Lord Derby, who has been, in conjunction with Lord Beacons-
field, the patron of the Lancashire Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations, wrote to the Secretary last week to request him to forward the last annual report of this Union of Associations and in acknowledging the receipt of it, wrote : " I regret that under existing political circumstances I can no longer act as a member of that body, and I have in consequence to request you to withdraw my name from it." Such a request, of course, signifies Lord Derby's formal secession from the Conservative party under " existing political circumstances," and threatens, we should say, a very large secession from the Conservative camp in Lancashire at the next General Election. In every sense in which property, caution, and good-sense are Conservative powers, Lord Derby has always been, and is still, a genuine Conservative ; but then the Conservatives who are rendered Conservative by property, caution, and good-sense, are shaking the dust off their feet and rapidly decamping from this Government of indebtedness, rashness, and feather- brained adventure.
