3 MAY 1873, Page 1

It was worth remark that Mr. Disraeli in his speech

was exceedingly anxious to flatter the working classes. Absurd schemes for the reform of the financial system had never, he said, come from the working classes ; they had come from "addle- brained professors," but never from the working classes. "What evidence is there that the working classes have ever abused their political power ?" "I say with satisfaction and confidence, that there never has been, on the part of the working classes, any such stuff talked about finance as I have heard from Ministers of State." It suits Mr. Disraeli to kotow before the working-men, but as far as we know the working-man, for whom we have a sincere respect, political economy has not hitherto been his forte ; and we may in particular remind Mr. Disraeli of that working-men's deputation to Mr. Lowe on the Malt Tax, headed by a Mr. Briggs, on the 28th January last, in which almost as much stuff was talked about finance in a very limited time as could have been talked in the same time even from the Tory benches. Indeed, Mr. Disraeli knows as well as anyone that if it takes so much time and labour to educate a great party, it takes a great deal more to educate a mighty class. Nor is it a class which will like him any the better for whispering insincere flatteries into its ears.