Sir Charles Dilke on Monday addressed his electors in an
in- teresting, but very discursive and rather wild speech, of which we find it simply impossible to give any general idea. He talked upon everything, from the suffrage, upon which he was very Radical, wanting more lodgers enfranchised as well as householders, 1 to the defence of Turkey, upon which he was utterly con- servative, talking of General Ignatieff's " murder " of Turkey. Granting General Ignatieffs agency, an execution is not a murder. He thought the Conservatives would keep power for two Parliaments on condition that they were Liberals, and thought Lord Hartington a capital leader because the duty of a Liberal leader was to follow his party, and Lord Hartington performed that duty steadily. If so, we may remark, if Lord Hartington really follows, say, only Mr. Lowe, Mr. Bright, and Sir Charles Dilke, on the single question of the suffrage, he must be in very small pieces by this time. Altogether, Sir Charles made a speech full of evidence of his mental courage, wide information, and keen interest in the people, and full also of evidence of the want somewhere which renders all his capacities so little useful. All his trains of thought run on needed lines, and go quick, and can carry many people, but they never corre- spond, and one gets nowhere.