Synopsis of Lectures Upon Diseases of the Nervous System; Delivered at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department of Columbia (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE QUARTER, JT is certain that the quarter just closed will be for ever memorable in the history of England. It saw, among other events of first-rate political importance, the abandonment of the Soudan; the Russian attack on Penjdeh; the defeat and resignation of the Gladstone Ministry; the accession to office of a Conservative Ministry, and the disgraceful surrender, by the Liberal Government, which terminated the Anglo-Russian difficulty in Afghanistan. The Conservatives have acceded to office. The Conservative Ministry is announced. It is a strong Ministry, but then all Ministries are strong in one sense, namely, that the individuals composing them arc either men of note or men of experience. There was once a Ministry in England which was justly called " all the talents," but which, in its collective capacity, was one of the worst Ministries with which a nation was ever cursed. The reason is not far to seek. That which constitutes the strength, because the originality and independence of the individual, may be the very thing which makes him a weak, because an inharmonious link, in a Ministerial chain. From this point of view there are elements of weakness in the new Cabinet which cannot fail to make themselves felt in connexion with the work of actual political administration. There appears to be a very general feeling that the Conservatives did not act wisely in accepting the responsibility of office at the present time. In the justice of this criticism we can by no means concur. A party ceases to be a party when it is only strong enough to maintain itself in opposition, and, if the Conservatives confessed their inability to take office at the present time, it is probable that the party, as a party, would dissolve, and the Liberals would return to office with incr...