Mr. Childers replied,—again with great effect. Lord Randolph had attacked
all that Mr. Childers had done, but had specified nothing except the Coinage Bill, which was withdrawn with a number of other Bills solely because an Autumn Session was needful. What had been received with a shout of laughter was not the Coinage Bill, but Lord Randolph's own ignorant attack upon it in the daily Press, —a letter which it would have been superfluous indeed to reply to, since it had been recognised as needing none. As for the connection of Lord Northbrook with the commercial house of Baring, there was no such connection, and the analogy with a Rothschild mission was absolutely imaginary. As for the supposed sin of the Government in mixing up commercial enterprise with finance, the Tory Government had sent to Egypt Mr. Cave, who was at the time a member of a well-known banking house, and no objection was taken to it on either side of the House, the Liberals acquiescing entirely in the appoint- ment. When Mr. Childers sat down, Lord Randolph's string of phrases,—" Ministerial indecency," " nefarious transactions," "devices of the lowest and meanest character," "conduct flagitious to the highest degree," "transparent and ridiculous evasions," " obvious insincerity," " most unworthy manoeuvres," "extreme insincerity,"—had, like so many boomerangs, re- coiled on the unfortunate young nobleman who emitted them.
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