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1885.] nations. This, no doubt, is incomprehensible to the Radicals who rule the Gladstone Cabinet, and therefore, unable to deny that our position with the Great Powers is more unsatisfactory than has been the case for many years, they have invented the ludicrous excuse that Prince Bismarck has a personal hostility to Mr Gladstone. It is very possible that the German Minister may entertain a less favourable opinion of the British Prime Minister than the tribe of sycophants who are never tired of singing his praises. We can easily believe this to be the case, because the two men have been cast in very different moulds, and Mr Gladstone's faults and weaknesses are precisely those which Prince Bismarck would despise. But to suppose that a man of the immense ability of the German Chancellor, charged with the heavy responsibilities of governing the country for which he has done so much, and actuated by the patriotic desire to serve her interests as the first and great object of his life, would allow himself to be influenced in the slightest degree by personal dislike to the Minister of another country, or would condescend, as the Radical scribes assert, to be connected with a Tory intrigue to drive Mr Gladstone from office, is a supposition so unlikely and so absurd, as to prove at once how miserable are the shifts to which the apologists of the Government are now driven. The truth is, that during the past year the Gladstone Administration have failed all round. They have carried their Reform Bill, indeed, but not until it had been made manifest to the country that it was a Bill which had the assent of both political parties, and could not fairly be claimed by either as a party triumph. Moreover, even in this success they so mismanaged matters that, after lending themselves to a wicked but ineffective agitation against the House of Lords, they had to comply with the conditions for which that House had stipulated, and produce the whole of their scheme before any part of it became law. And for the rest of their doings, where are they to be found written? No legislative exploits, but a goodly record of legislative failures, at home. No financial triumphs, but a failure of financial schemes and an increased income-tax. No Irish content, but a new agitation already threatened, the anti-English party strengthened and united, and the seeds of Irish discontent spreading to Scotland, as the first-fruits of unprincipled land legislation. The agricultural interest in a condition which fills every thoughtful politician with alarm; the shipping and railway interest agitated by foolish attempts at inquisitorial and vexatious legislation; trade dull, commerce languishing, and a general want of confidence in merchants and capitalists. These are some of the results of our five years' enjoyment of Mr Gladstone's rule over us; and as if we had not enough to regret at home, the foreign and colonial policy for which his Government are responsible, stand condemned as an exhibition of incompetent folly such as British history has rarely chronicled of British statesmen. Their recent action in proclaiming a British protectorate in New Guinea, and again in hoisting the British flag on the coast of Zululand, only proves that, when it may in all probability be too late, they have known what were the steps which a British Government should