31 MARCH 1883, Page 1

At Scarborough on Tuesday, Mr. Dodson made a good -speech

at a meeting of the Scarborough Liberal Association, in which he declared that the Government would continue "their policy of justice to Ireland, whatever the clamour, reproaches, or menaces addressed to them, and would do what in their con- sciences they believed to be right towards Ireland ; and they would do so in the hope that in time, be it long or be it short, the doing of right would bring its own reward." He also spoke out very clearly and strongly about the Affirmation Bill, de.

daring that it was a considerable mischief iu itself to multiply oaths, and much better to let everybody who preferred it take an affirmation, instead of an oath. Still more was it unjust to refuse to any constituency the right to return whom they would to Parliament on account of unpopular, or untrue, or even offensive religious opinions, so long as the representative chosen was prepared to accept loyally the political constitution under which he must act. In short, everything that Mr. Dodson said was manly, and much of it courageous. The speech proved him to be one of the heartiest Liberals in the Cabinet, though he is probably less well known to the people than any other Commoner whom it contains.