The Colonial Secretary, Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, addressed some of his
Gloucestershire constituents at Tewkesbury on Wednesday, in a speech the chief importance of which was his declaration that, so far as the Government were concerned, they did not intend the coming Session to be one of mere hasty pre- paration for a general election, but on the contrary, " a real working Session." " We are maturing, and have already ma- tured, various measures which we believe will be for the benefit of the United Kingdom, and we shall submit them to Par- liament, in the belief that Parliament, as a whole, will fairly deal with them. And we entirely repudiate and object to the assertion that Parliament, as at present constituted, is not per- fectly competent to deal with them." This contention rests on the ground that the Government, so far from being defeated in Parliament, has had an average majority larger than that which the general election gave it, whence it may be inferred that the Government still retains the full confidence of Parlia- ment. Of course it does. But how does Sir Michael infer that Parliament still retains the full confidence of the country ? Is it inferred from the Donegal and Sheffield elections, or simply from the political intuitions of enthusiastic Jingoes ?
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