Lord Randolph Churchill delivered a long speech at Preston on
Wednesday, full of cleverness and egoism. He ventures to predict that Irish agitation is dying away, and thinks that had Rome not known this to be the case, the action of the Papacy in condemning the "Plan of Campaign" would have been less decided. He condemned the Ministry for excluding Ireland from the County Government Bill, holding that it had promised to give the Kingdom all liberties consistent with a common Parliament. Mismanagement, or even corruption, in some Municipalities were no arguments, for we found them even in London, but did not for that refuse her self- governing powers. Turning to more general questions, Lord Randolph devoted the remainder of his time to a condemna- tion of extravagance. It was extravagant to pay £8,000 a year for Parliamentary whips, and extravagant to pay a new Judge instead of working the old ones, extravagant to expend 230,000,000 on an Army and Navy believed not to be adequate, and exLravag,ant to create a Ministry of Agricul- ture. It is quite as well that the economical argument should be stated by a speaker who attracts attention ; but Lord R. Churchill makes the usual mistake of confusing expenditure with waste. Certainly a sinecure or two—e.g., the Privy Seal— could be abolished to pay for a Ministry of Agriculture ; but new Judges are not necessarily extravagant.
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