The glories of the Cutlers' Feast at Sheffield were discounted
this year by the visit of the Prince of Wales, and the Master Cutler failed to win a favourable answer to his invitation from so much as an Under-Secretary, a fact ingenuously published. Mr. Roebuck accordingly found himself the foremost guest at the feast, and as he is always original, be took the novel line of proving his perfect political consistency. He had been accused, he said, of starting as "a rabid Radical," and now subsiding into "a tame Tory." But what really happened was this,—he had set out in politics with " a programme " of his opinions and objects, and he saw them all carried out. He had obtained what he desired and was satisfied, and he protested against being branded as a renegade on this account. What Mr. Roebuck is especially satisfied with is the present House of Commons, " an instrument of govern- ment such as no country before has ever obtained." But did not Mr. Roebuck find fault with and oppose the changes by which that instrument was made what it is, a mirror of "every interest, every feeling, every prejudice even," in the community ? He said many hard things of Mr. Gladstone and his colleagues nine years ago, because the Liberal Government endeavoured to do that which he now so much admires. As an " old Radical," however, Mr. Roebuck's most astonishing performance was his patronage of the Prince and Princess of Wales. "I brought down their Royal Highnesses," he said, and Sheffield saw that Princes may be kind and sympathetic, and recanted its Radical heresies in its heart. But if Mr. Roebuck, notwithstanding, remains an " old Radical," will Sheffield continue to send him to what he quaintly calls " the greatest legislative community in the world ? "
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