Then, again, Lord Sandon orated at Ormskirk, and Sir M.
Hicks-Beach at Stroud. Lord Sandon was not enthusiastic about office. "Heaven forbid that at this moment the Con- servatives should come into office !" he exclaimed,—a hope in which we heartily join, though the " tangled thread " which Lord Bandon says they would have to unravel is order itself, compared with that left us by the Tories on their defeat in 1880. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach was imprudent enough, at Stroud, to echo the hope of the Northampton Conservatives that the Lords would abide by their amendments of the Arrears Bill. This was injudicious of him, knowing, as he did, what Lord Salisbury sur- rendered last year, after similar boasting to the contrary. Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, however, was surpassed in eloquence by the Duke of Beaufort, who also addressed the meeting, and who called the Irish Land Bill "the most rascally Bill that was ever drafted." Really, for a Bill which passed both Houses of Par- liament, that would be considered hardly decent language from any but Ducal lips. But if his Grace likes to own that he has been a party to " rascally " legislation, he can hardly complain that the Irish are not ashamed to be parties to " rascally " attempts to subvert legislation. The political use of the Bank holiday by the Tories has not been fortunate.
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