During the debate Lord Robert Cecil, who had advocated the
necessity of keeping up the connection between " the governing classes" and the University, and when charged with this phrase by Mr. Forster, wished to explain it away, or rather to soften it, suddenly rose a stage in the " governing classes" himself, becoming at that very instant—by the death of his elder brother—Lord Cran- borne, and the heir of the Marquis of Salisbury. The event is of interest only because it will no doubt raise his influence in the Conservative party, and in the next Conservative Government, whenever that may be. His speeches are always able, and command the attention of the House, though they have that harsh cynical tone, and betray that attitude of instinctive depreciation towards all suggestions for reform, which modern culture perhaps rightly prefers to the weakness of factitious enthusiasm, but erroneously calls intellectual sincerity.
