6 DECEMBER 1884, Page 20

As Messrs. Blackwood have invited our judgment on their Glad-

stone Alma neck, we may briefly express the opinion that it is a vulgar and scurrilous production. There is something very strange in the contrast between the fine literary taste of this house, which seldom publishes a book that does not possess considerable merit, and the absolute degradation of their judgment on political matters. No abuse is too bad for them to defend. Blackwood's Magazine clung frantically to the cause of slavery when every one else had abandoned it ; nor is any invective or misrepresentation now too gross when a political opponent has to be blackened.