Lord Hartington made a great speech to a Unionist meeting
at Leeds on Wednesday. He answered Mr. Gladstone's speech at the Eighty Club by pointing out the gradual degradation towards which the Liberals are led by their alliance with the Parnellites,—their tolerance for a party which for five years bad loaded them with abase, their favour for obstruction, and their refusal to submit to the will of the people as expressed at the elections. It was absurd to expect that any measure of con- ciliation would or could be effective until it was felt that the law would be persistently maintained. Lord Hartington also took up the gage thrown down by Lord Rosebery, and asked whether a party which at the Election found every Liberal hand against it was to be intimidated by a threat of being ruled out of the Liberal ranks. He denied that he was supporting a Tory Government. The Government was Unionist, like himself, subordinating every smaller question to the necessity of main- taining the connection with Ireland threatened by the proposal of Home-rule. The speech was received with enthusiasm by an audience which an hour before the proceedings began thronged the. Coliseum, a building holding some thousands of persons.
