14 NOVEMBER 1885, Page 1

Parliament will, it is stated, be dissolved on Wednes- day,

and by the 24th inst. the Elections will be in full swing. They will cover nearly a fortnight, which is far too long a period of excitement; but by this day three weeks we shall know fairly well how parties stand. It is time the battle were set, for the standard-bearers grow weary. As the contest approaches, the speeches grow more frequent, less eloquent, and more dreary, till we are forced to content ourselves with notices of the very few which have any kind of wheat in them. Most of them are chaff thrice threshed out. The object of the anti- Liberals just now, with the Timm at their head, appears to be to minimise the effect of Mr. Gladstone's Disestablishment speech, and declare him wanting in- cordiality to the Church. Had they not better declare him wanting in cordiality to Christianity, or to the Homeric poems, or to the liberty of Italy P Some new subject may still enter into discussion before the weary debate closes, a catastrophe in Eastern Europe being jest possible; but at present, nothing seems to remain,— except, indeed, personalities. There is no end to them, and, we greatly fear, no limit, though we note that the American correc- tive, an entire indifference to any slander during an election, is beginning to be apparent. That is an evil system, but it breaks the backbiters' hearts.