Lord James took leave of his former constituents at Bury
on Wednesday, and delivered a spirited defence of the career of the Liberal Unionists, pointing out how completely they had succeeded, in spite of their relatively small numbers, in turning the scales in favour of a steady constitutional policy and against the sensational policy of Irish Home-rule. He pledged himself that the Government would not promise a long list of measures solely for the purpose of gratifying sections of their party, and that whatever they did propose, they would do their very best to carry. But they would not devote their energies to picking to pieces the Constitution, in which Englishmen confide as a sort of security for a tradi- tional policy. No doubt Lord James will lean to the Devon- shire side of the Cabinet ; but will not that, after all, be not only the more Liberal, but also the more Conservative, side ? It is the Tories who are the most enterprising and risky in their disposition to experiment on the alliance between the aristocracy and the people.
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