Lord F. Cavendish writes to the Bradford Observer to say
the report of his speech is inaccurate. He had no authority to pledge Mr. Gladstone, and could not consequently have pledged him. Moreover, he did not say he was nearer the Liberation Society than they might think, but that the question of Dis- establishment must be considered on broad national grounds. The one phrase could hardly be mistaken for the other, but we imagine the truth of the business to be this :—Lord F. Cavendish had a long business discussion with the local Liberation Society, which ought never to have been reported at all, in which he had to answer a multitude of questions and make a number of suggestions, half of which struck the gentlemen in the room in different points of view. No man talk- ing to a dozen gentlemen at once ever was accurately reported yet, even by himself. The grave point is that Lord F. Cavendish was not authorised by Mr. Gladstone to regret the stifling of Mr. Miall's motion for the Disestablishment of the Church. We are happy to hear that Mr. Forster will soon be at home, and that Birmingham is preparing itself for the election, for if this kind of blundering goes on much longer, half the electors will get immovable convictions that they are bound to vote against everybody they ever heard of before, because he has made a statement, or is reported to have made a statement, which he did not make.
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