The Liberals of Plymouth and the Attorney-General, Sir R. -Collier,
have been acting together a delightful little farce—the former affecting the greatest jealousy for Sir R. Collier's devotion 'to his Parliamentary and other duties, and Sir R. Collier in return affecting the greatest deference for the judgments on this point formed by his constituents. The occasion was this. Sir R. Collier, following the example of former Attornies-General, accepted a little addition to his official income in the form of the Recordership of Bristol, worth, we believe, £600 a year; having first, as he says, .carefully considered whether his health and strength would permit him to discharge his new duties without injury to the efficiency of Cs present duties as Attorney-General and Member for Plymouth, and having decided that they would. Thereupon, a meeting was held by a knot of his constituents, who passed a resolution approv- ing of his political consistency, but disapproving of his acceptance of the Recordership of Bristol while holding the honourable and lucrative office of Her Majesty's Attorney-General. On which Sir R. Collier, who had already vacated his seat by accepting this new appointment, declares his intention to resign the appointment, and is re-elected without opposition, after incurring the usual fine. ." It was quite enough for him," said Sir Robert, " if any number, large or small, of his old friends and supporters, who had fought with him in former times many a hard battle, and whose good opinion of him he was most anxious to retain, entertained an ob- jection to his holding the appointment." Well, that carries defer-
ence for constituents a long way indeed. We could quite understand Sir R. Collier's saying he did not care to lose his seat, and as there seemed some risk of it, he had given up what he held it quite right to accept. But, for anything we see, what he did say would go to justify deference for the opinions of his constituents on his choice of an autumn tour or of the furniture of his drawing-room. We do trust we are not entering on that very unpleasant political phase,—minute demagogic tyranny and members' subservience.
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