Of the political aspects of Sir Henry James's speech at
Taunton on Tuesday, which was a model Of skill and fence in its way, we have said quite enough in another column. Of its literary ability we need only give the following specimen. Sir Henry was de- scribing the despair of genuine Tories at the complete absence last Session of any disposition on the part of the Government to expiate the sins and undo the work of the Liberals, and he thus described the satisfaction, provided for Tory appetites :—There was a society, he reminded his constituents, which had devoted itself to proclaiming the gospetOf the nutritious character of edible fungi,— " they had discovered how one of these excrescences tatted like a beefsteak, and how another, gathered up a tree, displayed a strong flavour of game. They practically dis- played their belief, and it might be, made some sacrifices to their creed. We heard of these gentlemen lately in a. cathedral townenjoying a banquet composed entirely of fungi or toadstools. Even the orthodox mushroom was not ad- mitted. The central dish was an enormous puff-ball, and one elderly gentleman so appreciated its qualities that he dined of it. They rose from the banquet as the Tories from the Session, light of heart and without any display of dyspeptic suffering. He doubted if they were perfectly satisfied, and he fancied he could almost trace similarity of condition between their friend Mr. Twells and that gentleman who was so addicted to puff-balls." The " ppff-ball " must have been Lord Sandon's Bill, intended and announced as intended, to redeem the Endowments of England from the profane hands of the Dissenters, but actually effecting nothing save the substitution of two moderate Conservatives for two moderate Liberals, at the Endowed Schools' work. There was nothing else for Mr. Twells to dine off ; but he must have made a very Barmecide feast upon that.
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