Mr. Lowther, M.P., delivered one of his fierce diatribes against
the Liberal party at Richmond in Yorkshire on Mon- -day, in which he ridiculed the notion of the Liberals really wishing to abolish corrupt practices at elections, on the ground that they had "clambered to power, and had given out their intention of endeavouring to retain power, by abstracting money from the pockets of their fellow-subjects for the purpose of bribing 'their own supporters,"—a charge of wholesale corrup- tion which has reference, we conjecture, to the Irish Acts, -though it might quite as plausibly be applied by the Liberals to the Conservative legislation which subsidised the local rates -out of the central Exchequer, a few years ago. We wonder, however, whether Mr. Lowther really understands the true char- acter of the dishonourable motives which he thus imputes wholesale to the Liberal Party. If he does, it seems strange that he should be willing even to meet in society the instigators of such corruption. But it is more probable that he does not -think it half so really dishonourable to propose what he is willing to describe as measures of plunder passed for the purpose of gaining popularity, as his language leads us to suppose. One of the worst results of this sort of popular invective is that it gradually accustoms both parties to think -without shame of the vile imputations which they make so reck- lessly against the opposite party. Mr. Lowther wishes to intro-
• duce plural voting, as the antidote to any large extension of the suffrage, if he cannot indefinitely postpone such an extension.
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