The new Lord Mayor, Alderman Joseph Savory, of the Goldsmiths'
Alliance, a man of considerable accomplishments, and, according to the Recorder, of Huguenot blood on the father's side, and tracing his descent directly to Edward I. on the mother's side, gave the usual banquet to her Majesty's Ministers on Monday, proposing the usual toasts with more than usual spirit and dignity. Lord Salisbury, in replying to the toast of "Her Majesty's Government," ignored almost completely the party politics of the day, or at least touched them only at one point,—the interpretation to be put on the by-elections. On that he said that nothing is more misleading than by-elections, and that this had been illustrated for us in France by the collapse of General Boulanger's cause at the General Election after his remarkable series of successes at by-elections ; while the failure of M. Tricoupis to carry the General Election in Greece, though a majority of two to one had been expected for him, showed with how little certainty the set of electoral feeling can be anticipated before the vote is actually taken. Lord Salisbury is right enough ; but the magic of General Boulanger's name in France was not to he compared with that of Mr. Gladstone's here ; and M. Tricoupis had the same disadvantage as Lord Salisbury, that he repre- sented the existing Government, and that democracies are very apt to desire change. We must not, therefore, be too sanguine, and must fight our hardest ; but whether we lose or win, the omens all point to a singularly equal division of opinion in the constituencies of the United Kingdom.
