The country has pretty fully expressed its opinion on the
financial measures of the Government. All the interests affected by them have assembled together, debated, resolved, memorial- ized, and deputed. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been beset by deputations advancing one after the other in regular columns of attack from morning till night; and Mr. Gladstone has received them with that unwearied patience and unfailing courtesy which he always exhibits. In addition to this, public meetings have been held in the great towns, and there has therefore been no lack of that -ample displa7y `of opinion which, when it is not factious, ii an assistance rather than an obstruc- tion to a -great statesman. But amid this vast manifestation of opinion 'we are not cognizant of a single case in which the finan- cial measures of the Government have been rejected as a whole. That is not the fault of Conservative counsel. Sir John Peking- ton, led away by momentary impulse let us hope, advised the hop-groviers to array themselves against the entire scheme of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Yet even Sir John Pakington failed. The incident, however, is valuable as showing the ani- mus of the Conservative leaders. But after the division of Mon- day night we shall probably hear less of the kind of counsel which Sir John thought fit to give. The opinion of the country remains in the state it was last week, with this qualification, that, as we predicted, it has been greatly strengthened by a closer acquaintance and more complete grasp of the details and bearings of Mr. Gladstone's plan.
