Mr. James Lowther, however, does not pretend to conceal that
he looks upon it as almost a disloyalty to his party to admit any improvement in the state of Ireland. Speaking at Grimsby on Monday, he avowed, with great candour and naivett5, that " he could not bring himself to believe that there was any permanent benefit in Ireland from the legislation that had taken place during the last year or two." That means, we suppose, that though the evidence points in that direction, Mr. Lowther would feel it a sort of treason to his party to be con- vinced by the evidence. Mr. Lowther considered that the legend of improvement in the condition of Ireland was one circulated by that mischievous institution "the caucus ;" and it appears that while Mr. Lowther is proud to represent a constituency, he thinks nothing so degrading as to to be influenced by a caucus. But a caucus is only one party in miniature, and if a Member is not ashamed to be influenced by his own party, we cannot understand why he should be ashamed to be influenced by a select committee of that party. Nor has a caucus any more power to gain credence for legends than the constituents them- selves possess. If the improvement in Ireland be a legend cir- culated by a caucus, it is a legend to which the Irish Judges have given rise, and which the English caucuses have only accepted on the high judicial authority of Irish Criminal Judges, —members, mostly we believe, of the Conservative Party.
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