Lord G. Hamilton made a speech on Wednesday evening to
some of his Middlesex constituents at Kilburn, which, if the Times' report can be trusted, contained little worthy of his re- putation as a speaker. There were two observations, however, of some interest, —one, that if he had lived fifty years ago, he might not, perhaps, have been a Conservative, but a Liberal, since the Liberals of those days promoted national interests ; whereas, Liberals of these days promote party interests only. The other remark was that the Prime Minister is " the most disorderly Member of the House of Commons, with the exception, perhaps, of one or two Irish Members." From these two remarks an acute critic might politically construct Lord George Hamilton, as Professor Owen does a palaeozoie animal from the joint of a toe and a rib. Mr. Gladstone has carried two much greater measures for the good of Ireland than any Liberal measure of fifty years ago was for the good of England, if we except the Reform Bill and the Poor-law reform. And both these Irish measures were far more difficult to pass, in consequence of the lack of English enthusiasm, than the Reform Bill itself. Also, if Mr. Gladstone sometimes transgresses the strict rules of order, it is only as all great Ministers always have transgressed them, —because his is an exceptional position, in relation to which the House does not choose or wish to insist on the commonplaces of its rules. Lord George Hamilton should remember that pert- ness is not popular amongst Englishmen.
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