Mr. Goschen made a telling speech on Wednesday to the
East Islington Conservatives in the Highbury Athenaeum. He expressed the satisfaction he felt in having a Prime Minister with whom the honour and interests of the country are certainly safe. He paid a warm tribute to Mr. Gladstone, recognising his first Administration (1869-74) as the tml- minating point of his public career. But. Mr. Goschen con- demned the ambiguity in which Mr. Gladstone's last public speech left his views as to the House of Lords. Mr. Gladstone did not in any way declare whether he wished to mend or end the Lords, nor state in what manner he would " mend" them, if he preferred mending to ending. Mr. Goschen laughed at the series of Ministerial notices as to Bills intended to carry out the Newcastle programme, which reminded him of the long line of sandwich-men who go about to advertise a sight or play,—one of them, perhaps, might be compared to a glaring picture of Sir William Harcourt himself seated on an empty beer-barrel, in the dress of a Good Templar, and crowning Sir Wilfrid Lawson with a crown of laurels. Mr. Goschen urged the most absolute union of action on the part of the Unionists, and a good deal of wise incredulity as to the asserted friendliness of Lord Rosebery to the cause of Unionism. Indeed, in our opinion, though Lord Rosebery is less devoutly disposed towards Home-rule than Mr. Gladstone, he is, partly for that very reason, the more to be feared by those who dread cool and calm strategy.
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