The reply to our observations on the meek astonishment with
which Lord Beaconsfield's insulting speech at Aylesbury was at first received by the country, has been very gratifying. Meeting after meeting has now taken up that speech, and denounced it after a fashion worthy of the English people. On Thursday night, for example, a very enthusiastic and crowded meeting was held at the Town Hall, Shoreditch, to hear Mr. Holmes and Mr. Fawcett, and the cheers which greeted Mr. Fawcett's invective against Lord Beaconsfield's speech were all that could be wished. Mr. Fawcett called Lord Beaconsfield's description of Mr. Gladstone as one who had pursued a course worse than that of the perpetrators of the atrocities, a gross slander, and said, amidst loud and continued cheering, that "when such an one as Mr. Gladstone was vilified and slandered, it was open to him and to them all to tell the slan- derer, whether he was a Prime Minister or not, that he was pur- suing a course unworthy of a man of honour." We knew and
said at the time that the ultimate effect of Lord Beaconsfield's speech would be to concentrate, harden, and vivify the anti- Turkish spirit of the country, in opposition to Lord Beaconsfield. Still the momentary effect of it was, we think, to stun the country ; and had the feeling of the country been less deep and genuine than it was, Lord Beaconsfield might have found his speech a very effective hit for its purpose.
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