16 SEPTEMBER 1876, Page 2

Mr. Lowe made one of his cleverest speeches at Croydon

on Wednesday, on the cardinal and grave defect of which we have said enough elsewhere ; but as a mere speech it would be hard to beat it. Under the flame of Mr. Lowe's wit, the poor and embarrassed speech of Lord Derby seemed literally to shrivel up. Mr. Lowe ridiculed Lord Derby for making the indifference of France to her Crimean responsibilities, absolve us from ours. He quoted Lord Byron'e,—

" So soft -they seem, so made for joy,

So fell the tyrants that destroy,"

to show the effeminate and cruel character of the Turks three- quarters of a century ago. He recalled the massacre of Seio, and of Lystra in the Mores, and the cruelties in Syria, to remind his audience how that character had been kept up. He ridiculed our fear of Russia, and especially the anxiety to sustain the Turk, not for himself, but on the principle that "any stick is good enough to beat a dog with," to whieh it-led us. And he expressed his envy of the great part which Russia may now play in rescuing the victims of the Turk. Why. not, then, emulate her in the task? -Why do Mr. Lowe's principles always bring him back to the same do-nothing policy, when he can admire what is noble so well?