28 MARCH 1896, Page 2

The Radical Conference at Huddersfield assembled on Thursday, in considerable

numbers. There are said to have been. upwards of a thousand delegates, but it was evident that the Conference was not at all in love with the manage- ment of the Executive in recent years, and Sir James Kitson seems to have been imprudent enough to challenge the malcontents to secede and set up an Opposition of their own. Dr. Spence Watson's laboured defence was received in rather chilly silence, except when he seemed to challenge them to show their personal confidence in himself, and then it became evident that he is popular enough. Lord Rose- boy, too, was received even with enthusiasm, and not at all as if he represented the slow, conservative party. Still, the feeling for an Executive elected directly by the popular body, and not by the more limited General Committee,

was evidently very strong. The Radicals are at sixes and sevens, and hardly know what, as Lord Westbury used to say, "they are pleased to call their minds."