A great Liberal demonstration at Leeds was held yesterday week,
at which Mr. Forster, the Duke of Argyll, and Sir Wilfrid Lawson took a leading part. Mr. Forster was the principal speaker at the luncheon held in the Victoria Hall in the morn- ing, when there were about 760 guests. We have given the • drift of the leading portions of his speech elsewhere, but may remark here that Mr. Forster put a very charitable construction on the recent fidgettings with the Fleet, and Sir Henry Layard's peremptory language towards the Porte. Mr. Forster suggests that it only means this,—" that the Government are at last finding out the real meaning of the Anglo-Turkish Convention, and that they wish to take the opportunity, which fortunately they left themselves, of getting rid of it. There was a condition in the guarantee. The condition of the guarantee was reform by the Sultan. They will be able soon to say, 'We have pressed you to reform ; we have done every- thing we can to make you reform ; you will not reform, and therefore we consider ourselves free from our guarantee.' . . . . If they do take that course, I think we may fairly make it as easy for them as possible, and say as little as possible about mis- placed confidence or reckless risks." Certainly let us cheerfully kill the fatted calf for the returning prodigal, if he should indeed repent of his riotous living. But we fear that Mr. Forster's charitable imagination imputes its own sobriety to a Govern- ment that thinks of nothing less than contracting the scale of its dangerous and lavish ostentations.
