Such a course of proceeding was, as he conceived, better both upon the whole, and certainly so, with a view to the Crisis of the Moment, which could not wait the slow return of any long and circuitous me hon. The illustration used by an hon. gentleman, the other night (Mr. Fox,) was so happy, that it might seem almost to be conclusive.
—But it would expose the honour of his monarchy, the dignity of his house, the glory of the good and great people be governs, in short the supreme interest of the state; it would expose them in the eyes of his contemporaries and of posterity, if, guided by the exclusive sense of the distressing though transient Crisis of the Moment, and forgetting his sacred obligation to preserve the existence of the monarchy, he could agree to accept such preliminary conditions as would give a fatal blow to it, and break the ties of all the powers in amity with him.
Not, I think, to those whose authors profess to cure everything by a single stroke, nor yet to those whose aim is merely to tide over the Crisis of the Moment, but to measures which, while they are gradual in their operation, are at the same time safe and sure.
I do not think, Sir, that information of so specific and pointed a character has come directly into the hands of Her Majesty's Government; but, undoubtedly, so far as our 1150 information goes, we are agreed with the French Minister in that which perhaps may be considered the most important point of the whole question connected with these deplorable disturbances—namely, that their origin was an origin which is properly to be considered as accidental, and as extraneous to the great Egyptian Crisis of the Present Moment, although there is no doubt that when the quarrel had once broken out it found materials in a highly inflammable state of affairs, and therefore assumed dimensions which were of a dangerous and formidable character.
I am not presuming to say on which side the blame lies, but, speaking as a soldier, and feeling therefore very strongly the Crisis of the Moment, I hope that Members, on whatever side of the House they sit, may be able to put some little check upon their language.
They should not be left to the Crisis of the Moment, but when there is no special stress or strain the Government and its advisers should devote themselves to the consideration of these broad and all-important issues.
In my opinion, it should be limited to the immediate Crisis of the Present Moment, and to the thirteen Ministers concerned, and it ought not to extend to the end of the War.
It 1687 is one thing to deal with a great industrial issue on its merits, but it is another thing to deal with a great industrial issue when it is mixed up with an arbitrary date of the calendar, which may have no meaning in terms of the actual Crisis of the Moment.
I believe, therefore, that The Times was so right this morning when it said that the Crisis of the Moment is not pre-eminently economic or military, it is a moral crisis.
There is the fear that suspects frequently blurt out, on their way to the police station in the car, in the Crisis of the Moment, confessions and admissions which, when they reach a more formal interview at the police station, they retract, or, at least, do not repeat, and that it is not right that those blurtings-out should be excluded.
That is disingenuous in the extreme, because the basis upon which that offer is made is that Ukraine and the rest of the world should accept and endorse the illegality of the conduct that has given rise to the Crisis of the Moment.
Economic policy debates often focus on the Crisis of the Moment.