The Chancellor of the Exchequer's first address to his North
Devon constituents was delivered at Barnstaple on Thursday.. It consisted of a very lame apology for his finance ; a very conciliatory passage about the Irish, combined with a severe reprobation of those Englishmen who encourage the Irish to hope for Home-rule ; a great panegyric on the policy which the Ameri- cans term " waving the banner,"—that is, as Lord Beaconsfield has waved it,—a prophecy that in this respect, as in others, Lord Beaconsfield will be seen to have educated not only the Tories,but the Liberals ; and a plea, as regards domestic legislation, that the Obstructionists have not been in reality so much Irish as Eng- lish. It fact, it was a speech which took credit for very incon- sistent policies at once,—for a grandiose Foreign policy, and for sobriety of purpose ; for most pacific aims, for most defiant and bellicose hints ; for hating annexations, for seizing frontiers ; for borrowing when to pay ready-money was inconvenient, and for paying ready money when borrowing would have been profligate.
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