The Duke of Richmond and Gordon presided at Aberdeen: yesterday
week at a banquet given to Sir R. Cross, and in his opening speech maintained that the Conservatives were not an obstructive Party, that they were quite willing to further pro- gress " within the lines of the Constitution," that the Liberals have no policy except to give sops first to one section and then to another section of their divided Party, and that the House of Lords is very popular in the country, though it is question- able whether the House of Commons is. Sir Richard Cross endeavoured to persuade the Aberdonians that though they might have called themselves Liberals all their life, there would. be no inconsistency in their turning Conservative now, as a Con- servative now only endeavours to put on a brake to arrest the mad progress of modern Radicalism. That was a very skilful economy " to preach to Aberdeen alarmists, but, as nowhere in the islands are there fewer political alarmists than at Aber- deen, Sir U. Cross was probably not very successful. In the evening, Sir R. Cross addressed the working-men on the same theme, and made a long speech in favour of the proprietary franchise, including evidently " faggot-voting,"—one of the worst devices of clever election agents for rigging the electorate.
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