Sir Wilfrid Lawson, M.P., made a very amusing speeeh at
Carlisle on Wednesday night, in which he declared that though there was said to be but one man in Europe who under- stood the Schleswig-Holstein question, and he was a Professor who had gone mad, in this case, on the contrary, there was but one man in Europe who did not understand the Eastern Question, and that man was himself. He did not much regret the retirement of Mr. Disraeli from the House of Commons, since he had made those two speeches at Aylesbury and the Guildhall ; and he declared that Lord Beaconsfield might now go to the House of Lords with his blessing, since he was fit for no place else. He regretted the time wasted in discussing such "rubbish"as the Royal Titles Bill. Her Royal Majesty was now her Imperial Majesty, and he expected a Bill would be introduced next Session to turn the Royal Bengal tiger into the Imperial Bengal tiger,—a measure which would be just as useful. He referred to "the tomfoolery" at Delhi, saying that it was reported that a thousand elephants had passed through the streets, but we had not been informed how many thousand jackasses were there. He said the Tories de- dared that it was the " harassed interests,"—the Beer interest especially,—which turned the scales against the Liberals in 1874 ; and if it was, why then the Conservative reaction was due to the illiterate voters and the bond fide drunkards. Sir Wilfrid is always entertaining, but there is a profound scepticism of the possi- bility of real political progress in all his speeches, which makes them little more than a bundle of sarcasms freely scattered on all sides.
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