Mr. Smollett, political jest or and some-time Conservative Member for
Dumbartonshire, but who had no seat in the last Mr. Smollett, political jest or and some-time Conservative Member for Dumbartonshire, but who had no seat in the last
Parliament, distinguished himself yesterday week by moving a vote of censure on the late Administration for the abruptness of its dissolution; and in the course of his speech he accused Mr. Glad- stone of committing a pious fraud, by hoodwinking honourable members with the pretence that he was going to resummon the old Parliament, when he was really only preparing a coup de grcice for it ; indeed he spoke of the stratagem as having "recoiled upon the trickster." Mr. Gladstone's conduct had been "un- generous to his friends, insolent to his opponents, and dis- honest to the nation at large." Adequate time for choosing good representatives was as essential a privilege of large con- stituencies, as was the electoral privilege itself or the secrecy which protected its exercise ; there was but one precedent (in 1806) for a dissolution after Parliament had been already sum- moned for a given date for the despatch of business ; and Mr. Smollett invited Parliament not only to condemn Mr. Gladstone, but to provide against the possibility of such surprises in future. He was seconded by Mr. Whalley without a speech, though in the few laughter-interrupted remarks he made when Mr. Gladstone sat down, he was understood to complain of the dissolution as a personal injury to himself, inasmuch as it deprived him of the luxury of staying in prison till the old Parliament, of which he was a member, met to rescue him from the unconstitutional fate awarded him by the Chief Justice of England. But if that was his hope, the dissolution was a great blessing for him, as it saved him from the mortifica- tion, which must have been the result of learning that honourable members unanimously held that Mr. Whalley in prison was the right man in the right place.
