Mr. Lowe, in returning thanks on Tuesday for his re-election
by the London University,—a re-election carried, as we ven- tured to predict, by nearly two to one,—made a short and rather disappointing speech, in which he withdrew his objection to the extension of household suffrage to the counties, as being obviously obsolete ; warned the Liberals that the first months of a new Parliament were its months of gold, in which alone it could hope to do really great things ; anticipated in a some- what pessimist spirit the decay which years would bring on the now rejuvenescent party, and then forgot to say to what purpose he desired to see the time of youth and strength of the party chiefly applied. His only happy touch was his phrase for the Government, which he called "the late-present Government,"— an expression at once enthusiastically adopted by many orators In addressing constituencies in the country. Sir Stafford Northcote, said Mr. Lowe, was complaining everywhere of the mass of new voters who had sprang up everywhere, "as if they were the dragon's teeth." But, asked Mr. Lowe, who sowed the dragon's teeth ? Mr. Lowe might have answered his own question, by saying that it was the Tory Jason who sowed them, but who has now forgotten the spell by which he was to prevent them from turning against himself. Mr. Lowe, however, though he wages war no longer against the brood of the dragon's teeth, cannot persuade himself to say anything complimentary to their very energetic manceuvre.s.
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