At the Lord Mayor's dinner on Thursday night, after the
in- auguration of Alderman Phillips, both Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone referred to the future measures of the Government in terms carefully vague, and yet no doubt meant to point towards reform. Lord Russell said that, as to " principles," "I cannot abandon those principles which for twenty years, come weal, come woe, recommended me to the confidence of the citizens of this great metropolis," and as three times during these years Lord Russell had charge of reform bills, that is supposed to mean that he is still for reform. As to "the application of these principles " to actual measures, Lord Russell would only say that " they must be measures not of yesterday, but to-day," which is supposed to mean that the Reform Bill of 1860 will not do again. Mr. Gladstone was still vaguer, only promising for the new House of Commons that it should establish "not a traditional ally, but an actual title to your confidence and approbation," which, again, is supposed by those whose minds are full of reform to mean reform, and by those whose minds are full of objections to reform to mean objections to reform. Perhaps the most that can be said is that Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone alike wished, without pledging themselves to administer any actual food to the reformers, to diffuse that grate- ful prognostic of coming food which appeals to the sense of smell.
