On the same day Mr. Gladstone also received a deputa-
tion of Leeds and Huddersfield Liberals, who presented him with an oak book-case containing three hundred valuable volumes intended for the use of the "hostel," which Mr. Gladstone has founded for the use chiefly of clergymen. To this deputation he made a longer speech, remarking that he had been elected Member for Leeds while Leeds was still undivided into political wards, and that he had never resigned his seat,—he vacated it by accepting office. But though-Mr. Gladstone was proud of having been Member for Leeds, he seemed more proud of being a Scotchman, -for he insisted more than once that he was more Scotch than English. He felt a great con fidence, he said, in the future of his country, all the more that for the first time all the people share in wielding the national power and influence. This he recognised as a great trial of the temper of the people ; but he regarded the choice of " Labour Members " by the various constituencies which had elected them as especially creditable to the labouring class. He went on to the subject of the library and its composition, defending the association of secular with re- ligious books in the library almost in a semi-apologetic tone, as if a purely religious library could have any claim to repre- sent fairly the complex nature of man. It was an interesting speech, but perhaps a little premature in its eulogy on the spirit of the Labour party, which has by no means declared itself as yet in its full significance.
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