In addressing the inaugural meeting of the Bury and Elton
Liberal Unionist Association on Wednesday last, Sir Henry James delivered a speech of exceptional power and weight. In defending the Liberal Unionists from the charge of supporting the Tories, be reminded his hearers that the followers of Lord Hartington "formed no alliance with the Tory Party until after Mr. Gladstone was acting in open alliance with the followers of Mr. Parnell." With Sir Henry James's atti- tude towards the support accorded by the Opposition to Irish lawlessness, we have dealt elsewhere. Dwelling on the fact that the course pursued by the Liberal Unionists would not make them popular in the country, he declared that the spectacle of men trying to be popular "is enough to make us avoid the example a"—" Popularity is not a very valuable prize, and if you do not mind the cost, it can easily be won. You have only to belie your whole life, to forget, or rather to contradict, without excuse, all you have ever said, to negative every principle you have asserted, to praise every man you have denounced, to associate with those whom you have shunned, to appeal to men's cupidity, to sacrifice every interest which should be protected, to give a moral sanction to crime, and to take your quotations from a jest-book, in order to secure the cheers of those whom you debauch instead of guiding, whom you degrade instead of elevating." The speech, after an authoritative statement as to the right of the Government to suppress unlaw- ful assemblies, concluded with a demand that Mr. Gladstone should make a definite statement as to his so-called concessions. Throughout the speech was conceived in a spirit of clear-sighted statesmanship.
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