Mr. Clare Read, on Friday week, addressed his constituents at
Dies, in a speech more distinctively Tory than usual. He thought, though himself a seceder from the Government, that the Cabinet was stronger and better without Lord Derby and Lord Carnarvon, and maintained that it had preserved the peace of Europe. As to Afghanistan, it was necessary to punish the insult offered by the Ameer, and it would be expedient in making peace to retain both sides of the Passes. The distress in the country was no more the fault of the Government than a storm in the Atlantic was the fault of the captain who encountered it, and as far as farmers were concerned, was due to Free-trade. America was going to ruin the farmers of all other countries —Russia appears to be intended—and then ruin ours. Free- trade would produce yet worse results, but still he would not give it up, but compel the manufacturers and artisans who had introduced it to stick to their own proposal. Reciprocity was only Protection under another name. It is to be noted that Mr. Clare Read, who is a representative man, was entirely against war, and defended the foreign policy of the Government not be- cause it had secured Cyprus, or the Anglo-Turkish Convention, or a Russian humiliation, but because it had kept the country out of a great war. That is new language for a representative of the farming interest, which usually regards war with a certain sympathy.
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