In the speech at Dudley, Sir S. Northcote dealt with
the charge against the Government that it has ridden rough-shod over the privileges of the House of Commons, which, he said, was disproved by the continued confidence displayed in the Government by the Constituencies. But that only shows how he mistakes the charge. No one denies the court paid to the constituencies by the Beacons- field Government. Indeed, the old Disraeli theory was, more or less to supersede Parliament by a combination between "the monarch and the multitude." It is perfectly possible occasionally to get the constituencies to eend to Parliament men who shall not be zealous to maintain the power of Parliament, but shall, on the contrary, be willing to surrender it to a popular Minister, cordially supported by a popular monarch. That was Louis Napoleon's conception of a constitution, and it is Lord Beaconsfield's also. What the Liberals say is, that it is a bad conception ; that those who tickle the ears of the constituencies with a policy which is to be carried rather by plibiscite, than by the deliberative judgment of their representatives, debase the con- stitutional ideal of England, and are preparing the decline and fall of the British Power.
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