Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/10

 2] ENGLISH HISTOEY. [m.

ministers were at variance. Turkey was momentarily unob- trusive, and had become once more the open field of foreign financiers, seeking from their respective Governments support for their rival schemes. The European Concert had, after much delay, succeeded in obtaining the reality, and not merely the form, of an autonomy for the Cretans, and the island was at length placed under the responsible government of a Christian ruler. South Africa was still the most unsettled portion of the empire, the racial differences of the British and Afrikander settlers becoming more accentuated as questions of supremacy or preponderance arose. In the Transvaal, where the feeling was most marked, a growing feeling of impatience was notice- able on both sides ; and the murder of a British subject, and the subsequent acquittal of the murderer, further embittered the gelations of the two nationalities.

Little apparent change had come over the position of political -parties at home. The withdrawal of Sir Wm. Harcourt and l£r. Morley from the counsels of the Liberal leaders had been received with equanimity by the rank and file of their own party. Lord Bosebery's chief aim was to mark his dissociation from their views on foreign policy, whilst reserving to himself the right to act with them in the criticism of the domestic policy of the Government. By general consent the question of the party leadership was left in abeyance until the meeting of Par- liament ; in other words, until arrangements could be made by which her Majesty's Opposition could be rendered most effective during the ensuing session. The most noteworthy incident of this campaign was the issue of a manifesto by the long-dormant Cobden Club in favour of the policy of the " open door," which, if necessary, was to be blown open by artillery. Whilst recog- nising the right of foreign Powers to settle their own tariffs in their own way in their own territories and possessions, " we cannot recognise that they have a similar right in countries now passing from under their control, and where Englishmen have already established interests." How far the Cobden Club represented any body of opinion in Lancashire or elsewhere it would be diffi- cult to say, or whether this manifesto was merely the personal opinion of Lord Farrer, who made use of the name of a great economist to give weight to his own opinions. If the Cobden Club had any existence as a political influence, and had endorsed its president's views, it was only evidence that the Liberal party was more imperialist in its sentiments than the detractors of Lord Bosebery imagined. It was not unreasonable, however, for the representatives of British manufacture to desire to see their interests better protected than had been the case in Mada- gascar, where our treaty rights were deliberately set aside by the French. They were therefore anxious that in the general scramble for " derelict " territory all over the world the acquisi- tions of continental Powers should not be fenced in with protectionist barriers. From this point of view the Cobden