Sir Stafford Northcote made a speech at Brecon yesterday week,
the object of which was to encourage the thin and desponding bands of the Welsh Conservatives to take heart of grace, and rally their forces. He cited the words of the Welsh officer, Sir David Gam, before the battle of Agincourt, who, reporting on the numbers of the enemy, described them thus,— " There are enough to be killed, and there are enough to be captured, and there are enough to run away ;" and certainly ho was quite right, the numbers of the Welsh Liberal Members being twenty-eight, and of the Welsh Conservative Members just two. But a further question naturally arises, namely, whether there are enough to kill those who are to be killed, to capture those who are to be taken prisoners, or even to frighten those who are to run away. Sir Stafford Northcote gave a new meaning to the "three F's," which he thought might be assumed to stand for "fraud, force, and folly." The curse of Communism and Socialism, which had blighted many of the Continental societies, was clearly invading Ireland ; and the two Com- munistic maxims, "Property is theft" and "Theft is pro- perty" (in other words,—It is a robbery of Society to pos- sess property, but what you can steal you may keep), were obtaining for themselves a dangerous popularity there. Sir Stafford Northcote also referred to the introduction of " infidelity " and the "sapping of the great principles of Christianity among us,"—an allusion, as we suppose, to the Northampton election and the admission of Mr. Bradlaugh into the House of Commons. On the whole, the Welsh speech was, for Sir Stafford Northcote, a very aggressive and animated appeal to any Welsh sympathies there may be against Liberal- ism,—and in style, an attempt to meet Lord Randolph Churchill half-way.
