Certain Parliament men have had occasion to go to their
con- stituents; some of them beoause, they have been appointed to office under the Crown, one as a volunteer in rendering account Of these' Mr. Lowe is, pen_ionally and by office, he, most conspi- cuous. His course in Parliament has not yet been such as to secure to him the absolute confidence of the public, nor, we con- ceive, the unbounded confidence of any Administration. He ap- cepted office when it pleased him ; he retired upon an opportunity; he has taken an independent position when out of office; En returns to the Government with a promotion. But there must be sterling ability in the man who, without connexion, and so soon after entering Parliament as Member for the small borough of Kidderminster, becomes a member of the Privy Council and Vice- President of the Board of Trade ; his alliance confessedly sought as ,a means of strengthening the Government. Mr. Lowe's address to his constituents, however, did not throw much light upon pub- lic affairs, and in some respects is not very intelligible out of the bounds of the borough. Perhaps he committed a grave offence in not haying contributed more largely to certain local charities ; and his explanation, that he was not rich enough, will scarcely exone- rate him in wealth-worshiping England. Nevertheless, it proved to be impossible to get up an opposition to him : the electors of Kidderminster are not discontented enough with their Member for that; and at least they understand him on the subject of the war.
At Hertford, Mr. Cowper, now President of the Board of Health, I was unopposed; and the essay which he volunteered to deliver on. the general state of public affairs is an unbosoming of himself which increases the esteem for him individtally, while it is 're- garded as the more iMpottwat from his family- relation with the l'remier. Straightforward English sentiments on the subject of the war, excellent and neatly-expressed opinions on the impossi- bility of retaining church-rates since fellow-countrymen have ceased to attend at a common parish-church, and not an untasteful boast that to him individually the object of carrying Limited Liability had long been a source of anxiety "—exhibited the Member for Hertford as a representative who really embodies in rarliament the convictions and feelings of his constituents. There was no opposition, no objection ; the few other speakers did but exprearsentiments in harmony with their Member's. In fact, they seem to be all of one mind down there in Hertford, and Mr. Cowper Is their spokesman in Parliament. Mr. Lindsay went down to Tynemouth for the purpose not of 'taking a "vote of confidence "—" the time has not arrived for that," , but of explaining his position—of showing that he had not been without grounds for his statements, and that his mistakes had been unjustly magnified. Mr. Lindsay occupies a curious posi- tion in Tynemonth ; where he might, no doubt, obtain influential support if he would take up the mission of Mr. Urquhart; but for that, it seems, he is not prepared. He had therefore to steer a nice course between being not too Ministerial nor yet too Anti- Ministerial. On the leading subject he is orthodox : "if Mr. Oladstone and his party are right,' he said, continued war is "the sacrifice of many noble lives "; but "we have not got all we ought -to have," and "my voice shall assist that Government, whosoever it may be, who are of opinion that the stronghold of Russia in her 'Southern dominions must fall, be the consequences what they nay."
