The Conservativea of Essex on Thursday gave a grand banquet
at Chelmsford to the ten Conservative Members the county now returns. About two thousand guests sat down to dinner, but the proceedings were almost too tame for report. Mr. Disraeli, though most pressingly invited, rejected a grand opportunity of repeating his statement that the labourers' movement was a good thing both for the labourers and the country, and so pro- bably missed the best chance of martyrdom he is ever likely to enjoy. Death 'under a shower of wine-glassei would be a new discovery in suicide. No other Cabinet Minister was present. Mr. Disraeli's substitute, Colonel Taylor, delighted his hearers with the statement that the Liberal Cabinet had " descended from robbery to petty larceny ;" the chairman, Mr. Perry Wal- lington, did not delight them- by a hint that a new Reform Bill was coming, and they must have confidence in the Premier ; the Right Hon. W. Beresford accused the late Government of suicide, a suicide in which he rejoiced ; Mr. Boord talked beer, and said Radicalism was made up of " grotesque hobbies ;" and Lord Eustace Cecil, in a rather long and ill-considered speech, chiefly about phantom regiments, declared " silence and consideration to be the highest wisdom." In fact, nobody had anything to say, and so flavoured his nothing with as much bitterness as he could. It was a feast given by intellectual teetotallers, who, having nothing but water to offer, tried to make it palatable by an infusion of brine.
