that such sacrifices, when made, shall not be thrown away. Further, it is not likely to be forgotten that those sacrifices, though willingly undergone, were greater than they need have been. There must be in future, as far as possible, an economy of sacrifice. The surest means of effecting such economy lies in the intelligent anticipation of events before they occur,' in all those spheres where British interests are apt to clash with those of foreign Powers, and in the reorganisation of our national defences on what Lord Rosebery has called a 'business footing.' To thorough reforms in our military system, based on a searching enquiry into the lessons of the South African war, Her Majesty's Ministers are fully pledged; and the country will look anxiously for the redemption of those pledges, despite all opposition which may be encountered from reactionary and interested faction. But attention to the army must not be allowed to act detrimentally on what, after all, is of still greater importance-the navy-without which the finest army in the world would be, to us, a useless encumbrance. Other Powers are straining every nerve to place themselves on a level with us, and it is certain that our boasted superiority is not what it was five years ago. Mr. Goschen's administration has suffered from grave defects, which it will be the duty of his successor to rectify. Absolute security at sea-which we no longer enjoy is the first requisite for this nation. Perhaps the best assurance of longer foresight in foreign affairs, and consequently of prompter and more decisive treatment of what appear to be fresh developments, as they arise, would be found in the separation of the offices of the Prime Minister and Secretary for Foreign Affairs. It is impossible that any human being can nowadays find time for the adequate discharge of the duties of both these posts. One or other will inevitably be neglected; and it is the first which has suffered in Lord Salisbury's hands. While the Foreign Secretary has been generally strong and successful, the Premier has been wanting. Indeed, it might almost be said that we have done without a Prime Minister during the last five years. The magnificent general vote of confidence which Lord Salisbury has received should facilitate his decision to enhance his great powers for the public service by delivering himself from one or the other half of what is realised on all hands as being an impossible burden. Emphatic, however, as has been the nation's answer, in the sense desired by the Ministry, to the main question placed before it at the Dissolution, it would be idle to deny that the voice of the counties is given much less strongly in their favour than that of the boroughs. Unionist losses outnumber the gains in the agricultural constituencies and in some of the mining and semi-urban industrial districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. These losses produce, indeed, hardly any appreciable effect on the huge Government majority in England -seven to two in the boroughs, two to one in the county districts; but they tell their tale. They show at least that the Unionist weakness lies in the more thinly populated districts, and is a growing one there. This should warn the Unionist party that when, as may happen a few years hence, Imperial questions are, or appear to be, less urgent than at present, the issue between the two parties may and probably will turn on judgments, just or unjust, of their capacity for the prosecution of domestic reforms. Before that time comes it will be necessary for the Unionist Government to clear themselves of all liability to reproach for indifference on such questions as temperance, the housing of the poor, and educational reorganisation. That, by dealing boldly with these subjects, the Unionists will secure the rural vote cannot be confidently predicted; but at any rate they will have established their claim to the support of the great majority of those citizens who are concerned for the internal strengthening, by sober and moderate reforms, of the fabric of this kingdom. The Liberals, even if they succeed in imperialising themselves as a party, cannot shake off, in the minds of prudent citizens, the suspicions arising from their past associations with the Irish Nationalists and their subversive projects against the Church and the House of Lords. All these, however, have of late been kept a good deal in the background; and it is as earnest social reformers that Liberals have desired to be compared with the Unionists to the disadvantage of the latter. It will be entirely the fault of the Unionist party, if, writing five years hence, a friendly critic like Mr. Whates is not able to pass a more favourable judgment on the correspondence of their legislative performances with the expectations raised at election times than that contained in his interesting and useful book. Probably in no election in recent times have so few domestic questions been raised, or so few domestic pledges given by either side, as in that of 1900; but Unionist leaders would be wofully deceived if they persuaded themselves that no attention need be paid to domestic affairs on that account. Such a fault would not only entail punishment on them, but might involve grave risk to the Empire by installing their opponents both in office and in power. 1 INDEX TO THE HUNDRED AND NINETY-SECOND VOLUME OF [Titles of Articles are printed in heavier type.] A. Africa, South, The War in, 270— Africa, South, Federation in, 505 American schools at Rome and 107-com- pared with Flaubert, 108-style, Aston, W. G., A History of Japan- Athens, French and British Schools B. Bedford, Duke of, his experiments in Bosanquet, B., 'Philosophical Theory Brown, P. Hume, 'History of Scot- Bryan, Mr, candidate for the Presi- Bryce, Prof., on the two parties in 2 R Byron, Lord, 25-his genius, 26- Byzantium and Rome, 129. See C. Carnarvon, Lord, his South Africa Chamberlain, B. H., The Classical China, its influence on Japan, 69- style of poetry, 81-dramas, 84. policy, 543-colonisation, 544–ter- Great Boer Trek,' 19. Coleridge, S., his friendship with Colquhoun, A. R., "The "Overland" Countries, New Creatures for Cox, Harding, on ‘Coursing,' 399. Creatures, New, for Old Coun- Cremation, The Ethics of, 45- Crisis, The Chinese, 542. See D. Dewar, G. A. B., Wild Life in Dill, Samuel, Roman Society,' 134— Domestic Parties and Imperial of universal suffrage, 249-want of - Donne, John, and his Contem- Drayton, Michael, his patriotic bal- Dunbar, Sir A., 'The Scottish Kings,' E. Election, The General, 565-atti- 585 Elizabethan Sport, 381-literature, England, prevalence of malaria, 294 F. Finlay, 'History of Greece,' 129 et France, Institutes at Rome and G. - Germany, Institutes at Rome and 557. |