IXxm.] MB. BRIGHT'S PUBLIO APPEARANCES. 813

Phantom chase, is now turning round, snd saying that it _ 1859.
Wag not from fear of the French that we were called on to Jr. 85.
drm, And this line is taken by its followers. I have always
observed that, as the time for the meeting of Parliament
¥pproaches, the newspapers put on a more decent regard for
Propriety and consistency. They feel that a power of refatation
 and exposure is at hand when the House is in
Session. This last sutumn’s escapade of the good British
public, calling its youth to arm against an imaginary foe,
after having seen twenty-six millions voted for its protection,
8 one of the most discouraging and humiliating spectacles
I have witnessed. The effect it has on me is to produce a
feeling of indifference. To be too much in earnest in the
cause of common sense, with the liability to see one’s
tountrymen running mad every year or two after any
Visionary programme launched by the anonymous writers of
the Times, is only calculated to injure one’s digestion, and
Perhaps ruin one’s health ; and so I try to cultivate a stoical
pathy.
“Perhaps we are wrong in aiming at producing too
large results within a given time. .I do not, as I grow
older, lose my faith in humanity, and its future destinies;
but I do every year—perhaps it is natural with increasing
yearas—feel less sanguine in my hope of seeing any
laterial change in my own day and generation. I sometimes
 doubt whether you would not have done more wisely
to rely on your House of Commons influence, and been
more shy of the Stump. Your greatest power is in the
House. In quiet times, there is no influence to be had from
Without, and if we fell into evil days of turbulence, and
Suffering and agitation, less scrupulous leaders would carry
off the masses. You are not the less qualified to take your
true position, from having shown that you are an outside,
&8 well as an inside, leader. But I have an opinion that if