The Prime Minister made an important speech at Derby last
Saturday. What he said about the Russian Treaty—he dealt mainly with that subject—was in our judgment reassuring. We cannot say that the speech on the whole, however, had either the distinguished note, or those virtues of reason and. moderation which have often extracted reluctant admiration from Mr. MacDonald's greatest political enemies. He abused his opponents much more than is customary with him, and when he treated his audience to evasion instead of giving them information he covered up his tracks with the rhetoric of invective. Having first satirized Mr.Churehill's " sixth re-birth ' (" What a Brahmin ") he turned his abuse upon Sir Robert Horne who, he said, had persis- tently tried " to create financial panic and trade distrust" " Week after week, month after month, we have been maligned and slandered and even our personal character has not been sacred."
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