19 JANUARY 1867, Page 2

Mr. Goldwin Smith has been delivering a spirited lecture at

Manchester on "Pyin," the revolutionary chief of our Civil Wars, —" the greatest master," says Mr. Goldwin Smith, "that the House of Commons ever had,"—far greater than Sir Robert Peel. He gave a true and striking picture of him, acknowledging his great obligations to Mr. John Forster. We are not sure, how- ever, that Pym owes more to Mr. John Forster than to the author of a less known but very admirable book on the same period, Mr. Sanford's Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion, in which Pym is a central figure. The Times is very angry with Mr. Geldwin Smith for thinking that Pym would be on the popular side now, because in circumstances so different he was then. Perhaps Mr. Lowe, if he had lived then, would have fought for the Parliament and the people, against the Crown. There is nothing of the Cavalier in Mr. Lowe. But it does not necessarily follow that, because Mr. Lowe would have taken side with Pym, Pym would have taken side with Mr. Lowe.