Sir Michael Hicks Beach made a moderate Conservative speech at
Cirencester on Wednesday. Like Lord Salisbury, he was bitter against the proposal that Europe should compel Tur- key to yield to Greece the frontier which the Berlin Conference determined; but even on this point he was more moderate than Lord Salisbury, as he spoke of the contingency of Turkey de- feating Greece as one which all Europe would regret. On the Irish Question, however, Sir Michael Hicks Beach was wisdom and moderation themselves. He even took occasion to rejoice that the Government were desirous to exhaust all the means of keep- ing the peace which the law gave them, before asking for excep- tional powers. Sir Michael Beach has himself been Irish Secretary, and, unlike Mr. Lowther, a respectably good Irish Secretary, and he knows well what a vicious circle is that which coercion, liberty, anarchy, and then coercion again, constitute. The address of Sir Michael Hicks Beach might be well studied as a model of moderate Conservatism, by the Salisbnrys and the Hamiltons of the Tory party.
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