Mr. Gibson, who spoke in the Drill Hall, at Halifax,
on Monday, to about five thousand people, asked his audience,— " Have not the Tories held their own in this war of platforms ?" We should reply, undoubtedly they have ; but holding their own, means, and can mean, only that they remain in the same minority in which they were before. Mr. Gibson's point was that the Liberals, in appealing to agitation, had appealed to "agitation with limited liability,"—in other words, to agitation on one point only, Reform, and that they desire to exclude agitation on all the failures of the last few years. Mr. Gibson, like most of the Conservative speakers, manages to confute himself. Agitation cannot be carried on "with limited liability," and the Tories take very good care that it shall not. Unfortunately for them, however, they have chosen to throw out a Franchise Bill ; and -that, of course, is the focus of the agitation. They have done what mischief they could on other questions ; but on other questions they have not prevailed. On this question, by the help of the House of Lords, they have prevailed; and they can hardly com- plain if the people think more and talk more of the mischief -they have done than of the mischief they only half did or tried to do.
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