Lord Salisbury made an amusing speech in the Merchant Taylors'
Hall on Tuesday night. He remarked that there had been, century after century, frequent demands, "not entirely of a voluntary character," made on the Companies resources, but no one had threatened their existence. There had, how- ever, been a great improvement on the mode of expressing the simple idea of taking your neighbour's property without his leave. The old Kings called it "a benevolence ; " "that great man, the ancient Pistol, called it a conveyance,' but the modern Radical calls it Unification.' " But whatever it may be called, if what is given is taken without leave, the habit of giving and bequeathing will " disappear." The great cause of the frequent collapse of municipal Conservatism is, said Lord Salisbury, that the contented electors do not vote, and so it happens that as the constituency becomes less eager and more placid, its representatives, who are returned only by the discontented electors, become less placid and more eager. The desire for Unification, he declared, is only a morbid desire for bigness. May not the advocates for " Home-rule all round" retort on Lord Salisbury that the Conservatism of the Unionists is the morbid desire for bigness over again ?
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