Meetings are being held in all the boroughs to strengthen
the hands, and possibly the knees, of the Opposition. As a rule, the towns are heartily against war and the vote of six millions, but in Sheffield, a meeting called by Liberals was completely overborne by a crowd estimated at from 10,000 to 20,000 men, who rapturously endorsed Lord Beaconsfield. In London also, on Thursday, a meeting called by the City Neutrality Committee, at the Cannon-Street Hotel, found the hall packed with men belonging to the Conservative Associations, who dispersed the meeting, and then adjourned to the Guildhall, where, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, they passed a resolution expressing perfect confidence in the Government. This resolution was forwarded to Lord Beacons- field, and received by him as a "decided and spontaneous ex- pression" of feeling in favour of his policy. The only person of .any importance, however, who spoke at the meeting—the Governor of the Bank of England—was decidedly in favour 4af -peace. The meeting of Nonconformists on Thursday, which was addressed by Dr. Rigg, the Rev. J. G. Rogers, Mr. S. Morley, the Rev. Newman Hall, Dr. Underhill, Dr. Allon, Mr. Freeman, and other well-known leaders, was enthusiastic on the Liberal side, only three hands being held up for an amendment to resolutions utterly condemning the Government.
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