Mr. Disraeli's speech was only directed to show that all
the evils against which the Ballot was directed are ou the decline, and to stick a few pins into his opponent. It seemed obvious that his
i own objection to the Ballot was not great ; though his objection to
any success of the Liberal Administration was. "I am bound s. to say," he said, in defending the character of the present Parlia- snent, " that, so far as the members of the new Parliament are con- serned, I do not think that these [hostile] predictions have been at all verified ; I think they have shown themselves to be men of tem- perate opinions, and that they have originated no violent motions of that character. Vat there has been one exception in this matter. There has been one Member of Parliament who, from the moment he took his seat in it, has taken every possible opportunity of ,oppressing and alarming the public mind with reference to organic changes, and that has been the Prime Minister." Of course, being not very deeply opposed to the measure itself, Mr. Disraeli had to be only the more severe on Mr. Gladstone and his majority, for which he prophesied early stagnation and disappearance. "There is a celebrated river which has been the subject of poli- tical interest of late, and with which we are all acquainted, which rolls its magnificent volume clear and pellucid in its course, but which never reaches the ocean ; it sinks into mud and morass, and such will be the fate of this mechauical majority." Surely Mr. Disraeli's metaphorical "mud and morass" must be the low country of the Conservative Opposition?
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