On the following day Mr. Bright received a deputation from
the Cork Farmers' Club, and addressed them with as much reti- cence and caution as he had shown in his great speech of the previous day. He spoke very highly of the present Irish Liberal members, but said that a body of fifty or sixty, which was as many as they could get together, could not effect much in a House so prejudiced on all land questions as the House of Commons. Mr. Bright compared, with_ some naiveté, the docility of ordinary public meetings called to hear his views, to the stiff-neckedness of Parliament on such subjects, attributing the difference to the reasonableness of ordinary meetings, and the self-interested obstinacy of his Parliamentary auditors. Perhaps it would be truer to attribute the difference to the irresponsibility and mis- cellaneous character of ordinary meetings, which take the view of the orator almost unconsciously, and to the responsibility and specific preparation of Parliament for dealing with such subjects. No doubt this is not the whole account of the matter. But a deliberative assembly that goes into captivity to the first able speaker, is scarcely likely to be worth much in a deliberative point of view.
