A FEW LAST WORDS FROM THE ENGLISH POINT OF VIEW :— POLITICS AND THE COLONIAL QUESTION

It has often struck me how good a thing it would be if we could introduce into English political life some modification of the Greek law concerning ostracism.

What could have been better for Mr. Gladstone, for instance, after his suicidal Home Rule Bill of 1886, than a sentence of five years' banishment to Canada, South Africa, or Australia? the last by preference, because it is 16,000 miles off.

I am sure the Australians, or Africans, or Canadians, would have been very glad to see him; they all have excellent newspapers, and follow English politics with interest and intelligence; there is now a 2½d. Imperial Postage, and “the old man eloquent” would thus have had an admirable opportunity of viewing affairs polemical, quorum magna pars fuit, from the vantage post of a serene distance.

Or suppose Lord Beaconsfield could have been sent in the same manner in 1880, to observe on the spot the practical workings of his “spirited foreign policy” in India or South Africa.

Perhaps we should have possessed him for several years longer; perhaps even (it is indeed an animating thought!) we should possess him at this very hour; for assuredly he fell a victim to our genial winter climate, and we all know the tonic effects of South Africa.