As to the Registration Bill, the Duke remarked that the
Liberal Unionists as a party did not intend "to stand any nonsense." If the intention was to gerrymander British con- stituencies, "to introduce a sham, a partial, and an incom- plete Reform Bill," breaking through the arrangement arrived at between the two parties in 1885 for the purpose of strengthening certain elements in the constituencies which they think favourable to themselves and therefore unfavour- able to the Unionists,—then all they had to expect from their opponents was that they would oppose every obstacle in their power to such a mancenvre. And so the country will learn that there is another issue between the House of Commons and the House of Lords besides Home-rule. All this seems to us very satisfactory, and shows that the leaders of the Liberal Unionists, instead of being inclined to waver and -desert to Lord Rosebery, are somewhat firmer, stauncher, and more uncompromising in their tone now that Mr. Gladstone is gone, than they were during his leadership. After defying Achilles, it would be futile indeed to yield to the blandish- ments of Patroclus.
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