Lord Rosebery and Mr. Balfour both made amusing speeches on
Wednesday,—Lord Rosebery, at a new Liberal Club at Stanstead (Essex), built by Mr. Gilbey for the Liberal Association ; and Mr. Balfour, at a banquet of the Worship- ful Company of Grocers. Lord Rosebery enlarged on the
advantage which a Tory Government had in getting such a measure as the Local Government Bill through the House of Lords. The House of Lords (he said) was what Mr. Gilbey's stud-groom would probably call " a delicate and dainty feeder " in the matter of legislation ; Lord Granville could never have persuaded it to pass the Local Government Bill. Lord Rosebery further went on to speak of the Members of Parliament Charges and Allegations Bill as " aimed at one particular class of Irish Members, or five-sixths of the Irish Members in the House of Commons." If it is aimed at those Members, how is it that Lord Rosebery takes credit for the desire of the whole House to pass the second reading of a Bill thus discreditably " aimed at " a section of the House I) Mr. Balfour, in his speech to the Worshipful Company of Grocers, was very entertaining in his remarks on Sir George Trevelyan. " It is his business to abuse Mr. Arthur Balfour; it is his pleasure to praise Sir George Trevelyan. But the difficulty he labours under is this, that he has to abuse Mr. Arthur Balfour for precisely the same things for which he praises Sir George Trevelyan, and the result is a most singular and happy confusion, which makes his speeches the best reading of any of those of his colleagues on the front Opposition bench."
Previous page
