The Home Secretary, Mr. Cross, received last Saturday a deputation
from the Conservative Working-Men's Association of the City of Edinburgh, complimenting him especially on the Labour-laws of last Session. Mr. Cross seized this not very opportune occasion for a defence of his own permissive legisla- tion which we have criticised elsewhere, and which reads the odder because the working-men's address did not refer at all to the Permissive Artisans' Dwellings Act, but only to the amend- ment of the Labour-laws. Mr. Cross concluded his speech with
a remarkable definition of the object of the Government,— namely, "to give the greatest amount of happiness to the largest possible number, that is consistenb with the actual rights of the few." That looks as if Mr. Cross thought the 'actual rights of the few ' inconsistent with the "greatest amount of happiness to. the.largest possible number,"—a dangerous. and not very Con- servative hint to give.
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