Sir Stafford Northcote, like Mr. Parnell, has invaded Ulster, and
on Thursday he explained to the Conservatives of Bel- fast the reasons they have for distrusting the Liberal Government. They are briefly that this Government is not national, but cosmopolitan in feeling ; that in India, in the Colonies, in foreign policy, it is not always thinking of the in- terests of Great Britain. He gave as illustrations the Ilbert Bill, the conduct of Lord Derby about Australian annexations, and the condition of South Africa. He also adduced the Shaw case, and affirmed that instead of an Englishman being able to say "Civis Romanns sum," the best thing he could do to pre- vent insult from the foreigner was to deny that he was English. We have said enough of the speech elsewhere, but we must ask here the cause of this singular sterility of Tory speakers. Sir Stafford Northcote is inmany ways the ablest man of his party,—certainly the most adroit,—yet even he is reduced to these stale complaints, which interest nobody, and scarcely in- fluence a vote. Why does not Sir Stafford Northcote tell us distinctly what he would do with the Ilbert Bill, whether he would annex Polynesia, and what has been left undone in regard to Mr. Shaw ?
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