Mr. Marriott addressed his constituents at Brighton yesterday week, in
a speech in which lie tried to justify his desertion of his party on the subject of the Closure, and to justify his attack on Mr. Chamberlain. On the first head, what be had to say was that the power of closing debate had never been used where it had not been abused, an assertion which it would take a much longer and more careful speech than Mr. Marriott's to verify in the loosest way. However, no one denies that it is open to abuse. The more important question, whether the privileges of indefi- nite delay now exercised by a minute minority are not open to still more abuse, which is the only real question, Mr. Marriott did not even touch on. On the second point, his defence was that he had attacked Mr. Chamberlain face to face, in return for a violent attack made on him, by Mr. Chamberlain's orders, behind his back. But the statement of facts on which Mr. Marriott relied to prove this, has been absolutely denied by Mr. Chamberlain, and appears to have arisen in some blunder of his own. Mr. Marriott's defence was not well re- ceived, and the motion of a Radical to the effect that Mr. Marriott had forfeited the confidence of the electors, was de- clared, amidst great uproar, to have been carried. It would have been better, perhaps, to defer the consideration of the question to another day, as the Chairman of the Liberal-Regis- tration Association proposed. But Mr. Marriott made a miser- able defence of himself, and we feel no doubt that he is gravi- tating plainly towards the Conservatives.
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