On Tuesday, Lord Tweedmouth, better known as Mr. Marjoribanks, the
ex-Whip of the Home-rule party, was entertained at dinner by the Eighty Club. It is dear that Lord Tweedmouth is anything but happy over the dispute between Labour and official Liberalism. In his opinion, no person and no party was to be congratulated upon the result of the Attercliffe election. It seemed to him that that elec- tion was useful and important as an object-lesson, and not as a source of congratulation to any party connected with it. The working classes wanted more direct representation, and they ought to have it. "They should go to these men and tell them what he believed they knew, that as in the past the Liberals had been their best friends—as in the past their objects and the objects of Liberals had been similar—so it was their business in the future to keep in touch with the Liberal party, and to make the objects of the one the objects of the other, so that they could join faithfully and solidly in a great alliance." The Liberals should, in fact, go to the Labour party and assure them, on their honour, that Oodlin was their friend, not Short. That was delightfully nag of Lord Tweedmouth, and relieved the evening from the dreary drip of eulogistic conventions, otherwise its chief feature.
Previous page
