31 MARCH 1883, Page 1

ynageificent an Assembly to be of much importance in its

legislative capacity, and gave the impression that the less legislation it does, the better it deserves its grand historical position. We had been, he said, under a Radical Government for more than three years, and he wanted to know who was the better for it P Is agriculture more prosperous ? Is trade more 'thriving? Bad workmen find fault with their tools, and the Minufters found fault with their legislative tools in the House of Commons, though he would not say they were bad workmen. The "God-given Ministry" had adopted "a profane pro- gramme." The " Rads.," as Mr. Gibson, with refined playful- ness, called the Radicals, were always "despotic," and, in his experience, "invariably intolerable." To use the words of a great American orator," for downright double-barrelled, copper. bottomed, bevel-edged bigotry, "give me," said Mr. Gibson, "a man who calls himself a Radical,"—and the delighted assembly cheered this silly slang as heartily as the Yankee inventor of it could have cheered it himself.