22 APRIL 1876, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

MR. LOWE made a speech at Retford on Tuesday, at the ban- quet given to Mr. H. F. Bristowe, Q.C., the Liberal candidate who failed of success by only 187 votes, after polling himself 3,351, on the principal, or at least one principal theme of which we have dwelt sufficiently in another column. But besides his remarks on the contrast between the earnestness of the last Ministry, and the apparent intention of this to earn a " disgraceful longevity " by being unfaithful to its political professions, he made some very sharp criticisms on the gross respect for persons shown by the Admiralty, both in relation to the sinking of the ' Vanguard,' and in relation to the sinking of the t Mistletoe,' attacked the policy of the Government with regard to the Suez Canal, and bitterly assailed the exercise of patronage made in appointing Lord Hampton head of the Civil- Service Commission, and in making Sir Seymour Fitzgerald,—a mere morainal barrister of twelve years' standing, instead of one of large 'experience,—the chief of the Charity Commission. "If," said Mr. Lowe, " this Government is to continue long, and if it is to fill up in this manner the vacancies which occur, the mischief that it will do, without any possible remedy, will be perfectly incalculable." No doubt, and the worst of this kind of political offence is that it has little or no effect on constituencies, which do not under- stand, and can hardly be expected to understand, the merits of a personal criticism such as Mr. Lowe's on these two appointments.