The Right Hon. J. G. Dodson made an effective speech
to his constituents at Chester on Thursday. He pointed out that Mr. Lowe, in bis five Budgets, had remitted taxes beyond what he had imposed to the amount of £12,951,000, while Sir Stafford Northcote had imposed taxes above the amount he had remitted to the amount of £913,000. And even so, the comparison was much too favourable to the present Government, for that was giving Sir Stafford credit for the taxes he had remitted by the help of the magnificent surplus of four millions and a half which he derived from Mr. Gladstone's Government. Bringing this into the account, the comparison would be still more damaging. The Treaty of Berlin Mr. Dodson familiarly described as " much cry and little wool." The taking of Cyprus was a blunder ; the Afghan danger was serious ; and unscientific as the Ameer of Afghanistan probably is, he is not likely to appre- ciate the necessity for our having a "scientific frontier" at his expense. The whole Eastern policy of the Govern- ment had been a ghastly failure ; and yet in order to promote it, the Constitution had been strained, the prerogative exalted, and the jealousy and susceptibilities of the Mediterranean Powers had been excited. Mr. Dodson implored the electors of Chester to help to form a body of public opinion hostile to the policy of the Government, and in favour of one of a circumspect, hard-headed, frugal kind, jealous of the Constitution, economical in finance, and in foreign policy reticent, though determined. Of the new-fangled policy, with the successive fits of resolution, panic, recklessness, bombast, and display," the country needed to be quickly rid. That is a strong opinion, and coming from Mr. Dodson,—a former " Chairman of Committees," and a politician of sterling weight and sobriety, —it means a great deal.
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