22 DECEMBER 1877, Page 3

Mr. Alderman Cotton, Member for the City, made on Tuesday,

at the annual Sheriffs' dinner at Stationers' Hall, a very note- worthy speech. The Alderman is a typical Conservative, and the City is supposed to be pro-Turkish, but he pronounced boldly against intervention. Rtssia was as old an ally as Turkey. The Premier "aspired to be a prophet, and having spoken ill of Russia, wanted the people of England to fulfil his prediction." He felt most earnestly that "if war 'were declared they might enter -on it with a light heart, but would emerge from it with a most heavy heart indeed." We believe Mr. Alderman Cotton speaks the sentiments of an entire and most important class,—the Cour aervatives who are Conservative from content, who do not wish to engage in theatric adventures, and who regard Lord Beacons- field with the puzzled and uneasy admiration with which an ortho- -dox old nurse watches Master Jacky swinging from a tree. "It's wonderful now, so it be ; but he'll hurt his blessed self, and me too."