Sir Charles Dilke made a speech at Chelsea last Monday,
in which he again urged the undesirability of the Liberals taking office without a working majority of the House of Commons. It is clear enough that he and Mr. Chamberlain have no wish to take office again under Mr. Gladstone, or without a pro- nounced Radical policy as their programme. Sir Charles Dilke suggested,however, that the Tories had evidently been hypno- tised by Mr. Gladstone,—i.e., had been so far mesmerised by him that they were disposed to play a Liberal part without really sharing Liberal convictions, as mesmeric patients are said for the time to wish all that it is suggested to them by the mesmeriser that they shall wish. That is certainly very like the truth, except, indeed, that the new Liberalism of the Tories stops short with the measures, and does not even profess to like the name, of Liberalism. A hypnotised Tory under Liberal in- fluence should profess to be in love with Liberalism, which the Tory certainly does not do. On the contrary, he abuses it with grotesque and almost indecent vehemence. He wants to steal our measures, but to keep his political antipathies unimpaired.
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