The Solicitor-General, Sir Hardinge Giffard, delivered a speech on Thursday,
at Salford, full of the bitter acrimony which hitherto has been the only distinguishing feature of his political career. He denounced all who called Tories " Jingoes," or spoke of personal government, as "persons whose capacity was so limited, and whose means of information were so small, that they accepted cant phrases as a substitute for reason and study." If the Afghan Committee " were to take on themselves the conduct of public affairs, he should call that personal government in its most mis- chievous form." A distinguished Liberal said it had been the policy of the Tories to swamp home questions by foreign complications, but Sir Hardinge " knew of no method to gauge the intelligence of people who received that statement with cheers." There was a good deal of " deleterious ambiguity " in the speeches and writings of the opponents of the Government as to their attitude in regard to Russia, but the real question was between England and that oppressive Power. Mr. Gladstone had been a great man in bis time, on both sides of politics, and when he said that Tories were persons devoted to the exaltation of their own class, and without care for the rest of the community, he wondered if that was how Mr. Gladstone felt when be was a Tory. As to depression of trade, that had been over-rated, and was in any case no fault of the Government. Sir Hardi:.'ge Giffard said nothing of the Afghan War, nothing of finance, and nothing of the future. His single idea was to scold Liberalism in good round terms, and hold Mr. Gladstone up to contempt as its fittest representative. The astonishing thing in it all is that Sir Hardinge Giffard is really a man of learning and culture, and must be as well aware that he is talking splenetic nonsense as any man among his readers.
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