19 DECEMBER 1896, Page 2

Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman spoke at Paisley on Tuesday, maintaining against

Mr. Balfour that the Radicals, though they may disagree on practical applications of their principles, are much more generally agreed on those principles themselves than the Unionists on theirs. Against the latter he brought the charge of differing widely amongst themselves, Lord Salisbury, for instance, tolerating Mr. Chamberlain with difficulty, and Sir Michael Hicks-Beach listening with astonished horror to Mr. Balfour's defence of bimetallism. As for the first assertion, we believe it to be quite false, Lord Salisbury and Mr. Chamberlain being as thoroughly agreed on every article of practical political action as any two members of the late Cabinet were ; and as for the second charge, where is the sin of an openly avowed difference of opinion on a subject on which the Cabinet does not propose to take any new departure at all P The speech was a flashy one, and a flashy one of a particularly unedifying kind. Compared with the recent speeches of Mr. Morley and Mr. Asquith,. it reads very badly, for it was the speech of a leader who wanted to say something, rather than of one who had something to say.