Sir Charles Dilke is the only Cabinet Minister who has
yet addressed a popular meeting on the crisis. He spoke of the Lords on Wednesday to the Liberals of Middlesex in a tone of studied carefulness, but declared that their power of stopping all legislation was one which could only exist "if used with the most scrupulous moderation." It would be intolerable that the will of the country should be thwarted by a permanently Con- servative majority in the Upper House. The reluctance of the Radical Press to support any reform of the Lords—e reluctance, we may add, quite curiously strong and avowed in the North—ought to be a warning to them. Sir Charles laughed at the " unity " of the Conservative Party,. showing that Lord Salisbury and Lord Randolph Churchill openly denounced each other's ideas, and hinting that the latter was the more popular man of the two. He condemned Lord Salisbury strongly for saying that " things were getting on charmingly in Egypt," the Marquis's meaning being that the worse things went in that direction the better it would be for his party. He expressed an opinion that the Peers would not throw out the Bill a second time, and believed that the country would take the opportunity to denounce obstruction in the Commons as well as through the Lords. We trust the latter hope may be fulfilled ; but the English think of one thing at one time.
Previous page
