Sir Stafford Northcote has had rather a hard time of
it in North Devon,—probably not the lees hard because he is decidedly the most reasonable member of the Administration, and the most respectful in treating his opponents. He urges that the increase of expenditure is due to expenses of which the Liberals have approved, and so it may be ; but, as Mr. Stansfeld says in his able reply at Halifax, there are every year new sources of neces- sary expense both to individuals and governments, while the difference between economical and uneconomical managers is that the former economize in one direction to meet their new expenses in another direction, while the latter do not. Mr. Gladstone was constantly meeting new items of expenditure, but thee he reduced other items still more, and so saved expense. Well, but, says Sir S. Northcote, that takes time.' No doubt, but the Conser- vatives have had two years, and they are no better, rather worse. It was rather hard upon Sir Stafford for one of his constituents to ask him whether his pledges would mean anything if his leader wished to " educate " him to break them. Sir Stafford thought it insulting, which was a mistake, for it was a most important question to answer, if it could be answered. But how can a wretched minister of inferior order estimate or calculate before- hand the force of the spells at the disposal of such a political magician as Mr. Disraeli ?
