The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-03 00:00:00

PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

Lord Rosebery, addressing a meeting held on
Monday evening at Reigate, under the auspices of
the London and Counties Liberal Union, declared
that he was proud of being a follower of Mr. Glad.
stone. His party had been asked what were the
principles ttlaon which they were going to the country
at the next election. His answer was that they were
going to the country on the manifesto of Mr. Glad-
stone. He had no confidence in the present Govern-
ment, and he would be no party to letting them
become any older. He believed that if the present
Government got a majority at the next election they
would become even worse than they were at present.
He contended that the Conservatives attached no
in.portance to their own words, and he alleged that,
for the last five years they had been living on a diet
of anathema and abuse.

Sir W. Harcourt, addressing a large meeting at
Blandford on Monday evening, alluded to Lord
Iddesleigh's use of double negatives, and said Con-
servatives employed them because their policy was
not of an affirmative character. Referring to some
entertainments that are to be given on the occasion
of Lord Iddesleigh speaking next Saturday, Sir
William said the present was an inferior entertain-
ment; they came to discuss great issues. He then
ailuded to the suffrage and the share of the Con-
servatives in it, to the condition of the labourers, and
to the Commission on the Depression of Trade. As
to the land, he thought the people who inhabited and
tilled the soil should have a very different interest in
it from that which they now possessed. Reviewing
the Reform Acts, he observed that the last would give
the agricultural labourer his turn, and it was time he
had it. The House of Lords he considered required
reform, so that it should not obstruct measures which
the country desired. The right hon. gentleman also
referred to Ireland, the Foreign Policy, and other
public topics.
Lord Dunraven, speaking at Stockport on Monday
night, welcomed the appointment of the Commission
on Trade, and in regard to Mr. Chamberlain's land
scheme, remarked that it was certain that if a large
class of yeomen were set up, as proposed, they could
never be maintained except by subsidies in some shape
or other. _ _ _

On Monday, Mr. Caine, M.P., at Lambeth, put the
liquor traffic in the forefront as the most important
of all questions pressing for consideration. Every
other social reformation, he urged, lay at the bottom
of that question, and if they could only get rid of the
drunkenness of the country nearly all the terrible
evils they were trying to overcome would disappear.
Sir F. Herschel!, M.P., speaking at Kendal, said
the people would decide the coming electoral struggle
upon the history of the two Parties who were appeal-
ing to them for support. In the one case they would
see the constant effort to secure new rights for the
people, and in the other a contest to maintain class
supremacy and privileges. He had no doubt as to
the result of the elections.

Mr. John Morley, M.P., addressing a Liberal meet-
ing at Cambridge, said he was bound to state that
after careful inquiry he failed to ascertain what was
the Conservative policy. Ile described Lord Iddes-
leigh's definition—a policy of inquiry —as the utmost
limit to which nullity, sterility, and negation could'
go, and yet his lordship's flaccid and lamentable
sentences constituted the programme of the Conser-
vative party. Mr. Morley criticised their policy in
India, and in reference to their Irish policy, he said
it was the not very original one of soft words and
hard cash. Such a policy demoralise 3 without
pacifying. It was an indolent and slovenly postpone-
ment of a question which could not be &folded, and
which became more embittered and more entangled
with every week of delay. He had great hopes of
Liberal unity in the coming contest- Referring to
the leading points in Mr. Gladstone's manifesto, Air.
Morley said that to put questions in the manifesto
was obviously not to predict the exact form of their
solution. When public opinion had ripened, Mr.
Chamberlain's three points would naturally follow,