Sir Wilfrid Lawson, speaking on Monday at Carlisle, described the
Liberal party as Macaulay had described one of the armies in his "Roman Lays," "In the battle those behind cried ' Forwards !' and those before cried ' Back !" Lord llartington was a leader who cried ' Back !' He called back Mr. Miall from assailing the Establishment, Mr. Trevelyan from enfranchising the coun- ties, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson, as if he had been a rash and beard- less youth, from leading the left wing of the army against the publicans. Lord Hartington was a straightforward man, and meant -what he said, and the only fault Sir Wilfrid had to find with him -was that he meant so very little. Sir William Harcourt had said that the manufacturers of programmes were the nuisances of the party and the charlatans of politics. But what were Mr. Wilber- force, and Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Bright? Sir Wilfrid would far rather be the nuisance of the party than its -Solicitor-General. The leader of the Temperance party eclipsed himself, however, when, speaking on the subject of the Establishment, he asserted that there is less to be said for the 'Church Establishment in England than there was for the Church Establishment in Ireland. If he thinks so seriously, surely he must also contend that there is less to be said for schools where there is a population to use them, than for schools where there is no population to use them ; less to be said for devoting public money to providing gas in a populous town, than for devoting public money to the same purpose in a desert. The apostle of temperance in drink should be temperate even in paradox. But this was not temperate.
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