Sir William Harcourt received an ovation on his success in
passing a democratic Budget on Wednesday night at the HUtel Mdtropole. One hundred and sixty-three Liberal Members attended the function. Mr. Jacob Bright took the chair, and seventy regretful apologies were made by other Gladstonians unable to attend, while nine were absent through illness. Mr. Jacob Bright, in proposing the guest of the evening, complimented him on finding the money for a great deficit without putting any new burden on the poor ; and not less, as it would appear from Mr. Bright's speech, on having filled the rich with dismay. Was not that dismay the great achievement which was counted to Sir William Harcourt for righteousness P The speech of the hero of the evening was not one of his most brilliant .oTorts. He told a good story of a Duke who had con- eulted one of the Grevilles about his financial difficulties, and who was greatly astonished at being assured that his household was too expensive, and especially that he did not need three confectioners in his kitchens ; whereupon the Duke remarked, "You do not mean to say so P Why, after all, a man must have a biscuit." Sir William Harcourt hinted that the Duke of Devonshire and the other noblemen who put forth .jeremiads on the new Death-duties, have somewhat similar views of expenditure and its necessities to Mr. Greville's Duke. The speaker made no reference at all to Lord Rosebery, and spoke of himself more than once as "the commander-in-chief," which, in relation to the Budget, no doubt he was. Still, it would have been much more graceful to have referred to the cordial support which the Prime Minister had given him. But anag-aanimity is not Sir William Hareourt's forte. Of his -curious and very unfortunate attack on the Liberal Unionists sve have said enough in another column.
Previous page
