At the dinner given at the Trinity House this day
week, Mr. Lowe committed what they call "an indiscretion" graver than Mr. Bright's recent indiscretion ; but which nobody seems to be equally shocked at,—perhaps because everybody overdid conventional horror so much then that the supply is ex- hausted for the moment. The Lords had been a little overpraised apparently by Lord De Ros, who answered to the toast, and Mr. Lowe, though it was not a political dinner, -evidently thought the occasion a good one to have a rap at the Lords. He described the feelings of an artist who -should see his picture being criticized, painted over, and touched up by a criticizing artist, and said the House of Commons were just now in that painful position. "We traced a broad and clear outline, we laid in what we believed to be neutral tints . . . . but now we are subjected to an excruciating ordeaL We see our performance reviewed by no friendly eyes,—criticized, altered, and remodelled -according to the notion of our critics. The neutral tints disappear, -and give place to the most violent lights and shades. The clear and definite outline we had drawn becomes blurred and indistinct ; but . . . . we console ourselves with the reflection that after these alterations have been made in our performance it will return to vs, we shall have to give it the final touch, and we are not with- out hope that we may be enabled to reform what has been blurred, ;restore the outline, and make the picture, if not exactly the same -as before, yet so much the same at least as to be satisfactory in all points of view."
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