Lord Salisbury spoke at a grand habitation of the Primrose
League in Covent Garden Theatre on Thursday,—Primrose Day,—and devoted his speech chiefly to the defence -of the House of Lords, as a body which did not pretend to be itself the -Court of Appeal from the House of Commons, but which only -desired to force an appeal to, the people whenever it is really -doubtful what the people desire. Answering Mr. Asquith, he said that it was of the very essence of a body which was intended to check and challenge the judgment of the House of Commons, that it shall demand delay in the prosecution of any policy in which the House of Commons appears to have out- stripped the popular wish, and that there is not the same demand for an appeal from a Conservative policy since there is no fear that the Conservative policy would or could -outstrip the wishes of the people. But that does not, we think, quite meet the objection which Mr. Asquith meant to urge. A Conservative House of Commons might conceivably (as, for instance, if it ever proposed to go back on a Protec- tionist policy) very seriously outstrip the Conservative ten- dencies of the people, and in such a case it is clear that what we should want of the House of Lords, and what we might not get, would be a suspensive veto on this retrograde policy. The great feature, however, of this meeting of the Primrose League, was the astonishing evidence it gave of the rapid increase of the Conservative movement in England, which is advancing by leaps and bounds. Every week, we are told, there is an average of more than a thousand new members enrolled in the Primrose League.
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