21 JANUARY 1905, Page 3

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman addressed a large meeting of his constituents

at Stirling on Tuesday night. He con- tended that this Parliament had never been an honestly constituted Parliament, and that the only interest attaching to the new Session hung upon the moment of its ending. The Opposition were naturally curious to know whether the Session would be " a real ' pukka' Session, or merely an elegant funeral pyre, upon which a death-stricken Ministry may seek to achieve a regular, although it can never be a decent, ending." They were also curious to know the precise relations between the great twin brethren of the Unionist party,—the Castor of retaliation and the Pollux of food- taxation, who were obviously acting in combination, and equally obviously at variance with each other. He condemned alike Mr. Balfour's thrasonical eulogies of the Government's achievements and his extraordinary silence on the Fiscal question. As for the proposed Conference, Sir Henry only objected to it if it sought to fasten on the Mother-country the injury of accepting, or the odium of refusing, proposals which our people, if left to themselves, would not accept.

Mr. John Morley made an interesting speech at Brechin on