Of Mr. Balfour's great speech (on Monday) to his con-
stituency in East Manchester, we have said almost enough in another column. On Tuesday he spoke again, mostly on the Veto Bill, and quizzed some of the Ministerial speakers on their assumption of superior virtue with respect to the Veto Bill. They say to the country :—" It may be unpopular, but, above all, we are virtuous statesmen who do not consider votes, who have before us but one object, which we mean to pursue through good and ill report, and that object is the social welfare of the people. We may suffer by this Bill. We may lose support in the country by it, but we must adhere to it because we are virtuous statesmen, not as other politicians, unduly anxious to obtain popular support." But if so, asked Mr. Balfour, why did they exclude Ireland from the scope of the Bill, though to have included it would have lost them votes with a vengeance ? And why did they oppose so virulently Mr. Goschen's Compensation Bill for suppressing superfluous public-houses without injustice ? They disliked the publicans so much, that they preferred keeping the superfluous public-houses to giving the publicans any corn. pensation for the loss. Mr. Balfour is right. That was not the policy of enthusiastic lovers of men, but rather of very good, almost enthusiastic, haters of publicans.
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