The Attorney-General has made a long, able, and thoroughly liberal
speech to his constituents at Exeter. He apologised for the divisions in the party by saying there are five hundred ways of moving, and only one of sitting still ; declared in favour of Powerful though moderate armaments ; maintained that the Navy
was amply sufficient for home defence, and for that amount of intervention which the honour of England might demand ; rebuked the Mayor of Exeter for his conduct in the licensing riots with almost savage irony ; and asserted, O propos of the Licensing Acts, that no law at all would be preferable to a law without penalties. He had read all the Tory speeches and the article in the Quarterly, and he could not make out that the Tory party had a policy, except to sit still and abuse the Government. As to the Alabama, when he remembered that both parties had accepted arbitration, he "could sit down under it, if not with pride, at least with some amount of serene satisfaction." Sir J. Coleridge was received throughout his address almost with enthusiasm.
