks that when the great war comes, England must rank herself amongst the Powers which will regard their neutrality, if that neutrality is to be preserved, as benevolent towards Russia and France, and as decidedly not benevolent towards. Germany and Austria.
Previous page
