Lord Derby made a really amusing speech at Liverpool on
Wednesday, in answering to the toast of his health as Honorary Colonel of the Regiment of the 1st Lancashire Volunteers. He said he had made so many speeches in one position or another, that he would much rather have been silent. In answer to the toast of the House of Lords, he had "credited that venerable and placid assembly with all the qualities which it possesses, and some which it ought to possess ;" on political occasions he had often been embarassed between the difficulty of not being enthu- aiastic enough to please the audience, and being too enthusiastic to please the impartial critics of the next day ; but this time, though anxious to be silent, he felt really equal to his position as honorary colonel of the 1st Lancashire Volunteers. What- ever his services were worth, they could hardly be worth less than what they cost him,—his duties being confined to appearing one day in the year in St. George's Hall, paying a perfectly deserved compliment on the energy of the officers and the discipline of the men, and distributing the prizes. As Lord Plunkett said, when he heard of a friend's accepting a sinecure, Lord Derby could well say of himself,—" Well, he is equal to it ;" though he did not expect to be able to inspire his regiment with the zeal of the Prussian officer, who lamented the war of 1870, "because it was such a sad interruption of the regiment's drill." If Lord Derby often speaks like this he will become the wit of the party, and Mr. Disraeli's humour will pale its ineffectual fires. But who could be humorous in an empty House of Lords?
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