On all other subjects, however, Lord Derby was sincerely and
strenuously Liberal. He was for the reform of the London Municipality, and ridiculed the fears entertained of a revolu- tionary municipal body. A big vestry would be like the small vestries,—full of Conservatism. The House of Commons had needed the reformation of its Procedure from the time when it ceased to be a club of well-to-do men, and became the reflex of the whole people. Caucuses were mere committees intended to facili- tate the adequate representation of all classes of opinion, and as for caucuses tyrannising over Members, they could only do so where the constituencies either wished it, or did not interest themselves in the matter. Finally, Lord Derby deprecated, as the greatest calamity that could occur, the splitting-up of the Liberal Party into cliques incapable of hearty co-operation. Hie speech was plain, sober sense, of the most impressive, because the least en thusiastic, kind. Lord Derby gains influence by his very osten- tation of having nothing at all striking to say.
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