At the evening banquet at the Hotel MOtropole, Mr. Goschen
proposed the toast of "The Unionist Cause" in a very vigorous and eloquent speech, in which he said that though not in office, their leader was "practically in power," and that the Liberal Unionists, who began by combining to maintain the Union, had now devolved upon them the responsibility of maintaining "the integrity of society" and the "structure of the social fabric," by defending the Liberal cause against the cause of anarchy. Be ridiculed the overtures made to them to join the " Gladstone- Parnell-Labouchere-Dillon-O'Brien Party" as preposterous. Had Mr. Gladstone's measure been passed, whether without or with the Land Bill, Ireland, with the reduced prices of Irish products, would at this moment be financially bankrupt, and the financial crash which the Unionists predicted within two or three years would have come in the very first year. It was on the Liberal Unionists that the duty of vindicating the old reputa- tion of English Liberalism for a wise and sagacious moderation, now depended.
