27 NOVEMBER 1880, Page 2

This day week, Mr. E. A. Leatham, addressing his consti-

tuents at Huddersfield, defended stoutly the action of the Government on the Irish question, and described the violence of the Irish agitators as due to the belief that their grievances were likely to be taken out of their mouths. Deprecating the action of the House of Lords in relation to Mr. Forster's Irish Pompensation Bill last 69614913, MT. Loath= said that he did

not believe that "the House of Lords would ever stand long," —whereupon there were premature cheers,—" between the nation and that upon which the nation had set its heart,"—and here laughter succeeded to the cheers. Questioned after his speech as to what he would do to bring the House of Lords to reason, he expressed himself as wholly opposed to revolutionary measures. There, we believe, Mr. Leatham is the true exponent of middle-class opinion, and perhaps also of working-class opinion. The House of Lords will never be allowed to stand long in the way of anything the nation wishes ; but the people delight in their House of Lords, much as a woman delights in her jewels. To the people, the Peers appear to be the historical ornaments of an otherwise too monotonous Constitution.