Sir William Harcourt was in the chair at a house-dinner
of the National Liberal Club on Wednesday, at which, after panegyrising Mr. Bright,--doubtless, if Lord Hartington were to die, Sir William Harcourt would panegyrise Lord Harting- ton,—he went on to show how weak and futile is the policy with which Mr. Bright identified himself. " Liberal Unionists were very proud of belonging to no party. They had left one and had not joined another, and were not numerous enough to make one of their own. They reminded him of that melan- choly group that Dante encountered in the vestibule of Hades, men who stood by themselves, and were neither faithful nor faithless. Heaven would not receive them, and the other place would have none of their company. They were too bad for mercy, and justice would not judge them. The great poet Virgil advised Dante to glance at them and pass by." Well, we do not think that Dante would have glanced at Mr. Bright and passed by. But we doubt whether he would even have glanced at Sir William Harcourt. It was the fire in Mr. Bright, not the apathy, which kept him faithful to the old Liberal creed, which Sir William Harcourt, through apathy and the wish to catch Irish votes, has deserted.
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