The Home Secretary made a speech, or at least said
a few words, at Bootle on 'Wednesday, on occasion of a dinner given by the Ormskirk and Squthport Agricultural Society, in which he contented himself with sympathising with the depressed feelings of agriculturists, detailing the arrangements for the Agricultural Commission,—by the way, we wish he had ex- plained why Mr. Caird, the fittest of all men for the work, was not placed on that Commission,—and expressing his pro- found belief that the exceptional circumstances which had pro- duced the exceptional depression would either not continue, or, at least, would be compensated by the effects of the measures which agriculturists would take when they fully understood their position. He remembered the gloomy pro- phecies made when the great influx of gold came, the confi- dent predictions that everything was to he revolutionised,— predictions which had had no fulfilment. So he thoeght the great influx of food from America would be found to have no such disastrous results as were now attributed to it. We strongly suspect Mr. Cross is right,—partly because this influx of new food will certainly compel the relaxation of our very unwise restrictions on the cultivation of English land ; partly because some of the same causes which were at work to pre- vent the disturbing effects of the new gold, may have a con- siderable influence also in preventing the disturbing effects of the new food. In other words, as prosperity returns, a great deal of the effect of the new food may be expended rather in preventing a dangerous appreciation of its price, than in causing any dangerous depreciation. Mr. Cross is a sagacious man, at least when he does not venture into foreign policy. There he too often follows the example of Lord Beaconsfield and Sir Stafford Northcote, and as Punch says, positively likes getting out of his depth.
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