On Saturday last, a deputation from the Liberal working- men
of Derby waited on Mr. Gladstone at Hawarden Castle to present to him a dessert service of Derby china, specially designed for him, as a commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of his first election to Parliament, and as a recognition of his long and arduous career of public work. The deputation, consisting of twenty working-men, was introduced to the Prime Minister by Sir William Harcourt, M.P. for Derby, who was staying at the Castle, and they then presented the beautiful dessert service, each dish and plate being adorned with some landscape from the scenery of the Peak, or one of the famous old castles, of
exquisite workmanship. Mr. Gladstone, in thanking the deputation for the gift, remarked that Derby and Worcester had been the first English towns to put the manufacture of fine porcelain on the right basis of completely self-sup- porting production, all the previous English manufacturers of porcelain having been more or less dependent on Crown grants-in-aid. In reference to politics, Mr. Gladstone intimated that the time was close at hand when the Cabinet would solicit her Majesty's permission to lay their proposals as to the franchise before Parliament. The previous grants of an extended fran- chise, he said, had been made in the spirit of men who had to take physic, and who took as little of it as they could help. Now, they could extend the franchise in the spirit of men who knew that they were taking food, and not physic,—food that would bring health and strength to the constituencies.
