Mr. Gibson harangued the Conservitives of Harrogate on Monday, and
told them for their comfort that the Conservatives were getting on very well, and were quite unconscious of being worsted in the agitating struggle of agitation. And when a man does not know that he is getting beaten, he said, " he may be positive of this, that he is not getting beaten very badly." That is perfectly trite of a man who is engaged in a physical struggle, but it is not at all true even of a single combatant when engaged in a moral struggle, for he often gets very badly beaten, though he believes up to the last moment that he is going to win the day. And it is still less true of a large company of men, none of whom know what the others are doing, or what their antagonists have done. Mr. Gibson will not know for a long time that he is getting beaten, whether he does get beaten or not. For instance, in 1880 he and all his friends supposed that they were not getting beaten at all, when they were not only getting beaten, but getting beaten very badly.
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