There was a Conservative demonstration in Leeds this day week,—not
on the scale of the Liberal demonstration of No- vember, when Mr. Forster, the Duke of Argyll, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson spoke, but still one of largo numbers and much enthu- siasm. Sir Stafford Northcote spoke twice,—in the morning, he made a financial speech, in reply to Mr. Gladstone's criti- cisms, at a luncheon to 500 members of the Conservative Asso- ciation, held in the Town Hall ; and in the afternoon to an assem- bly of 10,000 persons, in the drill-shed of the ArtilleryVoluuteers. The morning speech, in defence of the finance of the Government, has been extolled to the skies by the many organs of the Con- servative party ; but it only showed that if you take for com- parison the year when the Liberal Government had to spend 24,000,000 on special charges (23,200,000 on the 'Alabama' indemnity, and 2800,000 on the Ashantee war), the expendi- ture of last year will not look so very bad in the com- parison. There will only be an excess of 27,500,000 of ordinary charges, on the part of the Conservative Govern- ment to account for, while of this, 21,500,000 is due to the increased charge for education, 22,000,000 has been transferred from taxation to relieve local rates, 2644,000 is mere matter of account, and is balanced by incomings to a like amount, 2633,000 is applied to reduction of the permanent Debt, and £2,800,000 are due to increased permanent expenditure on Army and Navy. Sir Stafford cannot, of course, deny that he has added greatly to the floating debt, while he has reduced the per- manent debt,—so that he has been contracting debt with one hand, to pay it off with the other. He cannot deny that he has not paid his way, but left deficits to accumulate, whore it would have been easy to discharge them. And he cannot deny that he grossly underrated the cost of the South-African war. Nevertheless, his speech is received with the loudest plaudits, as a masterly and victorious answer to a partisan attack. If the attack was damaging, the answer is more so. It amounts ta a plea of guilty with extenuating circumstances.
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