The dinner to Lord Halsbury must, we imagine, have proved
a very deep disappointment to its promoters. It is, indeed, hardly too much to say that it was a fiasco. There were a good number of revolting Members of Parliament and a gcod many fairly prominent persona among what is called "the general company "—for example, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Man, Mr. Garvin, and Mr. Lort Williams—but in spite of what we can only describe as feverish keenness in beating up supporters, the show of peers was decidedly a poor one. It is a most significant circumstance that no list of names of peers present was supplied to the Press. This curious omission was explained as due to the fact that a good many of the peers who attended the dinner did not want their names published. In other words, they were anxious to he present on an historic occasion and to show general sympathy with Lord Halsbury, but made it a condition that their presence was not to be regarded as a proof that they were determined to act against the advice of Lord Lansdowne and Mr. Balfour. It was the essential object of the promoters of the dinner, however, to reject the advice of the leaders and, in their own words, "to support Lord Halsbury in his determination to insist on Lord Lansdowne's amendments to the Parliament Bill." The chief aim of the originators of a political demonstration is always to parade before the world the steles of as many prominent supporters as they can. When there is a reticence about publishing names it is a certain sign that they have been disappointed, and that the list, if given in full, would show that the support fell short of
expectation.
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