2
and the glorification of the British Empire. (Cheers.) I declared that I would not rest, night or day, while one stone of Lord Beaconsfield's Imperial policy, either at home or abroad, was left standing on another. (Cheers.) Well, I think you will give me the credit of having kept my word. (Loud cheers.) Mohammed told his followers whenever they were in doubt they should consult their wives, and do the very reverse of what they advised. Well, it is on this advice that I have acted. In every question of foreign, colonial, Indian, Imperial policy, I have invariably asked myself, "What would Lord Beaconsfield have done in this case?" And when I have satisfied myself on that point I have, at every apparent sacrifice of what are falsely called "national interests,"
DONE EXACTLY THE REVERSE.
(Loud cheers.) It is owing to this unswerving determination on my part to reverse in every case the policy of my predecessor that England owes the proud position she new occupies as the arbiter of the world. (Loud cheers.) It is to this policy entirely that we are now indebted for our cordial relations with Germany and France. It is this policy that has opened the way for the noble advance of Russian civilisation to the frontiers of India. It is this policy that has caused the uprising of national feeling in India. It is this policy to which we owe the present prosperity and contentment of Ireland, and the magical blossoming forth of the downtrodden land of Egypt. (Continued cheering.) All nations in the world, great and small, have experienced the beneficent influence of our policy. There is not one "from the hyssop that groweth on the wall to the cedar of Lebanon" that has not cause to bless the Liberal Government that now directs the policy of England. (Loud and continued cheering.) It is indeed the crowning privilege of a long, and, I humbly hope, a not altogether unsuccessful life, that I can now proudly say to my countrymen "Circumspice." All the unquestioning confidence, the cordial friendship, that is everywhere showered on your nation; all that gentle spirit of love towards you that you see in Ireland, in France, in Germany, in India, in Egypt, in Russia, is my work, and mine only, assisted of course by my Foreign Minister, Lord Granville. (Loud cheers.) I will not disgust you with the details of cleansing the Augean stables of Lord Beaconsfield's Imperial policy. (Shame.) Suffice it to say that, loathsome as it was, it has been a real labour of love to me and to my colleagues. We have done it thoroughly, and it is finished. (Loud cheers.) You will remember that even before I took office I found the burden of silence was too great for me to bear, and I was impelled to take steps to forbid Lord Salisbury publishing the unholy banns of marriage between England and the German Powers; to tear in pieces, in the face of High Heaven, "the tidings of great joy" he had persumed to wave in my face. (Continued hissing.) Even now I listen again to the ringing cheers with which you greeted the noble—for, with all humility, I think they were noble—words,
"HANDS OFF AUSTRIA!"
when I selected you as the medium for declaring, urbi et orbem, that German and Austrian influence had always had for its object the degra-
