Mr. E. A. Leatham, M.P., made a speech of great
spirit at Huddersfield last Saturday, on the political prospects and the change of Government. He did not, of course, deny that the late Government had made mistakes; but he maintained that its mistakes were comparatively trivial compared with its achieve-
ments :—" Now, do not let anybody go away with the idea that I wish you to believe that the Government have made no mis- takes. But it is an essential condition of. a Government, when it is a popular Government, a Government of the people, that it should make occasional mistakes. For what is a Liberal Government ? It is a Government for the people by the people; and such a Government must be far more closely in touch with the people, far more sensitive to the changing currents of public or popular opinion, than a Government which is based upon tradition, which hatches its policy with closed doors, which derives its principles of action from times when the present generation of Englishmen were yet unborn. Well, a Govern- ment which was very closely in touch with the people must at times be, to some extent, a Government of impulse, and it would make the mistakes of impulse. But who would not prefer such a Government erring, when it did err, in full sympathy with the people, to a Government standing aloof from the people, rejecting the people, despising the people, prosecuting lines of policy we know with the good of the people at heart, but in which the people themselves have no sympathy and no share. Such a Government may make fewer mistakes ; but there is one mistake which it would make constantly, and which in the end it would find out, —namely, not knowing that it is better to be wrong sometimes with the people for your friends than to be right ever so many times with the people for your foe. Well, the sending of General Gordon was just one of those mistakes. It was a generous and a humanitarian mistake. It was not dis- covered to be a mistake at the time. The Tories did not discover it to be a mistake at the time. The Tories are not good at dis- covering mistakes at the time ; but they make up for that in the alacrity with which they make the discovery when there is no longer any discovery to make." That is extremely well put, and quite true. Nevertheless, we think that honestly popular Governments like the last, might feel more confidence in the disposition of the people to follow their guidance, and need not wait so anxiously, as they often do, on opinion.
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