On Wednesday night Mr. Balfour spoke at the Commemora- tion
Feast of the Grocers' Company. In the course of his speech he raised the question why it was that the Restoration was received in England with almost universal satisfaction. The reason Oliver Cromwell failed, as with all his genius he did fail, was that by the force of circumstances he found him- self compelled to break with the traditions of the past. It was in vain that he had tried to set up institutions which were not in unity with that history to which the English people were so profoundly attached. Therefore it was that the whole country turned back to the old traditions. Surely, Mr. Balfour proceeded, it was not party sentiment to say that the attempt of one of the greatest men that England ever produced—Oliver Cromwell—to break the traditional condition of English evolution was a failure. " The lesson to be drawn from that was a lesson that all parties in this ebuntry would accept, that in order to make the best of the • future we must never ignore the past."
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