Lord Carnarvon entertained and addressed between 150 and 160 honorary
secretaries and executive members of the Councils of Conservative Associations in his grounds at Highclere Castle on Saturday afternoon, and began his speech by complaining of the misrepresentation of his opponents. Of Misrepresenta- tion, he said, it is true, as it is of her sister and her compeer :—
" She fills the peaceful realm with factions cries, No slumbers close her ever-wakeful eyes ; Things done she tells, not done she feigns, And mingles truth with lies."
He concluded his speech with the following parable :—" Once upon a time there was a silly and ill-conditioned lad [cries of Gladstone '] who meddled and muddled' every business which he touched. Nor did he confine himself to this, for he made himself a pest and a disturbance to all the animals with which he came in contact. For a time he pursued his coarse uninter- ruptedly; the animal creation suffered, but none rebelled, till at last, in a moment of imprudence, he turned his eyes upon a beehive. Need I tell you, gentlemen, that the bees are the most industrious, the most harmless, and the most unaggressive of all insects, and more than that, they have a queen, they are loyal to their queen r So are we 'J, and they respect those laws which have come down to them, and by which their little com- munity is governed. As I say, in an ill-advised moment that silly and ill.eouditioned lad thought fit to interfere with that peaceful community of bees. I need not tell you what the result was, and how for the rest of his life be learnt a lesson which was never effaced. Gentlemen, it is quite unnecessary. for me to point the moral of my fable of the bees." Certainly, it was quite unnecessary for Lord Carnarvon to point the moral of his little tale, for everybody knew what it meant, as far as regarded the hero of the tale. But as regarded the bees themselves, it is
not quite so clear to whom Lord Carnarvon alluded. Surely he did not mean to represent the House of Lords as working bees ? Of course, he might have alluded to the drones. But then, the drones have no stings.
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