Lord Herschell made one of his moderate and sagacious speeches
at the Sheffield Cutlers' Feast on Thursday. He said that many regarded the present Government as emissaries of the Evil One, who were permitted to assume the reins of government as a "judgment on the wickedness of the nation." Others regarded them as beneficent genii, who, if permitted to remain long enough in office, would put an end altogether to the evils to which political flesh is heir. Probably the truth was somewhere between these two extremes. He did not sup- pose that they could leave office without having many mistakes to look back upon. Hitherto, he thought they had not done much mischief. If they had, there could not have been so much complaining as there had been that " there is nothing in the newspapers." And he warned his hearers that everything that is said of them should not be believed. The Lord Chancellor is quite right. As yet they have certainly not done much mischief. On the contrary, the Home Secretary has done some good by his action on the Trafalgar Square question, and if he would only peremptorily refuse to shorten the sentences on the Dynamitards he would find himself almost as popular on our side as on his own. But Mr. Morley has done some mischief, as, indeed, he was bound to do,—being, as he is, in the hands of the Anti-Parnellite party. These alliances cannot possibly go for nothing. It is as true of governments as it is of individuals, that "whatsoever a man soweth that also he shall reap."
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