15 JANUARY 1887, Page 2

A crowded meeting was held in St. James's Hall on

Tuesday, to inaugurate the London Liberal and Radical Union, Mr. John Morley in the chair. Mr. Morley deprecated any attempt to interfere with local Associations. The local Associations, whether Radical or Liberal, or composed of Liberals and Radicals alike, would send representatives to that Union, which was intended to aid the Liberal cause in that, the most Conserva- tive of English regions. Mr. Morley also discouraged mutual suspicion. The greater his experience in politics, the less suspicions he became. He was, indeed, quite convinced that the men who differ from him are just as honest as himself. Mr. Morley took credit to himself for having warned the Liberals that they should not say grace for Lord Randolph Churchill's promised banquet of popular measures until the dish-covers had been removed. Already the banquet had become a mere phantom-banquet. Though the old Tory pump was fitted with a new Radical handle, the thread of water issuing from it was a very thin one even at first, and now the handle had come off. Mr. Goschen's secession to the Government had not, in Mr. Morley's opinion, very much altered the level of the Liberal Party. An American who wanted to make the most of his successful fishing, had boasted that when he got his fish out of the lake, the waters -of the lake sank a couple of feet. He did not think that Lord Salisbury, after landing his fish, would be able to make a similar boast.