The new Radical Committee who are to determine the separate
policy of the" distinctive, advanced, Radical section" in Parliament, and which consists at present (including Sir Charles Dilke, who was at first supposed to have held aloof) of twenty members, amongst whom, we suppose, either Mr. Labouchere or Sir Charles Dilke will count for most, have issued their statement. They have put forth a declaration of their desire to compel the Liberal party to abandon the old middle-class conception of Radicalism, and "to secure the sym- pathy of the working classes by the active promotion of those land, labour, and social reforms in which they are profoundly interested, and to which the strongest and most obstinate re- sistance is offered by the irresponsible and privileged members of the non-elective branch of the Legislature." For this purpose they are to concentrate their strength on "the effort to abolish the !House of Lords," and on constructing a comprehensive system of devolution, or "Home-rule all round," in order "to enable the Imperial Parliament to adequately perform its work," and to insist on this question "being submitted to the constituencies at the next General Election in a clear, definite, and specific form." If "this question" means the abolition of the House of Lords, it was virtually submitted to the con- stituencies at the last Election "in a clear, definite, and specific form," and by them was ignominiously rejected. If it is to include "Home-rule all round," that will only ensure a still more peremptory rejection.
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