Englishmen have been exercising their privileges and venti- lating their
principles in public meeting assembled. The meet- ings have drawn forth the expression of new opinions or the re- assertion of old. Thus, the opening of a new " Free-trade " Hall in Manchester, at present for non-political purposes, tells us that " the Manchester party " dares not now assert itself politioally in its own capital, but that it can build its forum in the name of circus, and bide its time. Thus, again, one of the most Conservative of public men, Mr. Napier, the late Attorney- General for Ireland, has become a professor in public-lecturing- no doubt because he sees the expediency of not leaving to Whigs and Radicals the exposition of history to the million ; so he takes the said million in detail at a Keswick Mechanics' Institution in Cumberland. Basingstoke has received a flock of bishops, deans, clergymen, and notables in " practical art," to expatiate, at an agricultural institute, on the spread of education and the utility of art for agricultural labourers. Brighton, represented by its Mayor and inhabitants, assisted by Mr. Seholefield. and •Dr. Ruge, and guided by Signor Bratiano, a committee-man of the " Eu- ropean Democracy " and native of Wallachia, has pronounced in favour of uniting the Danubian Principalities ; a resolve from which the British Government has receded. At Epsom, Mr. Drummond has made a conditional offer to "go in" next session for Malt-tax repeal—if the farmers will heartily back him. And at Castle Hedingham, Major Beresford has declared certain prin- ciples upon which the genuine Tories, unsubdued by the Asian mystification, are resolved to stand out,—namely, the maintenance of church-rates, despite " the vile rabble of Braintree," and stout resistance to Maynooth, if not repeal of the grant. This posi- tion places Major Beresford and the true " old Tories " equally in conflict with the rabble, the Dissenters, the Liberal party, the moderate Conservatives, and Mr. Disraeli. But what then ? Major Beresford and his friends have stomach for them all. They are so stanch in sticking to their old position, the progress of the country notwithstanding, that they threaten to be ad- vanced agitators. They are: so old that they are equivalent to something alarmingly new.
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