Lord Randolph Churchill delivered a brisk speech this day week
at a dinner given to him by the Parliament of Padding- ton. He praised these local parliaments as useful training. grounds for true Parliamentary life, and then went on to praise the House of Commons, which he declared to be in no sense degenerate, and as strong for all useful purposes as ever. He did not think the passing of rapid and various legislation to be a useful purpose, but evidently regarded obstruction as rather fortunate than otherwise, so far as it diminishes the number of modern legislative achievements, and delays the speed with which they are passed. The result, he says, is an improvement in the character of the Acts passed, and a still greater improvement in the popular understanding of their drift and significance,—a somewhat optimistic and dubious conclusion, to which we have taken more or less exception in another column. It is very far from being generally true that. the less you do, and the more embarrassments you meet with in doing it, the better your work is done.
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