Sir Stafford Northcoto made a very moderate speech at Man-
chester on Wednesday to the Tory gathering held at the Free- trade Hall, in which the only marks of anything approaching to ill-temper were the somewhat peevish and querulous pin-pricks at the Budget. Sir Stafford began by remarking that when he last addressed a Conservative meeting there, the Tory Govern- ment was at the zenith of its power, and yet the hall was not full; whereas, now that it is at its nadir, the Free-trade Hall was not only crowded to excess, but another meeting of some- thing like the same magnitude was kept out. That may very well be due to the .proverbial preference of popular electorates and audiences of the miscellaneous hustings class, for the cause of Opposition, a preference not, we think, shared by the old ten- pounders,—a privileged class which rather followed authority. Sir Stafford did his best to bring about reaction as soon as possible, though talking in a very different tone to Lord Salis- bury's; but when ho said that not ten Members on either side of the House of Commons really believed in the Irish Land Bill, he paid a very bad compliment to the 352 Members who voted for its second reading. If what Sir Stafford said were true, he would have no right at all to think well of the House of Commons, or even to account that House of the Legislature in any degree worthy of its great historic position. Yet Sir Stafford Northcote passed no rebuke on the greatest majority of recent times, for voting what they do not think calculated for the benefit of the people. It is Sir S. Northcoto himself, we suspect, who is demoralised. by the frequent divergence of his official from his private opinions.
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