On Thursday the Mayor of Liverpool gave a public dinner
to Lord Derby, and Lord Derby in replying to the toast of his health made an interesting speech, in which he endea- voured, as be said, to tread the slippery path between "the stormy ocean of controversy and the dull and muddy and stagnant pool of utter common-place." He congratulated Liverpool on its prosperity ; expressed his incredulity as to the more permanent dangers said to threaten trade; thought the wages of the working-class would oscillate backwards and forwards ; exhorted the country to economy in fuel, declaring his belief that we might get just the same results out of an expenditure of one-half or even two-fifths of the fuel we now use, if we. would only burn our smoke, "instead of swallowing it t" and advocated the policy of using our time of prosperity to reduce the Debt which will weigh upon our children. He declared the Ashantee war more of a doctor's war and an engineer's war than of a soldier's ; said his judgment was suspended as yet as to the responsibility for the war, and then pushed home the remarkable plea for contracting our pro. tectorate in Africa, which we have elsewhere criticised. Lord Derby's policy is always safe to be tame, but sometimes perhaps it is too tame to be safe.
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