of our fellow-subjects, the announcement was received in more than one country with something like mocking incredulity. But we have asserted the purity of our purpose. In an age accused, and perhaps not unjustly, of selfishness and a too great regard for material interests, it is something in so striking and significant a manner for a great nation to have vindicated the higher principles of humanity. It is a privilege to belong to a country which has done such deeds. They will add lustre to the name of this nation, and will beneficially influence the future history of the world." The vote of thanks was then unanimously passed.

high elevation, sometimes breaking into the honour of our sovereign, and to rescue gorges and ravines which appeared un- from an unjust but remote captivity a few fathomable. Yet over this country, for more than 300 miles, he guided and sustained a numerous host-many thousands of fighting men, as numerous a following of camp attendants, and vast caravans of camels which in number exceeded both. He led cavalry and infantry over this country; and, what was perhaps the most remarkable part of this expedition, he led the elephants of Asia, bearing the artillery of Europe, over African passes which might have startled the trapper and appalled the hunter of the Alps. When he arrived at the place of his critical rendezvous, he encountered no mean foe; and if the manly qualities of the Abyssinians sunk before the resources of our warlike science, our troops had still after that engagement to scale a mountain fortress of such intrinsic strength that it would have been impregnable to the world had it been defended by the persons who assaulted it. But all these difficulties and all these obstacles were overcome by Sir Robert Napier, and that was accomplished which not one of us ten years ago could have fancied even in his dreams, and which must be peculiarly interesting to Englishmen under all circumstances to recall to mind—the standard of St. George was hoisted on the mountains of Rasselas."

After commenting in eulogistic terms upon the military qualities of Sir Robert Napier, and upon the courage and endurance exhibited by the other officers engaged in the expedition, Mr. Disraeli thus concluded: -"When it was first announced that England was about to embark on a most costly and perilous expedition merely to vindicate

This sentence was much ridiculed at the time. As if, it was said, Johnson when he wrote Rasselas ever thought of an actual Abyssinia! The probability is that when Johnson wrote Rasselas he did think of and describe an actual Abyssinia. The country of Abyssinia was familiar to him. When an undergraduate at Pembroke he had read a "Voyage to Abyssinia." by Lobo, a Portuguese Jesuit, and subsequently had translated it. (See "Boswell," vol. i. p. 58; vol. iii. p. 7.) The heights on which "the standard of St. George was hoisted" were no doubt accurately described by Johnson in his novel, and might therefore with perfect consistency be styled by Mr. Disraeli as "the mountains of Rasselas."

VOL. II.

Among the measures which almost silently, so absorbing was the interest in Irish matters, became law during this session the following are the most important:-The work of parliamentary reform was completed by extending the franchise and enlarging the basis of representation in Scotland and Ireland; in the drawing up of both these reform bills the Opposition played an important part, and the government on more than one occasion was forced to accept the suggestions of their opponents. The boundaries of boroughs in England and Wales were defined by a boundary bill which, after much discussion, passed both Houses. The bill which had been discussed last session with regard to the trial of election petitions by the judges of the land was now enrolled upon the statute-book. The longcontested church-rate question was settled by the bill founded on Mr. Gladstone's scheme abolishing the compulsory payment of church rates; and, lastly, a bill was introduced and became law which transferred all the electric telegraphs in the kingdom to the state.

Shortly before the dissolution of parliament Mr. Disraeli made a speech out of doors which attracted much attention, and led to some little discussion in the House of Commons. At a banquet in Merchant Taylors' Hall the prime minister spoke 16

Then directing the attention of his audience to foreign affairs, Mr. Disraeli passed upon the foreign policy of the late government this severe stricture. "When we acceded to office the name of England was a name of suspicion and distrust in every court and cabinet. There was no possibility of that cordial action with any of the great powers which is the only security for peace; and, in consequence of that want of cordiality, wars were frequently occurring. But since we entered upon office, and public affairs were administered by my noble friend [Lord Stanley] who is deprived by a special diplomatic duty of the gratification of being here this evening, I say that all this has changed; that there never existed between England and foreign powers a feeling of greater cordiality and confidence than now prevails; that while we have shrunk from bustling and arrogant intermeddling, we have never taken refuge in selfish isolation; and the result has been that there never was a government in this country which has been more frequently appealed to for its friendly offices than the one which now exists."

upon his favourite subject, and which was | but soften and assuage, the asperities of all the more his favourite since the principle conflicting creeds." was now endangered, the union of church and state. “The constitution of England," he said (June 17, 1868), “is not a paper constitution. It is an aggregate of institutions, many of them founded merely upon prescription, some of them fortified by muniments, but all of them the fruit and experience of an ancient and illustrious people. And the consequence of this peculiar constitution has been this-one experienced by no other European nation that in England society has always been more powerful than the state; for in moments of difficulty and danger, in moments of emergency, there has always in this country been something round which men could rally, and by those means we have achieved the two greatest blessings of civilized communities, which are seldom reconciled the enjoyment alike of order and of liberty. Now, among these institutions not the least considerable is the church; and it is in the alliance between church and state-an alliance between equal and independent powers, which entered into a solemn covenant for the national goodthat one of the principal causes may be recognized why we have enjoyed those two great blessings of freedom and order. To that union we are indebted for this great result, that the exercise of authority in England has been connected with the principle of religion-a union which, even in rude times, made power responsible, and which prevented government, even in comparatively barbarous periods, from degenerating into mere police, a union which in happier times has elevated, and purified, and ennobled the exercise of power. And, my lords and gentlemen, in the age in which we live, the duties of government each year become more social than political. I am at a loss to know how these duties can be fulfilled if the state be not in intimate relation with an order of men set apart, and who, by their piety, their learning, and their social position, not only guide and control,

This criticism was not to pass unchallenged. A few days after these remarks had been delivered Mr. Grant Duff called upon the prime minister to explain his "wild words," and to prove how Lord Clarendon, who during part of the rule of the late government presided at the foreign office, had been "that troubler of Israel whose designs, whose machinations, whose un-wisdom were such that cordial co-operation between the great powers of Europe was rendered wholly impossible?" In reply Mr. Disraeli said (June 25, 1868) that his observations did not apply to Lord Clarendon, who had only succeeded to office for a few months, and therefore could not be responsible for a system which had unfortunately prevailed for many years, but to Earl Russell. He maintained the truth of his remarks. "As I am asked," he said,