Mr. Lowe has rather come to grief this week, in
relation to his rash statement at Retford as to the asserted previous attempts to get the title of "Empress of India" added to the title of the Queen, and the double rebuff which had been given by former Prime Ministers to the suggestion, but he has had the courage and manliness to atone frankly for his blunder. Mr. Lewis, the Member for Londonderry, who loves to have a finger in all Par- liamentary pies, acted public prosecutor on the occasion, and wrote to him to know if his statement had been rightly reported, whereupon Mr. Lowe declined to give any answer, denying that the statement affected Mr. Lewis. Accordingly, on Tuesday night, Mr. Lewis moved for a copy of the oaths taken by Members who are sworn in as Privy Councillors, by way of show- ing that if Mr. Lowe's statement had been true, it must have been obtained at the cost of a violation of that oath. Mr. Lewis described Mr. Lowe as " impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer," and charged him with " abusing " not only the much-abused Royal Titles Bill and its authors, but also "a most exalted per- sonage." Mr. Lowe in reply said that Mr. Lewis had evidently found his vocation in life when he devoted himself to interroga- tion, but that he was born after his proper epoch, since he ought to have lived in the glorious times when certain " physical
appliances " could be brought in aid of interrogation, which ren- dered it very difficult to refuse to answer. He disapproved so strongly of the practice of making the House of Commons a tribunal for criticising the speeches at popular assemblies, that he should decline to answer any of the interrogations of the Member for Londonderry.
