Speaking in Bristol on Wednesday, at a working men's dinner,
Sir Michael Hicks-Beach declared that it was the in- tention of the Government to make next Session " a working Session." " He altogether demurred to the assumption that their defeat in Rossendale necessarily involved the loss of the next General Election. He remembered very well how, in the spring of 1880, the Conservative Party achieved two or three notable triumphs at by-elections. The Government of the day dissolved, and the result of that dissolution was—im- mediately following these by-elections—that they were hand- somely beaten." The Government were acting charitably to the Opposition in giving them time to concoct a Home-rule scheme. Speaking of Irish Local Government, the President of the Board of Trade declared that " he did most anxiously hope that it might be possible for Parliament this year to complete its work of county government, by extending a measure of this kind to Ireland,—not merely because it would be in fulfilment of the pledges given by the Government in the early days of their administration, but also because he thought it was the logical and necessary outcome of the whole policy that the Government had pursued in the past five years." We sincerely trust that the Government will be able to secure a working Session, and only fear that the imminence of the appeal to the constituencies may sterilise Parliament.
