Directly Mr. Disraeli finished speaking, Mr. Lowe rose to oppose
going into Committee upon the abstract Resolutions, which were alone before the House, on the ground that there was abso- lutely no connection at all between the abstract Resolutions and the concrete scheme. We have given some account of Mr. Lowe's brilliant sarcasms elsewhere. Mr. Lowe's delivery is not good ; indeed, he speaks much too rapidly and colloquially, dropping his voice at the end of his sentences, and often throwing away half their effect, and these defects were exaggerated in the otherwise brilliant speech of Monday. He ridiculed Mr. Disraeli for his professed reason for proceeding by way of resolution. It was grounded, Mr. Disraeli had said, on the fact that the Government of 1859 had been overthrown by an abstract resolution. So Mr. Disraeli had determined, he said, to act like the king in the fairy story whose son—(Mr. Lowe should have said daughter, but he is evi- dently not well up in his fairy tales)—was fated to be killed by some steel instrument, and who collected all the steel instruments in his kingdom and put them out of the way. So Mr. Disraeli collected all the conceivable abstract resolutions upon Reform, and took them out of harm's way by laying them on the table. Mr. Lowe concluded by a half apology for his own apparent desertion of his party, and the expression of a half contrition, which was under- stood to mean that he would surrender his individual opinion to the strong conviction of his party in future.
