The " sympathy-with-France " meeting at St. James's Hall on
Tuesday last was a considerable fact. Although it was heralded by a very slight amount of advertising, and was graced by no single M.P. speaker, area and galleries were alike crammed in every available seat, and many persons remained standing throughout the proceedings. Whilst there was a sufficient amount of opposi- tion to show that the meeting was a perfectly open one, the feeling- in favour of intervention was so strong that even a man of con- siderable note in his class like Mr. Lucraft, whilst professing his- entire sympathy with France and his hopes for her success, was unable to obtain a hearing in favour of a very mild amendment against active measures. We must remember, however, that the working-men of pacific sympathies are not as fond of public meetings as those who have a great and exciting cause to plead, and that it is only common-sense to suppose that the stayers- at-home include a far smaller proportion of belligerents than the active politicians. Professor Beesly, as chairman, was, for him,. unusually judicious, and several of the speakers made good points.. The only one, however, who said that precisely, and only that,. which he ought to have said, was Mr. Lloyd Jones, whose really pre-eminent powers of business speaking ought to have seated him. inthe House of Commons any time these four-and-twenty years.
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