Essays, Critical and Political; Political Our Colonial Empire Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...they ought to have shut the mouths of the guns at Alexandria. They ought to have kept alive--what we are convinced was a serious evil--the Dual Control. We disregarded the voice of Sir Wilfrid Lawson when we went to war, we disregarded the susceptibilities of France when we put an end to that instrument of joint control and divided interest, and it is too late now to have our policy determined by any such trivial considerations. We propose to show that the continued occupation of Egypt by an efficient force is at the present time absolutely necessary, and we are strengthened in the conviction which we desire to express by the belief that the opinion of the best authorities coincides with our own; and that the valid reasons which can be shown to exist for our being in Egypt at all are valid against a precipitate withdrawal from that country. So far as we have been able to ascertain, public opinion is against the Government, if their project is to withdraw the troops from Egypt at an early day. We are aware that it is an exceedingly difficult thing to determine the drift of public opinion, and many men are in the habit of thinking that their own thoughts must be current, they are so reasonable to them. We do not desire to fall into such an error, and to correct it is, as we say, exceedingly difficult. To trust to the Press is not altogether wise, for there is a section of journalism which thinks to make public opinion by its blatancy of assertion instead of by its weight of reason; and that section, knowing that very often to say public opinion is in a certain direction is to lead public opinion in the direction indicated, does not hesitate to use that rhetorical figure. Still, as it is necessary to attempt to discover in what way the majority of...