The speech to the working-men was very Conservative in tone.
Mr. Disraeli deprecated being supposed to have any solutions on the principal questions,—the Irish Church, the Education, the Workhouse Reform questions, and others which the working- men's address had raised. He said the Queen had appointed a Commission to inquire into the condition of the Irish Church, and before it reported it would be very presumptuous and foolish to think of solving the difficulty ; that education should be pursued on the principle of developing existing institutions, not of start- ing bran new ones ; and that Workhouse hospitals was a subject on which Mr. Hardy had already shown his zeal. He was very patronizing in his concluding advice. "Do not Men to those who tell you that you have been invested with democratic rights, and that, therefore, you must effect great changes in the fortunes and conditions of one of the most considerable nations and governments that ever existed. Be proud of that confidence which the constituted authorities of the country have reposed in you,"—which is a good deal like saying, 'There, good people, are your wages, but you had much better let us invest them for you. We know your true interest much better than you.'
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