Sir Michael Hicks-Beach made a short speech at Fairford on
Saturday, in which the only sentence that could possibly be in- terpreted as significant,—and that we hope is not really so,— declared that "there is no member of the Government who thinks that he has taken office to do nothing, and that there is no need of change, of improvement in this country, or who would for a moment neglect those great interests which are at present so languishing and suffering from depression, and who would not endeavour in every way, to the beet of his ability, to promote confidence and good government throughout the country, to restore those industries to the positions which they formerly held, and to bring prosperity again into many a home from which it has too long been absent." We have little doubt that this means nothing more than a general expression of sympathy with depressed industries; -but with a Chancellor of the Exchequer in power who has said almost as much against Free-trade as he has against Liberal principles, we can hardly help feeling nervous when Ministers talk of restoring industries to prosperity. They can do about as much for that end as they can to secure fine weather, though they unfortunately might do much more to prevent it than they could to prevent fine weather.
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