Lord Sandon spoke at Liverpool on Tuesday, at Hengler's Circus,
on behalf of the Conservative candidate, Mr. Whitley. He quizzed Lord Ramsay for falling back rather ostentatiously on the patronage of Lord Derby. He declared that the Con- servative policy was a clear and definite one, and maintained the unity of the Empire at home, and its "safety,"—he did not venture to say what he probably really meant, namely, its extension,—abroad. And the Conservative party was compact. The Liberal policy, he maintained, was not thus definite, and the Liberal party was not thus united. The Liberals are agreed upon nothing except the wish to oust the Conservatives, to get the Home-rule vote, and to force a dissolution. Why did they wish for so speedy a dissolution ? Because they feared that the cycle of bad harvests was at an end, and that if the Conservatives kept in office another year, the Liberals would not be able to point to the distress of the country, and say that it was due to Conservative statesmanship. Lord Sandon held that there was no pretence for an immediate dissolution. This Parliament was the most independent Parliament of modern times, the proof being, that in division after division, numbers of Liberals had asserted their independence by refusing to vote for their own leaders, or voting for the Government. Here we quite agree with Lord Sandon. This Parliament is the most in- dependent Parliament of modern times; not, however, on account of the Members' remarkable independence of their leaders, but rather on account their much more remarkable independence of their constituents.
