Sir Henry Fowler made a good speech on Monday to
his constituents in East Wolverhampton. Almost, we think, for the first time a Gladstonian statesman admitted frankly that "each party represents nearly half of the nation," and gave up the affectation of assuming that the numerical majority is naturally and inevitably on the side of those who call themselves Progressives. Further, Sir Henry Fowler drew from the General Election of last July, first, the in- ference that "you cannot legislate in advance of public opinion," which implied, of course, that the late Govern- ment had not rested on any adequate force of public opinion ; and next, that it is a great evil for any party to be divided into groups which cannot be trusted to act together, —an inference that clearly pointed at the divisions of the G1 idstonians, not at the divisions of the Unionist party On serious foreign questions, Sir Henry Fowler declared that it was in general the duty of the Opposition to support the Government of the day ; and in relation both to the Venezuela question and the attempt of the German Emperor to interfere in the Transvaal, be did heartily support Lord Salisbury. With regard to domestic policy Sir Henry Fowler was, of course, not so disinterested. He described the attitude of the Unionist party as one of "great expectations." "Landlords, farmers, agricultural labourers, merchants, manufacturers, artisans, brewers, temperance reformers, the friends and foes of national education, the taxpayers and the ratepayers, Bishops and clergy, all sorts and conditions of men who placed the Conservative party in power, are anticipating, perhaps with some anxiety, the millennium which is about to dawn." That is really very good irony. For our own parts we should be in
much greater fear of the Gladstonian party than we now are. were Sir Henry Fowler accepted as their leader.
