At the Liberal Unionist Club on Tuesday, Professor Dicey, who
took the chair, made a very brilliant speech in proposing the health of Lord Hartington, the guest of the evening. Ho said that he was warned off almost all the ground it was natural for him to take, by being told that if he dealt with the past, he was dealing with ancient history ; that if he dealt with the future, he was a mere professorial prophet ; and that if he dealt with the present, he was reprehensible for enlarging on " what are called recent events." He would therefore devote himself to the subject of his toast. And accordingly he contrasted the political character of Lord Hartington with that of Mr. Gladstone in a very able and sardonic fashion, the main point of his speech being that Lord Hartington is straightforward, plain, and consistent, no dealer in enigmas, no sphinx, no subtle die- eliminator between the force of closely related adverbs, such as "now," "at present," "presently," and "at the present moment."
Lord Hartington, too, had nothing to conceal ; and his courage and determination had saved Ireland and this country from such an Irish Parliament as had been prefigured in Com- mittee-room No. 15. Professor Dicey maintained that the argument for Irish Home-rule is dead, but as Home-rule had never depended upon argument, the destruction of the plausible ease for it was not the destruction of the irrational fascination it exercises ; and he thought that that fascination, far from being extinguished, is approaching a most critical and dangerous phase, when that " policy of sentimental in- justice which calla itself generosity " is but toe likely to exert its greatest influence. " When I hear that impressive phrase,—
the Grand Old Man,—I always think,—it is an infirmity of my mind,—of the immortal one-legged candidate for the Presidency :-
`Then you can call me Timbertoes, that's wut the people likes; Suthin' combinin' morril truth with phrases sech as strikes. "Old Timbertoes," you see's a creed it's safe to be quite bold on; There's nothing in't the other side can any ways get hold on.'
We will have no old Timbertoes ;' we will have a just and generous man, who will be to all the representative of a just and generous cause, and as such I call on you to drink the health of Lord Hartington." That was just enough-to Lord Hartington. Probably Professor Dicey does not himself suppose that, while hitting off a salient weakness of Mr. Glad- stone's, he was yet severely just to Mr. Gladstone.
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