Mr. Trevelyan's speech was made on the opening of a
Colchester Liberal Club, of which he is to be president. He held that the newly enfranchised classes would long retain the memory of their political serfage, and that this memory would make them as steadfastly Liberal as the memory of the dis- graceful condition of Scotch representation before 1832 had made the Scotch people steadfastly Liberal ever since. He recalled the time, about ten years ago, when the labourers of Berkshire could not find any place but the high road to meet in, when their views differed from those of the neighbouring landowners, and when they were fined by the Magistrates for obstructing the traffic by meeting there. He anticipated that the culprits of ten years ago would make their voice heard in November without having to meet on a highway at the risk of a fine, and to harangue from a three-legged stool. He held that the new multiplicity of Liberal voters would put an end to the timidity of Liberals, and the attempts to cajole Liberals, which have hitherto been so common. He even hoped that the Eastern Counties would be in 1885 very much what Scotland was in 188C.
Previous page
