After the oratory of Lord Salisbury and Mr. Gibson, Birmingham
plunged yesterday week int) that of Lord Bo:ebery and Mr. Chamberlain, Their addresses took the form of speeches to the Birmingham Junior Liberal Associ- ation, delivered in the Birmingham Town Hall,—the object being, we suppose, truly described by Lord Rosebery as analogous with that of the roll in the snow with which the Russian bather sometimes concludes the violent perspirations of the hot-air bath, and the flagellations which accompany it- Both speakers spoke well, but there is necessarily a good. deal of confutation to be done in such cases, which though not superfluous considered in relation to the audience addressed, is entirely superfluous for the careful student of politics. Lord Rosebery made a clever hit, when he said that even though David made mistakes, Israel preferred to be ruled by David to being ruled by Shimei, for Lord Salisbury has certainly railed somewhat in the style of Shimei. The future of this country,. said Lord Rosebery, pithily, rests " not with the wasps, but with the bees." Nor could a better description of Lord Salisbury's policy in general have been suggested than that. A waspish policy it has ever been, and if ever Lord Salisbury returned to power, a waspish policy it would certainly be again.
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