Lord Randolph Churchill made a pert little speech at Wim-
borne on Wednesday. He was very bitter with the Daily News and the Standard for attacking him, and tried to make himself out the most soft-spoken of men, one who had never in any way provoked the attacks of others. He declared that it is the Liberals, not the Tories, who wish to tax the food of the people, and justi- fied his statement by Mr. Childers's proposal to increase the tax on beer. He declared the Liberals quite unable to cope with the question of Redistribution, and said that the lame dog had been helped over the stile by the Tories. The Radicals, he asserted, are all quarrelling about their policy, while the Tories are all united about theirs. The Tories intend to bring everything straight, to economise, to defend the Colonies, to give peace to Ireland, to reform the administration of all the departments, and to con- stitute in fact a good and wise Government. Well, there is nothing like large promises. Only, like the French revolutionary assignate, they are apt to be so very soon depreciated in value that the more you promise the less will your promises be worth. Lord Randolph himself is already a political assignat that only passes current at all among the Tories, and is rudely depreciated even by a very great many of the best of them.
