Mr. Goscben's speech at Plymouth yesterday week was better even
than his previous speech at Devonport He undertook to show that the Conservative party no longer- regard privilege as under their protection, but that what they undertake to defend are all those great national interests. which raise the character and stimulate the vitality of the nation. For instance, the charge, in relation to the Temperance question, that the Conservatives are "sell- ing humanity in order that the brewers may grow rich on its ruin," is ridiculously false. The last Government proposed to do what it could to reduce the excess of public- houses, but was not allowed to do so ; and it is in the interest, first of liberty for Englishmen, and next of bare justice to the- license-holders, that Conservatives resist what they regard as- the oppressive and unjust proposals of the Veto Bill. As regards the attacks on Established Churches, again, the. Conservatives are really pleading on behalf of the poor,. not of the rich. The proposal to strike off, by Dis- establishment, the fetters of a Church, is mere rhetoric. Muchmore liberty is protected by the Establishment than is restrained by it. It is the popular liberty which is protected. And it would be as wise to propose to strike off the- fetters of the lawless enthusiasts who dislike the restraint of the Courts of Justice, as to strike off all those restraints on the liberty of the clergy which prevent them from indulging in caprices that would render our churches unwelcome to- the people. In regard to property, again, Mr. Goschen showed that the democracy would suffer far more keenly than the- wealthy classes from any really confiscatory legislation ; and again, as regards the Upper House of Parliament, that nothing would be so prejudicial to the interests of the people- at large as the unchecked passage of hasty and revolutionary legislation. Mr. Goschen also drew a vivid picture of the- parti-coloured and mutually conflicting institutions which the concession of "Home-rule all round" would introduce- into the United Kingdom.
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